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Stop Contaminating Colombia with US Dollars

Aerial spraying in ColombiaThe Bush administration recently asked Congress to continue funding a devastating and ineffective herbicide spraying program in Colombia. Under the program, planes spray herbicides over large swaths of rural Colombia, harming human health and the environment. Tell Congress to find a better way!

Although the program is intended to reduce drug crop cultivation, it has been ineffective in doing so since its start in 1999.  Instead, farmers have been forced to move their fields into pristine areas, threatening the habitat of hundreds of species found nowhere else in the world 

Tell Congress to find a better way to fight drug cultivation and stop the harmful effects of this program.

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Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Stop Contaminating Colombia With US Dollars!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to urge Congress to reduce US funding for the harmful and ineffective aerial spraying of drug crops that is part of the Colombian aid package. In this year's discussions about the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill and aid to Colombia, I'm asking you to direct US aid away from the spraying program and toward more sustainable alternative development. I also ask that you work to ensure that the Department of State comply with all conditions on the spraying program.

Since 1999, the United States has spent billions of dollars fighting drug cultivation in Colombia, yet has achieved a mere 12% reduction in coca crops. Instead, the spraying has simply made farmers move their fields into undeveloped areas, increasing deforestation and spreading contamination. Also, the herbicide sprayed is potentially harmful to biodiversity, ruins food crops and contaminates water. While Congress has conditioned past funding on the alleviation of such impacts, the Department of State has repeatedly failed to comply with those conditions. The proposed budget also does not fulfill the Bush administration's promise to reduce funding for the spraying.

A profound restructuring of US aid to Colombia is needed. Many alternative development programs exist and have proven far better at stemming coca production. Instead of continuing to fund an unproductive program that threatens the environment and human health, I ask you to support these better alternatives. I hope you will work to bring about these changes.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
February 13, 2007


Background Information

 Earthjustice at Work
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Man with ruined corn crop

Earthjustice has been working to stop the harmful impacts of the Plan Colombia aerial spraying program since it began seven years ago.

Since the 1970's, aerial spraying with herbicides has been employed in Colombia to destroy coca, marijuana, and poppy crops. Since 1999, the US and Colombian governments have conducted this spraying as part of "Plan Colombia," financed via the Andean Counterdrug Initiative of the US Foreign Operations Act. Over the past six years, the US has invested nearly $1.2 billion in the spraying, and more than four times the initial area of coca crops have been sprayed.  Yet coca cultivation in Colombia continues at nearly original levels.

The US and Colombian governments insist that the spraying poses no risk, but the Colombian Public Defender's Office, the Colombian General Accounting Office, various national and international environmental and human rights organizations, and even the European Parliament, beg to differ. In 2005 and 2006, a Scientific Assessment Team of the Organization of American States, commissioned to evaluate the environmental and human health impacts of the spraying program, released reports about the impacts of the spray mixture. While the reports were deficient in a number of areas, as outlined in critiques Earthjustice helped prepare, the researchers found that the program is potentially harmful to the environment and human health.

Alternative development programs that don't threaten Colombian biodiversity or human health have proven to be much more effective for fighting drug crop cultivation. Although improvements can still be made, such alternative development programs have yielded concrete positive results at much lower cost than the spraying. Therefore, the US and Colombian governments should reevaluate the current policy and substantially increase support for those initiatives.

Now is the time to ask your legislators to reform US aid to Colombia, and to support more effective alternatives for reducing drug cultivation!