1/20/2004
From the Associated Pressby: Wire Services
http://www.republicons.org/view_article.asp?RP_ARTICLE_ID=1151
The United States is putting civilians at risk by backing the fumigation of vast areas of Ecuador and Colombia with deadly chemicals in its fight against drug traffickers and guerrillas, Ecuador's former environment minister said Monday.
Washington has donated nearly US$2.5 billion in mostly military aid under a project called Plan Colombia, aimed at fighting drug trafficking and cutting off funding to terrorist groups in Latin America. The fumigation — using pesticides called organophosphates — is aimed at eradicating plantations of coca, the raw material for cocaine.
But Edgar Isch, the former Ecuadorean minister, said civilians also are suffering.
"Plan Colombia has been said to be a plan against drug traffickers. But it is a plan against the people. It is an undeclared war against the residents of the Amazon," he told the World Social Forum.
Overexposure to organophosphates can overstimulate the nervous system, causing flulike symptoms, blurred vision, increased sweating, nausea, vomiting, muscle twitches, decreased coordination, and in severe cases, death, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In its effort to stamp out Colombian rebels, who are funded by the drug trade, the U.S. army is also fumigating communities where insurgents are thought to be hiding, Isch alleged.
Ecuadorean farmers have complained for years that the spraying harms their banana, coffee, and yucca crops and causes health problems.
Isch was appointed Ecuador's environment minister in January 2003. He resigned in July over environmental policy differences with President Lucio Gutierrez.
Isch is an ardent environmental campaigner. A year ago, he ordered the suspension of work on a US$1.3 billion oil pipeline through lush forests near Ecuador's capital, Quito, after trees were damaged during construction.
Colombia produces 70 percent of the world's cocaine and most of the drug sold in the United States.
