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21 January 2006, 22:29
THE DRUG CZAR JOHN WALTERS - ABOUT FUMIGATIONS IN COLOMBIA
« Drug Czar Walters said something else remarkable, though, that deserves comment. According to Agénce France Presse ( November 2005), while giving a joint press conference with Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos, Walters offered a defense of the U.S. policy of fumigating hundreds of thousands of acres each year with herbicides sprayed from aircraft. “Round-Up” – the mixture of the herbicide glyphosate with other chemicals to make it adhere to leaves – “is the safest herbicide in use worldwide,” Walters said. He added:
There are two reasons why people are opposed to its use. First, because they are ignorant about this fact. The other reason why they say that glyphosate is dangerous is because they support terrorism and narcotraffickers.
Yes indeed: another gratuitious use of the terrorist threat to attack one’s political enemies. It’s not only offensive, it’s getting boring. But wait - was Walters referring to people like us?
CIP Colombia Program staff have spent years following the research on the health and environmental effects of Round-Up, including several visits to areas where people have been sprayed. So we can’t be ignorant. That must make us, according to the U.S. Drug Czar, supporters of terrorism and narcotrafficking. Mr. Walters didn’t allow for any third choice. » Adam Isacson-www.ciponline.org
This means that organizations such as the United-Nations, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, WWF, etc… are supporting narco-trafficking.
I had a wonderful friend, in Colombia, Gentil Cruz, who was so “ignorant” that he entered university when he was 13 years old, he became a veterinarian by 18. He dedicated his life to the Kogi Indians in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. He opposed the fumigations because he faced the consequences of them in his daily life, from the health problems for humans and animals to the destruction of biodiversity, poverty, starvation and the forced displacement of farmers and indigenous people. Last year he was kidnapped, tortured and assassinated by the AUC, the largest group of narco-traffickers in Colombia. Hernan Giraldo, leader of the Tayrona Bloque, is supposed to be demobilized, nevertheless he is still very active in the Sierra. The US government has been asking for his extradition for years, but I never have heard about the extradition of AUC’s top leaders, only FARC leaders.
In some of the Colombian National Parks, La Macarena for example, there is now a program for manual eradication of coca. Some workers were assassinated. For sure, it’s a risky job.
Each year, USAID gives around 600 millions dollars, 150 million dollars of it for aerial fumigations. With that money, the Colombian and US governments could take on the security of these workers. Insisting about the danger of manual eradication might be a pretext to go back to fumigations with Agent Green.
We have to remember that, inside the US, in spite of a record number of fumigations in 2004, coke’s price is lower than ever and there are more and more drug addicts.
Condolezza Rice has not given up, she really wants to spray on Colombia’s national parks. But, if Agent Green is that safe, why doesn’t Mrs. Rice use it in her own country? The Californian Parks are full of marijuana !
Paquita – kogis@wanadoo.fr
THE DRUG CZAR JOHN WALTERS - ABOUT FUMIGATIONS IN COLOMBIA
« Drug Czar Walters said something else remarkable, though, that deserves comment. According to Agénce France Presse ( November 2005), while giving a joint press conference with Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos, Walters offered a defense of the U.S. policy of fumigating hundreds of thousands of acres each year with herbicides sprayed from aircraft. “Round-Up” – the mixture of the herbicide glyphosate with other chemicals to make it adhere to leaves – “is the safest herbicide in use worldwide,” Walters said. He added:
There are two reasons why people are opposed to its use. First, because they are ignorant about this fact. The other reason why they say that glyphosate is dangerous is because they support terrorism and narcotraffickers.
Yes indeed: another gratuitious use of the terrorist threat to attack one’s political enemies. It’s not only offensive, it’s getting boring. But wait - was Walters referring to people like us?
CIP Colombia Program staff have spent years following the research on the health and environmental effects of Round-Up, including several visits to areas where people have been sprayed. So we can’t be ignorant. That must make us, according to the U.S. Drug Czar, supporters of terrorism and narcotrafficking. Mr. Walters didn’t allow for any third choice. » Adam Isacson-www.ciponline.org
This means that organizations such as the United-Nations, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, WWF, etc… are supporting narco-trafficking.
I had a wonderful friend, in Colombia, Gentil Cruz, who was so “ignorant” that he entered university when he was 13 years old, he became a veterinarian by 18. He dedicated his life to the Kogi Indians in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. He opposed the fumigations because he faced the consequences of them in his daily life, from the health problems for humans and animals to the destruction of biodiversity, poverty, starvation and the forced displacement of farmers and indigenous people. Last year he was kidnapped, tortured and assassinated by the AUC, the largest group of narco-traffickers in Colombia. Hernan Giraldo, leader of the Tayrona Bloque, is supposed to be demobilized, nevertheless he is still very active in the Sierra. The US government has been asking for his extradition for years, but I never have heard about the extradition of AUC’s top leaders, only FARC leaders.
In some of the Colombian National Parks, La Macarena for example, there is now a program for manual eradication of coca. Some workers were assassinated. For sure, it’s a risky job.
Each year, USAID gives around 600 millions dollars, 150 million dollars of it for aerial fumigations. With that money, the Colombian and US governments could take on the security of these workers. Insisting about the danger of manual eradication might be a pretext to go back to fumigations with Agent Green.
We have to remember that, inside the US, in spite of a record number of fumigations in 2004, coke’s price is lower than ever and there are more and more drug addicts.
Condolezza Rice has not given up, she really wants to spray on Colombia’s national parks. But, if Agent Green is that safe, why doesn’t Mrs. Rice use it in her own country? The Californian Parks are full of marijuana !
Paquita – kogis@wanadoo.fr