![]() Embassy staff in Bogotá, the top officer at the State Department's Narcotics Affairs Section was emphatic and his tone threatening: "You cannot mention Monsanto!" he boomed, spit flying from his mouth. But they strongly discourage journalists from probing the effects of aerial spraying any further. officials proudly point to the large number of hectares of coca and poppy eradicated as proof that the fumigation is successful. Last summer, Congress approved $1.3 billion for "Plan Colombia" to carry out the drug war there and more funds are forthcoming in the "Andean Regional Initiative" a bill presently moving through Congress. So far, Tenorio's pleas have fallen on deaf ears. In the name of the Amazonian Indigenous people I ask that the fumigations be immediately suspended." Our sources of water, creeks, rivers, lakes, have been poisoned, killing our fish and other living things. "Our legal crops - our only sustenance - manioc, banana, palms, sugar cane, and corn have been fumigated. Meanwhile, Monsanto's sordid history as the manufacturer of Agent Orange, a defoliant used during the Vietnam war, raises serious questions about its role in Colombia's drug war and the need for transparency in its dealings with Washington.Ĭolombian Farmer Edgar Esteban looks over hisĭried maize crops fumigated with Roundup.įarmers complain their food crops, livestockĪnd drinking water have been contaminated.Ī month before Wellstone was doused with Roundup, Colombian indigenous leaders visited Congress to personally speak out against the fumigation: "The twelve indigenous peoples have been suffering under this plague as if it were a government decree to exterminate our culture and our very survival," said José Francisco Tenorio, the only leader who was not afraid to use his real name. Those complaints have gone largely ignored by government officials in Washington and corporate honchos within Monsanto. The use of these herbicides (both of which we refer to as Roundup in this story) has consistently produced health complaints from campesinos in the Colombian countryside. ![]() Louis-based chemical and biotechnology giant, Monsanto, during the 24 year-long drug war in Colombia. The United States has sprayed tons of Roundup and Roundup Ultra, produced by the St. Wellstone left Colombia completely unconvinced by the Embassy. "Imagine what is happening when a high-level congressional delegation is not present," Farrell noted, pointing out that careful preparation had gone into the botched flyover. Ambassador to Colombia, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Colombian National Police, and other Embassy and congressional staffers were fully doused - drenched, in fact - with the sticky, possibly dangerous (herbicide) Roundup." "On the very first flyover by the cropduster, the U.S. However that turned out not to be the case. "They had said that by using satellite images they could hit very precisely targets without any chance of danger to surrounding crops" said Jim Farrell, Wellstone's spokesperson, who was also there. officials had responded to the Senator's skeptical questions by assuring him that the spraying would target coca fields without harming food crops. Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota, is a fierce critic of military aid to Colombia and the demonstration needed to come off without a hitch, to win him over to the use of aerially sprayed herbicides. embassy in Bogotá last December, was supposed to address Senator Paul Wellstone's doubts about the accuracy and safety of the U.S.-sponsored drug fumigation program. They were awaiting a demonstration of aerial herbicide spraying, part of the U.S. Senator and other government officials from both Washington and Bogotá stood on a Colombian mountainside above fields of lime-green coca - the plant sacred to Andean Indians, but also the source of the troublesome drug cocaine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |