PLAN COLOMBIA'S HERBICIDE SPRAYING CAUSING HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador -- The military's fumigation of coca plantations in
Colombia with the herbicide glyphosate, part of the government's anti-drug
trafficking fight, is causing environmental damage and health problems in
neighbouring Ecuador's border provinces.

Residents of General Farfan and Puerto el Carmen, villages in the
Ecuadorian Amazon province of Sucumbios, on the banks of the San Miguel
River, told IPS that in the days after they heard airplanes fumigating in
the nearby Colombian department of Putumayo, dozens of trees in their towns
began to die.

``The consequences are felt on this side of the border - many trees dry up
and no one knows why, but it can be explained by the application of some
herbicides, like those used in the Colombian fumigations,'' commented Tito
Piedra, resident of Puerto el Carmen.

Bolivar Botina, mayor of Puerto Guzman, on the Colombian side, affirmed
Piedra's information and added that seven people in the area have died from
intoxication caused by the extensive fumigation over the last four months.
``Last week they stopped fumigating, perhaps because of the protests by the
people of Putumayo against Plan Colombia,' but we presume they will be back
soon,'' said Botina.

Plan Colombia, which took effect Sep 1, is President Andres Pastrana's
seven-billion-dollar initiative to fight drug trafficking and production.
The United States has already assured 1.3 billion dollars for the plan --
largely military aid --, Colombia is to provide 4.5 billion, and Pastrana is
hoping Europe and Asia will put up the rest.

But it was the fumigation efforts in an area of the Colombian department of
Nariño, bordering Ecuador's mountainous province of Carchi, that caused
the worst impacts on the Ecuadorian population.

``Since August the air we breathe hasn't been the same and there are
neighbours who have had sore eyes and headaches, which isn't normal,'' said
Juan Cruz, a farmer from Tobar Donoso, a village in Carchi.

Arturo Yepez, a doctor from Tulcan, capital of Carchi, said the zone's
residents come to him with symptoms similar to peasants who have been
``poisoned from ingesting pesticides.''

Peasant farmers from Tobar Donoso say there have been only low-level
fumigations in recent weeks, but they fear renewed massive efforts, like
those in late August intended to destroy 5,000 hectares of coca fields on
the Colombian side of the border.

At that time, Colombian anti-drug forces used three Turbo Thrush
crop-dusting airplanes, guarded by three Black Hawk helicopters and 200
soldiers, trained and equipped by the United States.

The director of the anti-drug police, Gen. Ismael Trujillo, said that with
the destruction of the coca fields and of the processing laboratories in
Nariño his force has prevented the production of approximately 29 tonnes
of cocaine destined for the US market.

``While planes flew over the plantations, leaving a wake of glyphosate in
the air, and the helicopters escorted them to prevent guerrilla attacks,
the soldiers went into the forest to search for peasants who fled,'' a coca
grower, who requested his name withheld, told IPS.

On the Ecuadorian side, farmers reported that approximately six hours after
the spraying they saw extensive areas of yucca, or manioc, with burned
leaves.

Glyphosate, one of Monsanto's most important chemical herbicides, was
introduced in Latin America 25 years ago, marketed principally under the
name Roundup with annual sales of 1.2 billion dollars.

It is an herbicide classified as a Category III Toxin, which calls for
caution in handling because it can cause gastro-intestinal problems,
vomiting, enlargement of the lungs, pneumonia, mental confusion, and
destruction of the red corpuscles in mucus membrane tissues.

But the Ecuadorians also fear that in the eradication of coca, the
Colombian military is using the transgenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum.' The
fungus is an alternative Washington proposed to the Colombian government,
but has been denounced by scientists and environmentalists around the world
because of the dangers posed by its release into the environment.

Lucia Gallardo, of the Accion Ecologica' organisation, conducted research
on the potential environmental consequences of Plan Colombia in Ecuador and
stresses that ``Fusarium oxysporum would threaten the biodiversity of the
entire Amazon region.''

``It causes damage to various cultivated plants, leading to different types
of diseases and wilting of the leaves, rotting fruit and even killing the
plant. It can also cause illness in humans, especially in patients with
depressed immune systems, with cancer or AIDS,'' she added.

Gallardo also says the fungus has the ability to genetically mutate and
scatter itself, killing other crops - it is an organism that easily adapts
to its surroundings.

``By introducing the fungus into an ecosystem as complex as the Amazon, it
could attack important crops like manioc, a food on which the indigenous
peoples of the Amazon basin depend, and it could spread to the coast,
affecting coffee, citrus, banana and other plantations,'' the researcher
pointed out.

The Amazon could turn into a focal point of contamination, the effects of
which could last many years as the fungus can live for 20 years and is
disseminated by air, soil and water.

Fusarium oxysporum is categorised in the draft of the Protocol to the
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention as ``a biological agent for war,''
that once released into the environment is impossible to withdraw, such
that ``its effects are unpredictable.''

``The fungus can spread without taking into account political borders,
attacking other crops and the biodiversity of Ecuador, Brazil, Peru and
Venezuela,'' argues Gallardo.

Ecuador's Minister of Environment, Jorge Rendon, issued a decree
prohibiting the use of Fusarium oxysporum in the country and denied that
any experiments had been carried out within national borders.

According to the New York Times, the Colombian Minister of Environment,
Juan Myer, under pressure from the United States, agreed to test the
effectiveness of the herbicidal fungus in that country, but he later
refuted the reports, saying Colombia would not allow experiments with the
fungus there.

The Ecuadorian population living along the border is also concerned that
there might be a massive influx of Colombians, displaced by the fumigations
and by the escalation of armed confrontations between the guerrillas,
paramilitary groups and government forces.

Anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 peasants from Putumayo could be displaced and
seek refuge in Sucumbios, according to official estimates. Massive
immigration would collapse the Ecuadorian province's administrative
capacity.

Several human rights organisations have reported that Colombian right-wing
paramilitary groups are buying up farms in Sucumbios, feeding fears that
confrontations with Colombia's leftist guerrillas will further spill over
into Ecuadorian territory.

Experts believe that coca plantations could spring up in Ecuador, as
occurred in the early 1990s when coca eradication plans in Peru prompted
the expansion of coca fields in Colombia.

``If that occurs, the indigenous peoples and peasants in those regions could
be displaced, and the biodiversity and different ecosystems threatened with
extinction,'' stated Gallardo.

More than 20 communities and of the indigenous Kishwa peoples, located
along the border, would be at risk, she said.

Border authorities and non-governmental organisations have formed the
Amazon Defence Front to monitor the consequences of Plan Colombia on the
region's environment.

``We will not allow them to contaminate our ecosystem, because they have
already caused enough damage with their oil spills,'' said Maximo Abad,
mayor of Nueva Loja, capital of Sucumbios.