ACTIVIST CITES HARM OF US POLICY IN COLOMBIA

US-financed aerial spraying of coca plants impoverishes small farmers and
poisons children in rural Colombia, human rights leader Nancy Sanchez
Mendez told students at the University of Rhode Island on Tuesday, October 14.

Calling the US drug eradication policy "a crime," Sanchez Mendez says
indiscriminate spraying in the southern province of Putumayo destroys food
crops and leaves small rural farmers and their families hungry. Even
farmers who receive grants to grow legal crops have their land sprayed with
Roundup@, a herbicide made by the St. Louis-based Monsanto Company, she says.

Aerial spraying uses Roundup@ in twice the concentrations allowed in the
US, Sanchez Mendez adds, causing rashes, diarrhea, and vomiting among
children who are exposed to the chemical. Since spraying began, Sanchez
Mendez says, violence has also increased. Once their crops are killed,
small farmers move elsewhere, she explains, and armed right-wing
paramilitaries take over their land and homes. A better policy, Sanchez
Mendez told a URI political science class, would finance hand-eradication
of coca plants, blocking cocaine-processing chemicals from crossing the
Ecuadorian border, and pursuing drug trade financiers.

Sanchez Mendez visited Rhode Island this week on a New England tour
sponsored by Witness for Peace. The Washington, DC-based organization
advocates for peace in Latin America, sending North American volunteers to
conflict zones to discourage violence. A former journalist who currently
works as a human rights investigator, Sanchez Mendez recently received the
Letelier-Moffit Human Rights Award, an honor commemorating two human rights
leaders assassinated in Washington, DC, by the Chilean secret police.

Colombia has been plagued by civil war since World War II. In 2002,
according to Amnesty International USA, 4000 civilians were killed for
political reasons by right-wing paramilitary forces and left-wing
guerrillas. Another 500 people were "disappeared" by armed groups. Amnesty
also estimates that during the first nine months of 2002, 350,000
Colombians were displaced from their homes by violence and anti-drug efforts.

Major US involvement began under President Bill Clinton's "Plan Colombia."
In 2000, the US sent almost $1 billion to Colombia, including funds to
purchase helicopters from Providence-based Textron. Although the aid
package was conditioned on human rights improvements, Clinton overrode the
conditions, citing "national security." At the time, US aid was limited to
stopping cocaine production, but in 2002, under prodding from President
George W. Bush, Congress allowed Colombia to use American funds to fight
two guerrilla groups. In 2003, the US will give Colombia $742 million in
aid, estimates the liberal Center for International Policy, almost all for
the military, police, and anti-drug enforcement.

"We all know the war against coca and against the small farmers is for
other interests," Sanchez Mendez states. By forcing farmers from their
homes, spraying enables wealthy Colombia families to control the oil-rich
Putumayo region and eastern areas of Colombia that also have large oil
reserves, Sanchez Mendez contends. American involvement in Colombia oil is
certainly increasing. In February, Congress approved Bush's proposal for
$93 million to protect an Occidental Petroleum pipeline in Colombia.

Sanchez Mendez urges Americans to question US Colombian policy, noting that
World Bank loans and other forms of economic leverage allow the US to
control the Latin American nation. "Essentially, we say our president is
Bush," she says.