Comment on Plan Colombia's Herbicide Spraying

Is Drug Prohibition a Worthy Enough Goal to Destroy the Amazon?

By Latuff
Narco News Editorial Cartoonist

May 27, 2003

Somewhere in a country called América…

U.S. Drug Czar John Walters and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Are Destroying Farmland, Farmers – and the Amazon Rainforest – in the Name of the War on Drugs Add Your Comments Read What Others Have Written
En Español: El zar antidrogas de Estados Unidos John Walters y el presidente colombiano Álvaro Uribe están destruyendo los campos, a los campesinos —y la selva amazónica— en nombre de la Guerra contra las Drogas. Haz un comentario	Em Português: O czar das drogas John Walters e o presidente colombiano Alvaro Uribe estão destruindo fazendas, fazendeiros – e a floresta amazônica – em nome da guerra contra as drogas. A Comentar

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Read the Narco News report upon which this editorial cartoon comments:

Feast of Lies
The Supposed Reduction in Colombian Coca Crops in 2002
By Augusto Fernandez C.
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

Publisher’s Commentary

The US-imposed “Plan Colombia,” a multi-billion dollar military intervention, has only succeeded in destroying vast regions of farmland and forest in Colombia and has pushed the cultivation of coca crops deeper into the Amazon… where Plan Colombia’s airplanes follow to dump tons of toxic herbicides into the environment.

The herbicide spraying has led to documented harm to human beings, livestock, food crops and the Amazon environment. U.S. and Colombia officials deny the destruction and claim, instead, that the program has led to a reduction in coca crops – the plant that is processed to make cocaine – in this Andean nation.

Augusto Fernandez C. reports, on Narco News, that the claims of diminished coca crops are based on faulty and conflicting data, and that there is plenty of evidence to the contrary from the population of the regions being fumigated… including testimony by the governors of the states that are under the herbicide cloud.

And even if what U.S. and Colombian officials say is true – that there has been a reduction in Colombia – all admit a corresponding increase in coca crops in neighboring countries like Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, which previously did not produce coca.

Is the US-imposed policy of drug prohibition worth the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, the “lungs of the world”?

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