Is Colombia preparing to end its US-backed offensive against the illicit drug trade in exchange for a peace agreement with the narco-guerrillas? Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is negotiating with one of the world’s biggest coca-smuggling syndicates and has flirted with the idea of classifying narcotrafficking as a political crime that would be covered by a possible post-war amnesty. He also has suggested that guerrilla kingpins might not be extradited to face US justice under a possible peace accord. On Tuesday, Santos’ Minister of Health, Alejandro Gaviria, recommended the “immediate suspension of the use of glyphosate,” the herbicide responsible for a two-thirds reduction of the illicit coca crop.
Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez responded by saying, “there are no scientific reasons, but many prejudices against glyphosate,” and he called a potential ban “a coup de grâce to the [eradication] of illegal crops.” Colombia’s Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón also warned that, “Colombia could be flooded with coca plantations if the tools to effectively fight narcotrafficking are not used.” According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “coca fields in Colombia have decreased from 345,000 acres in 2001 to 118,000 acres by the end of 2013.”
Health minister Gaviria based his recommendation on an article published by the cancer research agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) that asserted that glyphosate is “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” Monsanto, the US company that produces the herbicide, has “demanded a retraction from the WHO over its report linking the chief ingredient in [the herbicide] to cancer,” noting that “the finding was derived from “cherry picking” data based on an “agenda-driven bias.”
“Glyphosate is probably the most common herbicide in the world,” William Brownfield, US assistant secretary for counter-narcotics, said on Colombian radio. “There is not one single example of a person who has suffered damages from glyphosate in Colombia in the past 20 or 21 years.” Deputy US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, noted in an interview that, “the [eradication] program has demonstrated that it is the most effective form of the fight against illicit crops,” but he deferred to the Colombian government to decide the fate of the program. Aerial fumigation and manual eradication of the coca crops are at the heart of US-backed anti-drug efforts.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, which controls most of the cocaine production in Colombia, applauded Gaviria’s decision, opining that “the current governmental policy for fighting drugs, inspired by Washington, failed.” After more than two years of peace negotiations between the government and the FARC, many assume that Santos will bow to a guerrilla demand that the government end aerial fumigation as part of a peace deal.
Benefiting from nearly $10 billion in US aid in the last 15 years, Colombia has made significant strides in the battle against organized crime, particularly against the FARC. However, the FARC is at the center of a $6-7 billion drug trade that fuels violence and corruption in at least a dozen countries, including the United States.
The United States supports the peace process and has named a special envoy to advise the process. It must make clear to Santos that, although peace is a worthy objective, reaching an accord that guts anti-drug programs while leaving the FARC-backed criminal network intact would be bad for all concerned.
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