US to Colombia: “RoundUp” those Coca Plantations

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: TeleSur

Sighting pressure from the United States, Colombia’s Minister of Defense says the country will reinstate the policy of eradicating its coca production with glyphosate, this time with the help of drones.

Luis Carlos Villegas announced on Monday that the government will reinstate its practice of fumigating the illicit crops with glyphosate, an herbicide that Colombia’s Constitutional Court prohibited in 2015 arguing it threatens the health of local communities and the environment.

Villegas, trying to quell fears regarding the chemical’s negative health impacts, said that by using drones to disperse the Roundup creates “half the concentration of the poison that the planes had," saying that "the risks to people and the environment are quite mitigable."

In 2015 the U.N. cancer research center labeled the potent weed killer, devised by Monsanto, as a probable carcinogen.  Tractors will also be used to rid areas of the crop, said the defense minister.

Villegas added on Tuesday that the National Council of Narcotic Drugs still needs to authorize the drone use, but that 10 teams will start the practice by next Wednesday. 

Even though he hasn't taken office yet, Colombia’s president-elect Ivan Duque said Monday he welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for his planned "head-on fight against drug trafficking," and eradication of the leaf.  

James Carroll, acting director for the U.S. National Drug Control Policy said in a press statement Monday, "President (Donald) Trump’s message to Colombia is clear: it must reverse the record growth in cocaine production," adding that the country "must do more … to improve its eradication efforts."

The strong statements come just as the White House released a report showing that coca leaf cultivation grew by 11 percent over last year and is at an all-time high. Coca production has been on the rise since 2012.

However, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday that "there is a smaller coca production increase than expected."

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Referring to the 2016 accord he signed with the former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) the head of state said, "The important thing is to have a strategy and for the first time you have something viable and effective to combat this scourge more effectively."

The Colombian president added, "For the first time we have a plan, a vision and we can be effective thanks to peace, and we have to be very honest: without that peace, a structural solution to illicit crops would not have been possible."

Santos went on to describe the fight against drugs, as a 'static bicycle', since "we fumigate one day and the next day its was back on his feet."

For decades small-scale farmers, particularly those located in Colombia's coastal regions where the state was largely absent, produced coca in order to make a living wage. Santos’ peace agreement with the FARC was supposed to provide coca farmers about US $ 400 a month for two years of coca-free farming followed by a one time $ US 3,000 lump sum to help them start a new crop or business, according to the L.A. Times.

However, his administration has hardly been able to keep up with the pledge. Neither has it been able to protect small coca farmers and activists who are being killed by paramilitaries hoping to grab their coca production and land. 

 However, his administration has hardly been able to keep up with the pledge. Neither has it been able to protect small coca farmers and activists who are being killed by paramilitaries hoping to grab their coca production and land. 

The president also pointed out that the problem of drugs is not only the responsibility of Colombia but that "consumers continue to consume and now there is legalization of the consumption of many of the drugs," which is why it must be a global struggle "to combat that scourge".

According to the L.A. Times, the U.S. government has spent some US $10 billion in its Plan Colombia to counter coca and cocaine production and trafficking in the South American country since the year 2000. At the same time, U.S. consumers make up  92 percent of Colombia’s cocaine market.

From Wikipedia:

Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate. It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops. It was discovered to be an herbicide by Monsanto chemist John E. Franz in 1970.[3] Monsanto brought it to market for agricultural use in 1974 under the trade name Roundup, and Monsanto's last commercially relevant United States patent expired in 2000.

Farmers quickly adopted glyphosate, especially after Monsanto introduced glyphosate-resistant Roundup Ready crops, enabling farmers to kill weeds without killing their crops. In 2007, glyphosate was the most used herbicide in the United States' agricultural sector and the second-most used in home and garden (2,4-D being the most used), government and industry, and commerce.[4] By 2016 there was a 100-fold increase from the late 1970s in the frequency of application and volume of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) applied, with further increases expected in the future, partly in response to the global emergence and spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds.[5]:1

Glyphosate is absorbed through foliage, and minimally through roots,[6][7][8] and transported to growing points. It inhibits a plant enzyme involved in the synthesis of three aromatic amino acids: tyrosine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine. Therefore, it is effective only on actively growing plants and is not effective as a pre-emergence herbicide. 

An increasing number of crops have been genetically engineered to be tolerant of glyphosate (e.g. Roundup Ready soybean, the first Roundup Ready crop, also created by Monsanto) which allows farmers to use glyphosate as a postemergence herbicide against weeds. The development of glyphosate resistance in weed species is emerging as a costly problem.

While glyphosate and formulations such as Roundup have been approved by regulatory bodies worldwide, concerns about their effects on humans and the environment persist, and have grown as the global usage of glyphosate increases.[5][9] A number of regulatory and scholarly reviews have evaluated the relative toxicity of glyphosate as an herbicide. 

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment toxicology review in 2013 found that "the available data is contradictory and far from being convincing" with regard to correlations between exposure to glyphosate formulations and risk of various cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).[10] A meta-analysis published in 2014 identified an increased risk of NHL in workers exposed to glyphosate formulations