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Thursday, June 28, 2018

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."

To read the Full Unclassified DEA Intel Brief use this link 

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

45 comments:

  1. Once they get 100M in "aid", I'm sure they will get right on it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you scared of cancer?
    Don't, you have to die of something anyway and people need to make their billions, they will take your land and care for it properly even if you don't die, why fight it?
    Don't wait for the Colombian paramilitary to come and kill you because ALVARO URIBE VELEZ wants your lands and he got a new sympathetic Presidente de Colombia by hacking the election again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Better that that communist rebel Duque, the people of Colombia have spoken. I aplaud them.

      Delete
    2. Duque kisses alvaro uribe velez ass without request.
      Gustavo Petro has been a life long human rights activist trained in Catholic Universities and was altar boy, arrested and tortured by milicos, he did not grow up inside uribe velez' shorts, years before the US and Colombian retrograde murdered president elect Jorge Eliecer Gaytan who was to take power next day, he was also a Catholic University graduate,
      8 Jesuit priests and 4 nuns were also murdered by US trained soldiers in Honduras for preaching the Theology of Liberation, leto has been lucky, very lucky, alvaro uribe velez is heading to court, NOT FOR HIS CRIMES AS GOVERNOR OR AS PRESIDENT, but for his crimes as a senator, I hope he gets to rot in jail.

      Delete
  3. Great! The US can care less about the harmful environmental effects and human effects in other countries. While rigourous battles by environmental activists and lawsuits are taking president in the US today.
    Sounds more like an ultimatum eradicating an American consumption issue than simply educating those not to.
    Curious if the same ultimatum was given to Peru and Bolivia.

    Expect cocaine prices to surge if this is implemented. Simple economics 101 (supply and demand).

    Question? Does the US get reimbursement for the failed Colombian crop program?

    E42

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 4:43 the reward is on the fight, middle men always make sure their commissions are in the bank somewhere safe like in a tax heaven or shot and screw the results, the worse they are the more they get to blame "the cartels" as they go begging for "Mó better work"

      Delete
  4. Sure... And pigs fly lol that will NEVER happen

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  5. Whomever thinks that this plqnts poisons are not bad shld get showered with the shit to prove is harmless

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fuck Monsanto. They are one of the biggest threats to humanity. Far more dangerous than cocaine.

    Phelpso

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You my friend deserve a ice Cold brew on this friday, best comentario i read in BB .

      Delete
    2. Rather an Agricultural Mafia!
      Dictating who and cannot grow putting small farmers out of business.

      E42

      Delete
    3. Agree. Kind of a two for one deal. Spray here, desperate farmers will clear more forest over there in order to sustain livelihood. Roundup is very effective at destroying rainforest. Spray one acre, clear cut another either to grow coca or food staples. From what I have read Rounup is far more effective against food crops than coca. War on drugs battle plan is seriously flawed. Attack the supply chain at the least expensive and most readily replaceable point. This will make a few Monsanto sales commission checks look nice and earn a few DEA agent promotions. However it will not cause more than a hiccup on the supply side.

      Delete
  7. Colombia to .u.s.a. close up ur ppl's nostrils. It wld be stupid for colombia to poison their jungles because ppl cant quit snorting coke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Colombia owns no jungles,
      Jungles they are a patrimony of humanity, if they are in Vietnam, Brasil or Africa, no single authoritarian poóp head has the right to poison the forests and the waters to monopolize drug production, even some big fat ass said "you can't see the forest because of the trees" in one more egregious example of political stupidity.
      Coca farmers never benefit because it is all owned by the middle men who decide how much to pay and to whom or to not buy at all.

      Delete
  8. Should be a good time to conduct a study on the health effects of the herbicide on the people since they will be spraying it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are spraying roundup in front of all your noses in almost all the farmer's fields everywhere in North America especially USA except maybe not Mexico because of cost and lack of GMO crops.The 1st thing I thought about doing it by drone was it eliminated a risk to the pilot not because of using the roundup but because he might get shot down otherwise.

      Delete
    2. On the US the lobbyists have bought Congressmen and Senators to be able to fumigate at will, in LatinAmerica they just buy the presidentes and impose their agricultural products on others, Mexican farmers are fighting against foreign corn and beans, fumigated with Round-Up and other herbicides.
      They could go to the beaches but there is no fishing policies on the privatized ones and no fish on the public ones, it is all depleted from poisonings to force people out of the way of tourism, you need to go and find or create your own SWAMP.

