On January 21, Vice reported, “The Colombian government has published a proposed law that will allow it to resume a controversial program of aerial fumigation of coca crops using glyphosate, a weed-killer thought to cause cancer in people exposed to it regularly and in high doses.”

“The plans are in the final stage of their passage to law, and spraying is expected to begin ‘in the second half of this year’, said Ricardo Vargas, an expert in crop fumigation and coca at National University of Colombia.”

The article adds, “The proposals by the Colombian president, Ivan Duque – after a five year hiatus in coca spraying – have been criticized by local government officials, environmentalists, drug policy experts and rural communities living under the proposed toxic flight paths.”

The Constitutional Court has previously ruled that any decision to resume the use of glyphosate in aerial spraying must be based on “objective and conclusive evidence demonstrating no harm to health and the environment.”

The peace process, crop substitution

Colombia Reports comments, “The [government’s] decree ignored the court’s conditions that the government must prioritize the crop substitution program that is part of an ongoing peace process and the inclusion of an ethnic minority representative in the CNE [National Narcotics Council]. The government plans as they stand do include the participation of affected rural communities as demanded by the court.”

The Guardian has previously reported, “The [2016 peace] deal included provisions to help peasants substitute coca crops for legal alternatives such as coffee and cacao.”

That voluntary substitution of illegal crops held the promise of state assistance for farmers that included cash incentives, technical support, new roads and bridges to get their products to market, teachers for their children, and legal title to land they hold informally.

But the Washington Post noted in July 2019, “That pledge remains unfulfilled — and coca has proliferated.”

Deutsche-Welle highlights, “By not giving farmers the help they need to make the transition, Isabel Pereira [drug policy adviser for the Colombia-based research and advocacy organization Dejusticia] believes the Duque administration is actively weakening the 2016 deal and threatening the possibility of a lasting peace.”

The impact on social leaders

Ricardo Vargas says, “Many social leaders, some of whom have been for promoting the substitution of coca, have been threatened or killed. The government is failing to offer physical security for them. Fumigations disrupt the poor stability of people living in these territories, pollute water, affect people’s health, generate forced displacements and with them schools, or sources of income for parents, causing social upheaval. It affects forest and woodland, creating conflict and uncertainty for all communities.”

Front Line Defenders recently noted that 106 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2019. Onda Opita has reported, “The office of the high commissioner Michelle Bachelet verifies another 13 possible cases of murders of activists last year that, if confirmed, could increase the total number of cases to 120.”

That article adds, “In the first 14 days of 2020 another 10 have died according to the UN. However, social organizations report that there are 18 cases.”

During a November 2019 speaking tour in Canada, human rights defenders with the legal collective CCALCP and the human rights organization CREDHOS highlighted their concerns about the resumption of the aerial fumigation of coca crops using glyphosate.

On January 21, Contagio Radio reported, “On December 26, 2019, President Iván Duque published his proposal before the Decree of regulation of fracking pilots and gave the citizens time to comment and appeal until January 16, 2020, with the intention of issuing it a week later to analyze the proposals collected.”

El Tiempo adds, “On January 20, the Government plans to gather the suggestions and comments of the citizens on this draft decree.”

On October 18, 2019, RCN reported, “The president of Ecopetrol, Felipe Bayón, told RCN News that the company has in its schedule of operations the date of the second half of 2020 to drill the first wells of the pilot programs with the exploration system known as fracking.”

Opposition to pilot projects

Carlos Andrés Santiago, a member of the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking, says, “We are against these pilots, because they cannot measure the impact of this activity with five wells in the Magdalena Medio, when 2,000 wells are contemplated in the exploitation phase. It is not the same.”

Concerns about social impacts, Parex Resources Inc.

The Contagio Radio article notes, “According to the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking, by 2020 pilots are planned in regions such as Barrancabermeja, Puerto Wilches, Cimitarra, San Martín, among others, actions that ‘would generate not only an environmental impact, but also social because of the flow of interests in the exploited territories’.”

“For Oscar Sampayo [of the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking], a fact that evidences the violence experienced in Santander occurred on January 19 in the municipality of Cimitarra, when armed actors shot at the inhabitants of the community: Saúl Mateus, Luisa Sánchez and caused the death of Jimmy Quiroga , in the middle of a soccer tournament.”

“According to the spokesman, this fact is part of the context of the territory, which is no stranger to the activation of one of the pilots, belonging to the DMN9 [aka VMM9] block of the Parex company, ‘we reject this technique and this type of exploration pilot plans, because it violates human integrity and generates the total destruction of ecosystems’.”

Parex Resources Inc. is a Calgary-based company.

National Strike protests opposed to fracking

A national strike protest took place in Colombia on January 21.

Reuters notes, “The National Strike Committee, comprising unions like the CUT [Central Union of Workers] and student groups, initially presented the government with 13 demands in talks – including stepped-up efforts to stop the murder of human rights activists and implement a peace deal with leftist rebels. …The committee later increased its demands to 104 points, including opposition to fracking.”

The Pan Am Post also notes that the demands include, “Repeal of free trade agreements (FTA).”

These protests are expected to continue to intensify this year.

Central Union of Workers (CUT) chief Diogenes Orjuela says, “The first strong action – like the one on Nov. 21, it will be similar – will take place in March.”

During a November 2019 speaking tour in Canada, Julia Figueroa and Andrea Nocove from the legal collective CCALCP and Ivan Madero from the human rights organization CREDHOS highlighted their concerns about fracking at public forums and with allies, Members of Parliament and government officials.

Photo: The projection on the wall in the Plaza de las Nieves in Bogotá says that between November 21 and January 21, 30 social leaders have been killed.

On January 21, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted, “We thank the embassies of the United Kingdom, Holland, France, Germany and Canada for their international observation at the hearing against former DAS officials for psychological torture of the journalist Claudia Julieta Duque represented by dh Colombia.”

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has explained, “In 2004, the psychological torture against Duque began due to her journalistic work, especially her investigation of the murder of journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón in 1999.”

“In her journalistic investigations, Duque linked former officials of the now extinct intelligence department of the country known as DAS (Administrative Department of Security) in the planning and execution of the assassination of Garzón.”

“Regarding this crime, in 2018, a former deputy director of the DAS was sentenced to 30 years in prison for ‘determining’ Garzón’s murder.”

Front Line Defenders adds, “The human rights defender has been the target of intimidation, harassment, threats and surveillance since 2001, when she began investigating into the murder of fellow journalist Jaime Garzón and she found out that agents of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) were involved in a cover-up.”

In June 2019, Time Magazine reported, “Lack of security and safety in Colombia for journalists has forced some to flee the country; two journalists fled after being harassed online by officials. Others, like local journalist Claudia Duque, have endured kidnapping, illegal surveillance, and psychological torture for decades. Courts convicted three high-ranking security service officers for torturing Duque and put another eight on trial. As of January 2019, none has served a day in prison.”

In September 2019, Duque commented, “In Colombia, journalism is far from free and unobstructed. Here, the threats against journalists are constant. Three colleagues have been murdered since last December.”

PBI has accompanied Claudia Julieta Duque since 2010.

Photo by Fecolper.