COHA Research Memorandum:
Bogotá Court Rules to End Harmful Aerial Fumigation Program
· A Bogotá court has ruled to end the harmful U.S. sponsored aerial fumigation occurring in Colombia until a study of
the herbicide has been conducted.
· In spite of public health complaints and environmental maladies, the Colombian government plans to appeal the court’s
decision and continue spraying throughout the process.
· The ruling comes after hundreds of documented Colombian health complaints and evidence of a lack of sufficient testing
of the pesticide by the EPA.
A Historic Ruling
In what could be a momentous decision for the average Colombian, a Bogotá court ruled last Thursday to suspend the
current aerial drug eradication program until a definite study has convincingly proven that the herbicide being used
will not have any long-term negative effects on the environment or public health.
Aerial spraying has been conducted in the South American country for the past three years in conjunction with Plan
Colombia, a program first drafted in Bogotá, and now part of U.S. policy aimed at eradicating coca cultivation and
neutralizing the leftist guerrillas. Plan Colombia, introduced in 2000 to stem the tide of cocaine flooding into the
U.S., has seen Washington contribute over $2.5 billion and 800 American military and civilian personnel to the effort to
date.
The Colombian court’s ruling, unprecedented in scope, comes as an enormous relief to campesinos and indigenous peoples
who have grievously suffered from fumigation, and who had notched a few notable victories against Plan Colombia already
this year. On May 14, 2003, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the government must forewarn indigenous
reservations before the commencement of spraying on their territories—the result of a lawsuit on behalf of the
Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon. However, at the time of its decision, the court also denied the
indigenous nations’ petition requesting an end to the use of the pesticide. Instead, a three month moratorium to have
conferences and to stage tests intended to explore the future of aerial fumigation with Colombian authorities was set,
during which period spraying was to be continued.
Washington and Bogotá plan to continue eradication efforts in the face of health and environmental complaints, citing
the great strides that they believe the program is making. The State Department has claimed a 15 percent decrease in
coca cultivation in Colombia for the year 2003, while downplaying its much more significant three-fold increase from
1995 to 2003 and net 184 percent increase since 1995. It is also unclear whether the crop has been permanently
eradicated, or whether it has merely been transferred to different regions of Colombia or to neighboring countries. Coca
production demonstrably has increased in both Bolivia and Peru last year, and is being increasingly planted in
departments throughout Colombia. In spite of this, Washington and Bogotá have chosen to disregard the evidence and
continue with the widely criticized Plan Colombia. Even now, as the Colombian people celebrate a possible breakthrough,
their time of easy breathing will be short-lived, as Bogotá plans to appeal the court’s ruling and continue spraying in
the meantime, just as Plan Colombia will continue its pursuit of a multilateral solution to the country’s woes.
A Lack in Testing
Title II of the Foreign Operations Financing, and Related Programs Appropriation Act of 2002 obliges the State
Department to show that, “the chemicals used in the aerial fumigation of coca in the manner in which they are being
applied, do not pose unreasonable risks or adverse effects to humans or the environment.” The herbicide used—a mixture
of water, glyphosate, and a surfactant, cosmo-flux 411f—is said to be highly toxic and harmful to the health of those
who come in contact with it. One ingredient, Cosmo-flux 411f, is said to be even more toxic than glyphosate, the primary
chemical used for such application.
Despite widespread apprehension over the fumigant’s formulation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the lead
agency in charge of the investigation, admits only to testing glyphosate in less concentrated forms than those which are
currently being applied in Colombia, and to having never tested the chemical compound in total and never in a realistic
agricultural context. The EPA exposure estimates are not in the least credible because the tests were performed assuming
that the pesticide would be applied by a helicopter, not by the Colombian fixed-wing aircraft which are normally used
for such procedures. Moreover, a study has been produced showing that the toxicity of glyphosate doubles when water
temperature is increased from 45 to 63 degrees, which is certain to prove problematic when moving from the North
American testing areas to Colombia’s equatorial region. Even setting aside the aforementioned problems, the relevance of
previous studies used to buttress fumigation would be obsolete, if not irrelevant, due to the fact that Colombia’s
plants and animals are usually completely at odds with the flora and fauna of North America—with one-third of all
Colombian species being endemic.
Effects on the Population and Environment
Bogotá and Washington maintain that the herbicide has no harmful consequences except perhaps for minor eye irritation,
yet hundreds of Colombians in the affected area have complained of symptoms ranging from headaches to fever, rash,
dizziness, diarrhea, respiratory problems and vomiting. Most of the complaints do not originate from direct contact, but
rather from unintended drift from the targeted zones to surrounding sites. Because it is dropped from planes, the extent
of the chemical’s diffusion is hard to estimate, but it may kill as much as 50 percent of young plants downwind of the
spraying. The unintended destruction of crops and livestock recurrently has created food shortages, malnutrition and
even starvation of local populations on occasion. The effects of the herbicide are so extensive that hospitals in
Ecuador are treating patients with the same ailments as those whose land has been sprayed directly. The Ecuadorian
government, afraid that its people will be affected in the same way as has been the case with Colombians, has also
requested that Bogotá authorities conduct thorough studies on the herbicide.
Even if the EPA has denied any ill effects, the spraying has spurred an exodus of people intent on leaving areas which
are being sprayed, in an attempt to protect their families’ health as well as their own. This creation of displaced
peoples from all causes, now numbering in the millions, makes this one of the largest such populations of internal
refugees in the world. Searching for a better place to live invariably leads to new development and consequent
deforestation. Not only does this create a catastrophe for the environment, but also for the many indigenous people who
have been displaced by spraying. In locating a new area in which to live, the domestic immigrants at the same time are
leaving areas containing the traditions of their ancestors and cultures. Countless distinct indigenous communities—many
of whose social identity is tied to the land and a specific location—are continually being forced to periodically move
out of their communities, creating a catastrophic loss of cohesion and the viability of their societies.
A Decisive Moment in the Integrity of Washington and Bogotá
Faced with a decision to appeal the court’s ruling or to stop fumigation pending a complete study of the herbicide,
Washington and Bogotá inevitably announced officially what is tantamount to indifference to Colombia’s rural population
that they intend to put their Plan before the well-being of the Colombian environment and population, by catering to
their program of aerial spraying.
This analysis was prepared by Kealan Sloan, research associates at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Issued 30 June
2003.
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