Spraying of drug crops

One of the "supply side" (crop eradication and interdiction) strategies in the War on Drugs is aerial spraying with herbicides, a tactic that has proven to be ineffective and harmful. The indiscriminate spraying of chemicals has a negative impact on the local ecology and human health. Furthermore, crop eradication without alternative development, leaves small farmers even less economically secure than before, continuing their dependence on drug crop cultivation.

Drugs on the agenda of Colombian peace talks

December 2012
Drugs and Democracy

Inclusion of the drug issue on the agenda of the peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC, which are being held in Havana, Cuba, is a smart move.

Colombia coca cultivation survey results

June 2007
Nr. 22 - 
Drugs and Democracy

Despite 2006 witnessing the most intensive use of fumigation in the country’s history, some 157,200 hectares of cultivation areas were detected, 13,200 hectares more than in 2005. Is the fumigation strategy failing?

The politicisation of fumigations

February 2007
Nr. 20 - 
Drugs and Democracy

The insistence on fumigation, despite its undeniable failure in practice, is a sign that fumigation involves interests that go beyond antinarcotics and represent what are essentially political interests, to justify the US military and law enforcement presence in such a sensitive region.

The Sierra de la Macarena

September 2006
Nr. 19 - 
Drugs and Democracy

Re-establishing fumigation is not going to legitimise or win acceptance of the State's activities in the territory of the Park. It is not going to protect the Park from the environmental deterioration generated by the critical interventions of social and military actors in the war. It is also not going to really affect the FARC's "bankroll". What it will do is create well-fertilised territory for the prolonging of the armed conflict.

Aerial spraying knows no borders

September 2005
Nr. 15 - 
Drugs and Democracy

In this briefing the Transnational Institute explains why the Colombian government has been unwilling to give ground on this minimal demand, which the Ecuadorians have been making since 2001, shortly after the aerial spraying began as part of Plan Colombia.

Broken Promises and Coca Eradication in Peru

March 2005
Nr. 11 - 

The forced crop eradication policy implemented by the Peruvian government over the past 25 years has failed. The official strategy has exacerbated social conflicts; contributed to various types of subversive violence; jeopardized local economies, also affecting the national economy; and destroyed forests as crops have become more scattered. Worst of all, it has not resolved any of the underlying causes of drug trafficking, such as poverty, marginalisation and government neglect.

Plan Afghanistan

February 2005
Nr. 10 - 

In November 2004 an unknown mystery plane sprayed opium poppy fields in eastern Afghanistan. Although the US denied any involvement, the US State Department is pressing for aggressive aerial eradiction campaigns to counter the booming opium economy. Due to policy controversies the State Department had to back off. At least for the time being.