For several years, Colombia’s National Drugs Directorate, in collaboration with US drugs control agencies, has been engaged in highly controversial aerial application of a potent formulation of the Monsanto glyphosate product Roundup in their efforts to eradicate cultivation of coca and poppy crops. In 2001, the first reports of poisonings of peasant communities, their livestock and food crops emerged (PN 53 p9), not only in Colombia but also affecting Ecuadorean farmers living close to the border (PN 54 p8). The Colombian public ombudsman’s office has stated on several occasions that ‘aerial eradication with chemicals has not proved effective’ and that ‘the way in which the programme is carried out undermines several human rights enshrined in national and international legislation ratified by Colombia.’(1)
Colombian spraying triggers legal and political actions
The debate intensified in June 2003 when the Administrative Tribunal of Cundinamarca Province responded to demands from environmental organisations and ordered a provisional, nationwide suspension of aerial application control methods for drug crops until implementation of an environmental management plan approved by the Ministry of the Environment. The Tribunal’s judgement highlighted the right to enjoy a healthy environment according to the constitution and environmental laws. The National Drugs Directorate (DNE) immediately appealed against the ruling and embarked on a smear campaign against the scientists from Rapalmira (PAN Colombia) and other environmental organisations, accusing them of links with armed guerrilla movements, as well as rejecting all evidence of human or environmental harm resulting from glyphosate use.
According to Astrid Puentes, environmental lawyer from the Interamerican Association for Defence of the Environment, the DNE’s appeal puts at risk the lives and integrity of those who have opposed the aerial spraying based on their scientific experience. Environmental groups are now appealing to the highest state authorities to act in accordance with the precautionary principle and redress the total lack of information or monitoring of the aerial application operations.
GM soya pesticides poison dozens
In Paraguay, experimental transgenic soya was introduced in 1997 and genetically modified (GM) varieties now account for about 70% of the nation’s 1.5 million ha soya production, despite the fact that the government has yet to authorise commercial cultivation. Indiscriminate use of pesticides on the extensive GM soya cultivation has provoked serious conflicts with small-scale farmers in recent
years(2). Large-scale soya production is mainly in the hands of wealthy farmers of Brazilian, German and Japanese origin, who stand accused of ignoring local regulations governing pesticide application and safety measures. Those affected are local peasant farming families and landless people who have occupied plots on large farms left uncultivated. Peasant farmer groups have demanded that the government take action to stop pesticide application that is damaging human health. The authorities and soya farmers responded by claiming that transgenic soya needs less agrochemicals than conventional varieties, yet the trend observed by environmental organisations runs counter to this assessment. PAN group Altervida, reported that herbicide imports increased by 300% in Argentina following the introduction of GM soya and in Paraguay the increase since 1996 is a staggering 820%. Government agricultural and environmental agencies and crop experts admit that small-scale farms close to soya fields could be harmed by broad-spectrum herbicide spraying but consider the peasant protests exaggerated.
Poisoning leads to court case
Events took a critical turn in January 2003, when 11-year-old Silvino Talavera died after direct exposure to soya pesticides in the district of General Resquín, while his mother and several siblings were hospitalised for almost three months. A total of 25 people suffered varying degrees of poisoning. Silvino’s family lived in a wooden shack exposed to the elements and only 15m away from a 200ha GM soya field. Their drinking water came from a well covered by a broken wooden lid. Their case was taken up by the National Coordination of Indigenous and Rural Women Workers (CONAMURI) who took the two soya growers involved to court. In April 2004, the tribunal unanimously convicted Alfredo Laustenlager and Herman Schelender of culpable homicide, for the death of Silvino, caused by irresponsible and criminal use of agrochemicals sprayed on soya, specifically
glyphosate(3). Both men were sentenced to two years in prison, suspended on the condition that each pays the Talavera family a sum of 25 million guaranies (US$ 4,400), presents himself to the Justice of the Peace every six months and that all future pesticide application conforms to safety regulations. The trial concluded that the poisoning incident was caused by pesticides (based on symptoms, testimonies and analysis of his siblings who had residues of glyphosate, an unspecified carbamate and 2,4-D), thus rejecting the defence case that the causal agent was microbial food poisoning. Laboratory analysis revealed that three family members still had glyphosate residues in their body.
While the sentence was relatively soft, CONAMURI welcomed the ruling as a first victory in the long battle for social justice and against impunity and it sets an important precedent in the Paraguayan judicial system that pesticide application can and does poison and kill. The struggle for justice against widespread pesticide contamination without consent in the Latin American continent deserves broader support, while more awareness-raising is needed, particularly amongst the farming sector and national policymakers, about the growing evidence of harmful effects from glyphosate, one of the world’s most commonly used herbicides and the lynchpin of many GM crops.
References
1. Conflict over aerial fumigation of glyphosate on illicit crops [in Spanish], Elsa Nivia, Enlace, 63 pp
8-9, PAN Latin America, Santiago, Chile, 2004.
2. Beneath a cloud of pesticides [in Spanish], Enlace, 62 pp4-5, PAN Latin America, Santiago, Chile, 2003.
3. Soya farmers sentenced for death of a child [in Spanish], Enlace, 64 pp4-5, PAN Latin America, Santiago, Chile, 2004.
PAN Latin America can be contacted via Maria Elena Rozas, email rapal@rapal.cl, website www.rap-chile.com, Altervida email comercial@altervida.org.py
To join the 4,000 signatories to the international petition to stop aerial spraying of illicit crops with Roundup, go to www.mamacoca.org
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 65, September 2004, page 9]