AERIAL FUMIGATION KILLS LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE

Since July 2000, the U.S. government has spent over 2 billion dollars
to fund an anti-drug program aimed at eradicating cocoa and poppy
production in Colombia. The goal of Plan Colombia is to reduce cocao
and poppy production by half by 2005. In a two year period from
December 2000 to December 2002, U.S. contractors and Colombian drug
authorities sprayed 628,828 acres of Colombia with a potent herbicide.

A milder version of this glyphosate poison is sold in the U.S. under
the brand name Round-up weed killer. This fumigation is done from
airplanes which often have to fly higher than recommended when
spraying due to risks of being shot at. Spray drift often results in
unintended damage and any plant life sprayed by this herbicide dies
within several days.

Often times, a subsistence farmer's entire food crop is killed and in
many cases, no cocoa plants were present.

Damage to people, livestock and wildlife have all been documented.
Colombia is covered by the fertile and biodiverse rainforest, which
harbors untold numbers of wildlife species. After having all their
crops killed, many subsistence farmers in Colombia go further into the
rainforest to clear more land, whereby killing and displacing more
wildlife.

Clearly this program is not working; a study released in 2001 by
United Nations international Drug Program and the Colombian National
Drug Control Efforts reported that despite fumigation cocoa production
had jumped by 60%.

Check The Latin America Working Group's website at www.lawg.org or
Witness for Peace at www.witnessforpeace.org for more information.