Colombia to resume aerial spraying to destroy coca crop — Santos
BOGOTA: Colombia will resume aerial spraying of coca plantations with the herbicide glyphosate to counter a record increase in production of the cocaine crop, President Juan Manuel Santos announced Tuesday.
Santos, who will step down at the end of his term in August, said the health and environment ministry had approved pilot plans to resume spraying with the herbicide.
Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, stopped aerial spraying in 2015 because of health concerns, but has come under increasing pressure from the US to curb record coca production.
Santos, who hands over to his hardline right-wing successor Ivan Duque, said spraying would be carried out by drones at a lower altitude and with a glyphosate concentration of less than 50 per cent of that previously used when spraying gave rise to cancer concerns.
The Colombian announcement comes a day after the US National Office of Drug Control (ONDCP) reported that the area under coca cultivation in Colombia had grown by 11 per cent to 716,000 acres, the highest level in its history.
It said cocaine production had increased by 19 per cent.
“The message from President (Donald) Trump is clear: the record growth in cocaine production has to be reversed,” said ONDCP deputy director Jim Carroll.
The South American country’s government used aerial spraying for a 15-year period in a bid to counter drug trafficking and was the last country in the world to suspend it in favour of manual methods after a 2015 Constitutional Court ruling that it was harmful to health. Using drones instead of planes will prevent airborne contamination from glyphosate and causing ‘damage’ to crops and people, Santos said.
“It’s similar to what we are already doing, with eradicators going with a tank on their shoulders spraying on the ground,” Santos told the National Council of Narcotic Drugs, which endorsed the new measures.
Farmers have alleged their legitimate crops as well as groundwater are damaged by aerial spraying, and Colombia had to agree to compensate neighbouring Ecuador in 2013 for aerial fumigation of border areas that allegedly destroyed crops, killed livestock and sickened rural farmers. Colombia has linked the increase in coca plantations with the suspension of spraying. Santos signed a historic peace agreement with former rebels FARC in 2016, which largely controlled coca producing areas. But the treaty, and a crop-substitution effort, has failed to stop production.
With both replacement and eradication, the government expects to destroy 110,000 hectares of coca crops by the end of the year. — AFP