Colombia Suspends Use of Aerial Herbicide to Kill Coca Crops

‘Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced today that he is halting the use of the herbicide glyphosate as part of a US-backed effort to destroy coca crops. More than four million acres of land in the country have been sprayed with the Monsanto-manufactured weed killer.

The US has paid for the program as part of its multi-billion dollar, decades-long anti-drug campaign in the country that had been (and might be again) the world’s largest coca and cocaine producer. US contractors paid by the State Department do some of the spraying.

Santos acted a little more than a month after an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the herbicide is probably carcinogenic and days after the Colombian Health Ministry, citing the WHO report, recommended that the program be halted.’

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