Colombia to resume aerial fumigation of coca, says Duque. With glyphosate, defense minister adds

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

by Adriaan Alsema June 18, 2019

Colombia’s President Ivan Duque has said security forces will resume the aerial fumigation of coca “within weeks”, with the defense minister adding that the banned substance glyphosate will probably be used.

Whether the plans announced by the president and Defense Minister Guillermo Botero are legal is disputable; the Constitutional Court suspended the practice of aerial fumigation using glyphosate until the government could convince the court otherwise.

So far, this has not happened, but Duque is under pressure from the US, whose President Donald Trump has threatened to decertify Colombia as a cooperative country in the US war on drugs.

Both the US government and the Duque administration have been reluctant to execute a crop substitution and rural development program that was agreed as part of a peace process with some 100,000 coca farmers and is widely considered more effective.

Read more: https://colombiareports.com/colombia-to-resume-aerial-fumigation-of-coca-says-duque-with-glyphosate-defense-minister-adds/

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[matt819]

1. Big deal

We're already eating foods laced with glyphosate here in the US. What's the big deal with adding glyphosate in with the coca?

[sandensea]

2. The problem, besides health and environmental, is that it kills off native cash crops

Thus forcing Colombian farmers to plant - you guessed it - coca.

This is what Plan Colombia has always been about: making - and keeping - Colombia a steady supplier of the 'candy that makes you dandy'.

Makes big banksters - and above all their bank accounts - real dandy, that's for sure.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Similar to Afghanistan and poppy.

Almost impossible to raise any legal crop that produces anywhere near the revenue of opium poppy and I suspect it's the same with coca in Central and South America. Robs people of food crops and a nation's economy of productive funds.

We as a species must do better.....

[sandensea]

5. +1

You make a crime profitable, you make it inevitable.

[Evolve Dammit]

3. It's a broad spectrum defoliant. Kills everything. Causes cancer. Will be banned eventually.