Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.sjmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Michael Easterbrook, Associated Press

OFFICIALS DISMISS ALLEGATIONS OVER ANTI-DRUG FUMIGATIONS

Colombia Says Drug Lords Are Using Smear Tactics

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Battle lines are being drawn over the massive 
fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, with opponents saying it poses health 
risks while the U.S. ambassador warns that aid could be withheld if the 
Washington-backed plan is scrapped.

The country's top anti-narcotics enforcer, meanwhile, is accusing drug 
traffickers -- who have lost millions of dollars in profits -- of waging a 
smear campaign against Washington's $1.3 billion counterdrug offensive.

``What I have seen is a plot against the fumigations,'' Gen. Gustavo Socha, 
chief of the anti-narcotics police, told the Associated Press on Saturday. 
``The drug traffickers are generating false information and forcing people 
to disseminate it.''

Though he did not provide specific examples, Socha said drug traffickers 
were forcing peasants to give false testimony about alleged illnesses from 
the sprayings.

=46armers and a coalition of governors from southern Colombia are demanding 
an end to the fumigation. The governors have visited U.S. Congress to make 
their case.

The fumigation drive, in which planes spray herbicide on drug crops 
protected by leftist rebels and rival paramilitary forces, is the key to 
Washington's strategy to curb drug production in Colombia. This South 
American country is the leading supplier of cocaine and heroin to the 
United States.

The campaign has drawn increasing fire in recent weeks from critics who say 
the chemicals dropped from the planes are not only harmful to people, but 
also are polluting one of the world's richest ecosystems.

A judge in Bogota on July 27 ordered a temporary halt of the spraying in 
Amazonian Indian lands.

It appears doubtful the Colombian government will jettison the sprayings 
nationwide. But, underscoring Washington's concern about the turn of 
events, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson warned that a permanent halt could 
jeopardize U.S. aid.

``I have no doubt that many voices in the U.S. Congress would call for an 
end to assistance to Colombia,'' Patterson was quoted as saying in El 
Tiempo, Colombia's most widely read daily. The U.S. Embassy confirmed the 
comment was accurately quoted by the Bogota newspaper.

Patterson did not elaborate on what assistance would be cut. Washington's 
$1.3 billion contribution to President Andres Pastrana's anti-drug 
offensive, dubbed Plan Colombia, is already in the pipeline.

U.S. officials insist the herbicide, glyphosate, which is produced by the 
U.S. chemical company Monsanto, is safe. But the British company Imperial 
Chemical Industries confirmed Friday that it has stopped supplying an 
additive used with the glyphosate, saying that use of the two agents 
together had not been tested.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens