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TechnoratiEcuador Sues Colombia to Stop Anti-Coca Herbicide Spray
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands- The government of Ecuador today filed suit at the International Court of Justice against the government of Colombia, in an effort to stop or restrict aerial anti-coca spraying that has allegedly sickened people on the Ecuadorean side of the border and harmed livestock, farmland, and sensitive, ecologically diverse rainforest areas.
The lawsuit follows seven years of persistent but unsuccessful diplomatic efforts on Ecuador's part to convince its neighbor to the north to establish a 10 kilometer (six mile) no-spray zone along their shared border.
Colombia is expected to argue that the aerial fumigation of illegal coca farms, which provide the raw material for cocaine production, is a linchpin of the war on drugs. Ecuador claims that the chemical sprays have sickened its people, poisoned farmland and damaged ecologically sensitive areas.
At a press conference in Quito announcing the lawsuit, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister MarÃÂa Isabel Salvador said, "With the purpose of establishing the existence and dimensions of the afflictions suffered by Ecuador as a result of these and past fumigations, last year President Rafael Correa created the Ecuadorian Scientific Commission, comprised of eminent scientists from our country.
"The results of the commission's work have been crucial to reaching the irrefutable conclusion that Colombian aerial fumigations have had noxious effects on our people and our environment," she said.
"There is no doubt that the fumigations conducted by the government of Colombia constitute a grave violation of the sovereignty of Ecuador and of the most basic principles of international law," she said, "which prohibits a state from causing harm to the population, land and well-being of a neighboring state."
Since spraying began in 2000, Colombia has refused to consider such measures, the lawsuit asserts. Instead, its planes and helicopters loaded with herbicide have flown right up to and sometimes directly over the border, releasing chemicals designed to eradicate all forms of plant life.
The spray has drifted to the Ecuadorean side, where villagers have reported feeling the mist settle on their skin. People in Ecuadorean border communities, many of them poor subsistence farmers or those raising small cash crops, have suffered skin lesions and rashes, burning eyes, nausea, dizziness, respiratory problems, and intestinal bleeding. Some have died.
Ecuador alleges that the spraying has killed livestock and crops, forcing the abandonment of villages, while harming ecologically sensitive areas of high biodiversity.
Nearly one third of the country's territory is protected or park land, and Ecuador is estimated to have the highest average biological diversity of any nation on Earth.
Since 2000, the United States has been financing the aerial spraying of coca crops in Colombia, which is the world's leading producer.
In 2006, the Colombian National Police's Anti-Narcotics Directorate sprayed 171,613 hectares of illegally grown coca and opium poppy, according to a March 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released by the U.S. State Department.
According to the lawsuit, Colombia has refused to disclose the exact makeup of the herbicide it uses, though the active ingredient is known to be glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl). The active ingredient is reportedly combined with other chemicals to make aerial sprays more potent.
Ecuador protested the violation of its territory as soon as spraying began in 2000, and has sought to resolve the countries' dispute through negotiation and diplomacy.
As a last resort, it submits its argument to the International Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction is confirmed by the American Treaty for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, also known as the Pact of Bogotá, to which both Ecuador and Colombia are parties.
Ecuador's suit seeks three things:
a declaration by the court that Colombia has violated Ecuador's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the manner in which it has sprayed herbicides
an order by the court that Colombia no longer spray in a manner that affects Ecuadorean territory
an order that Colombia pay reparations to Ecuador for damage caused by the spraying
Although resorting to litigation, Ecuador confirms its role as a partner against the cultivation and trafficking of illegal drugs. It is the only Andean country with virtually no coca crop.
Colombian government officials have come to agree with recent reports by the International Crisis Group that aerial spraying against coca plants is largely ineffective, yet Colombia still refuses to alter its spraying practices along the border with Ecuador.
As part of its case before the International Court of Justice, Ecuador has appointed as its agent Diego Cordovez, former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and former Ecuadorean foreign minister.
Ecuador's legal team is led by Paul Reichler, a partner in the Washington, DC, office of law firm Foley Hoag LLP who specializes in public international law, which governs relations among sovereign nations.
The filing of Ecuador's suit is unrelated to the cross-border attack undertaken by Colombia on March 1, which killed a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the anti-government guerrilla group that had taken refuge in the hinterlands of Ecuador.
The raid was condemned in resolutions by the Organization of American States and by the Rio Group, an organization of Latin American states. Colombia apologized in both resolutions, and promised not to violate Ecuadorean sovereignty again.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008
17 Comments so far
Show AllIT'S ALL BANANAS...:
Below is an excerpt going over Alvaro Noboa's, Bonita Banana Tycoon, interested relationship to the Ecuadorian border arrangement. For those who understand the dominance of banana as a commodity in South America, this is not unusual. But, for all others, the key to seeing our interests tacked to a resource is in understanding the banana trade of central and south american countries.
Doubts to our literal connection from Columbia's 'War on Drugs', to Noboa, to the terrorization of Correa's image can all be addressed in a history report of the CIA's involvement in Guatemala. Where in, the U.S. acted to demonize the elected Arbenz by turning him into a communist. This was in reaction to his persuing a nationalizaton of the privately owned United Fruit's 70% land coverage across the country. Arbenz wanted to return the land to the people of its indigenous right (I won't spoil the rest of the story for those who haven't had the chance to discover it). These events, when juxtaposed, become analogous to the columbian activity, where as: columbia acts to perform the work of U.S. interest who are puppeted by corporate interest.
So as follows:
The F.A.R.C. question has become a divisive topic for presidential debate in Ecuador, where there will be a second round of voting to elect a new president on November 26, 2006. In a presidential forum held on October 26, presidential hopeful Rafael Correa, a left-leaning economist and friend of Chavez, said of F.A.R.C.: "I will not call them terrorists. I believe they are guerrillas." -- a statement for which he has had to answer. Defending himself, Correa asserts that this is the official position of Ecuador's government and that qualifying a group as terrorist would be "declaring war on them."
He also stated his belief that Uribe's declarations pertaining to F.A.R.C.'s presence in Ecuador have a specific objective: "Obviously this position benefits the war candidate," he said in reference to his challenger, Alvaro Noboa. Noboa fired back on November 8 when he claimed that Correa had received campaign financing from F.A.R.C.
It is no secret that Uribe favors the candidacy of Noboa, who has no qualms classifying F.A.R.C. as terrorists and has promised to work with Colombia to tighten security on the northern border and clamp down on F.A.R.C.
(excerpt: http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=581&language_id=1)
Regarding the Clintons' chronicles film by Citizens for.... Why haven't they come up with the Bushes' chronicles yet? Have I missed it? There is a lot to be said about the famous couple. Is this a right-wing org or what? I would appreciate a reponse.
As a former farmboy I'm unimpressed with the claims of horrific effects on humans from glyphosate. If it is in fact Roundup, as has been claimed, sprays drifting across the border will have minimal effect on people and animals. I'd be more concerned with the unintended drift to and destruction of legitimate food crops. Roundup is hell on wheels with corn, I've heard.
Odoco- they've been spraying for almost a decade, at least. I doubt this has much if anything to do with Ecuador's recent more defiant stand towards Washington. And Agent Orange is so much nastier than this stuff, it isn't even funny. Agent Orange is SCARY. Roundup- don't bathe in it, don't eat it, and you'll be fine. i grew up with it being sprayed 100 yards from my house. I guarantee you I got a heavier dose of it than people who had it drift onto them from miles away. It was probably sprayed more regularly on my home than on coca farms in the andean hinterlands. And I'm pretty healthy.
Roundup drift COULD be killing the local corn. But effects on humans and animals are highly unlikely.