      Delete
  9. I thought that lady was wearing a make america great again hat that would be something.. Lol

    ReplyDelete
  10. Have there been any updates on El chapo’s trial?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes,he choked on a green bean.
      Apparently there is a difference how to eat pinto beans from green beans.

      E42

      Delete
  11. This spraying is BS. With Special clothing you can use it on cornfields with a tractor but not spraying all over from the air. The US did not lesen very much from agent orange.
    Why they dont buy much more of These truck scanners and installing them on the border?
    How much trailers are realy checked 5-10% i would Say. The others are just checked by shipping info.
    Would also make America great again as they are made in usa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you don't want to get sprayed , don't produce cocaine . I have a feeling there will be some new methods start at the border crossings . Going to be some big loads caught in the next year . Trump will bring them to heel

      Delete
    2. Lucky if 20 percent of all imports are checked at any border. An impossible task for law enforcement due to the volume of crossing vehicles. Moreover, freight and marine carriers. Many products have expiratory dates that have special preference to pass quicker.

      Added with the malfunction of X-Ray machines and equipment. A probable source and cause for organized crime to bribe officers who operate such equipment.

      E42

      Delete
    3. trump aint superman ,loads are gonna keep on truckin

      Delete
  12. That's a easy and interesting read Yaqui that DEA report on cocaine.Thanks for including that link in the article.

    ReplyDelete
  13. If i was Colombia i would ask the Americans to eradicate the use of drugs in the US. Then we'll talk about reducing our crops.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly my friend. An this is coming from a American gringo

      Delete
    2. Roundup is one fkd up herbicide. I live in an agricultural zone in california and the farm owners say you can drink it but the farm workers are the ones who apply it and when it leaches into the streams and the bugs, larvae, and frogs, and fish, you have one fkd up ecosystem brought to you by Monsanto/Bayer and the good ole USA.
      Herbicides cause lasting damage and i'll go out on a limb here- glycosphate-glyco is sugar, has anyone actually read the corrolations with this herbicide and diabetes? Affecting the pancreas?
      Oh yeah, i forgot, Monsanto/Bayer will sell you the cure. Sucker...

      Delete
    3. Well Cidito Blanco your thinking in reverse, if they eradicate the crops first, then there would not be no drug flow from Columbia. But then again Mexico will supply the drugs, which they have been doing, ya dig.

      Delete
    4. @ 7:02 - Well buddy, maybe you should read up on the law of supply and demand. Then come back with a comment.

      Delete
    5. 12:07 7 US Military Bases in Colombia and death squads all over the country are there for you mister Cid Blanco, they should answer for the ever increasing cocaine problem, not that anybody cares about the addicts, but they steal a lot of business from more favored heroin and other opioid and opiates now being favored by the US Businessmen because there is less competition there

      Delete
    6. @6:10 Yes , indeed and imagine what the Mexican farm jornaleros are exposed to in Mexico where a lot of the poison we outlawed is still used. That is also how a lot of those poisons get to Cartel Grows in California and elsewhere.
      Grow and eat organic as much as possible including your weed and pls use the sun while you are at it !
      PS: Right on Phlepso 👍🏼

      Delete
    7. 702 forget trying to reason with Mr. Blanco, he is a reversed man, you can't teach a old dog new tricks.

      Delete
    8. No you can't unless your an expert on the subject. I just have an open when thinking. I don't follow the masses just to follow. Failed tactics is a sure way to fail again.

      Delete
  14. Come on, this is such an ineffective tactic on the drug war... it's like cockroaches they will run to other places to grow the coca leaves but because it's lucrative they always will regrow it somewhere else. Don't waste the money but use it towards rehab for our drug addicts on the streets here in the usa. We got to stop the demand here first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ponchito if the demand stopped in USA, (your dreaming) then of course they would ship it to other parts of the world, which is already happening.

      Delete
    2. I love you. Marry me!

      Delete
  15. The bigg3st plantations are in Peru anyway

    ReplyDelete
  16. Colombia 1-0 England
    (Cuadrado)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope, england tried to be smart by loosing the game with Bélgica on purpose to get on the " weaker" side of the elimination key. Butiliza Colombia will kick them out for being smart. TODO BIEN, TODO BIEN

      EL berraco de la sierra

      Delete
    2. Be smart by losing? NO MAMES!
      you have been kicked too many times on your caboose where you keep your brains.

      Delete
    3. 3:37, if you don't know shut your caboose up. England played with the bench their last game either to tie or lo ose the game.

      Delete
  17. The US means Round them up, step on them, and turn it into paste. The Coke Comeback

    ReplyDelete

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