Cocaine is readily available on the streets and from friends in my neighborhood, but if you are looking for weed to smoke you have to really look. By that I mean you have to get to the inner city. It's starting to make sense now.
Why doesn't Ecuador just legalize Coca farming like Bolivia did?
Coca is one of natures best foods for mammal consumption. The coca leaf has more protein than beef and more calcium than milk. It is being targeted for destruction due the potential benefit to people it represents. Cocaine excites dopamine release. Dopamine is a monoamine neurotransmitter formed in the brain by the decarboxylation of dopa and essential to the normal functioning of the central nervous system. Dopamine is a reward chemical that your brain releases when you do what empowers you. Much street cocaine in the US, due it's fully unregulated status, is cut with junk that could kill a horse.
Quelling addiction is a function of reducing dosage per period. If you ingested X amount yesterday ingest half X today, half of half X tomorrow and so on until the dosage you've ingested for the day has not aroused so strong a desire to be painfully avoided. The concept is called weening and might be taught widely if there were a real effort to dissolve addiction, which though is the opposite of the purpose of the financial dominant who steer the federal government and profit from the cocaine trade.
rtdrury
I believe your on to something.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6470450895164255089
Maybe someone should ask Hillary and bill about it?
Nearly one third of the country's territory is protected or park land, and Ecuador is estimated to have the highest average biological diversity of any nation on Earth.
Ecuador is a natural gem that must be protected from the capitalists. US cocaine abusers tend to be rather right wing in their politics, choosing economically lucrative but socially destitute occupations for mostly selfish reasons. An enlightened anti-driug policy would legalize cocaine and tax the crap out of it to redistribute the ill-gotten wealth back to the people who it was stolen from. All commodities would be taxed according to their benefits/liabilities in a sane society. So the answers are available, but capitalists don't like answers, so we get crap instead.
Perhaps Monstro Inc. will invent Agent Green to spray on Corporate Greed and Stupidity. Sort of a 'Corral' for Neo Cons.
This sounds like yet another rerun... S.O.S. = same old stupidity...
Not only that, but the region that the Colombian government has been spraying for years is guerrilla-controlled territory (which includes about 300,000 civilians). Human rights organizations have called such spraying chemical warfare. Meanwhile, coca crops in the north dominated by paramilitary groups are not being sprayed (note that most of the drug trafficking occurs through the northern border in Panama).
Good post Gottogetoffthegrid; another interesting article on todays listing is the one about milk labeling, also a little Monsanto sideline - notice both are inimical to human health.
glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl)= RoundUp = Monsanto
its not just the CIA that is making $$$
Seditious - they are spraying in Columbia - drift spray and contaminated ground water are Ecuador's concerns.
Does Agent Orange ring a bell? Think the spraying might be in response to Ecuador's nationalistic policies that don't kowtow to Washington? Implicit / indirect punishments are a staple of US imperialism all the while claiming their actions to be simply for the good of mankind.
If our government was concerned about drugs, 1) we would rehabilitate and educate instead of incarcerate, and 2) they would have to find another source of funding for many CIA activities.
The article said: "Although resorting to litigation, Ecuador confirms its role as a partner against the cultivation and trafficking of illegal drugs. It is the only Andean country with virtually no coca crop."
and...
"Colombian government officials have come to agree with recent reports by the International Crisis Group that aerial spraying against coca plants is largely ineffective, ..."
So chuck, if Ecuador has virtually no coca crop, then how can spraying over non-existent plants keep cocaine prices high?
The USA is paying for the spraying in order to keep the price of cocaine high...just like they invaded IRaq in orderto keep the price of oil high.
MannieDavis: Glyphosate is roundup. see pdf from monsanto below:
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/products/productivity/roundup/gly_phos_bkg.pdf
lots of reviewed journal articles at google.com/scholar
eg.
roundup messes with human placental cells at concentrations lower than those found with agricultural use:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1257596