For 15 years beginning in 2000, the United States and Colombia sent airplanes to spray toxic pesticides over Colombian coca and poppy fields. The multi-million-dollar program was called Plan Colombia.
The pesticides drifted over homes, vegetable fields, livestock, rivers, and forests. Indigenous and other people who lived in the area suffered health problems, as did fish, amphibians, rodents, insects, and plants. Entire families left their land because of the spraying.
After a decade and a half of spraying, cultivation of coca and poppy crops remained as widespread as ever.
During those years, AIDA collaborated with many organizations, institutions and individuals to:
In April 2015, the World Health Organization classified glyphosate, the main pesticide used, as probably carcinogenic to humans. On the basis of this decision, Colombia’s Ministry of Health recommended suspension of spraying operations to the Ministry of Justice.
Within weeks, AIDA and partners gathered almost 25,000 signatures on a citizens’ petition to urge the National Narcotics Council to suspend spraying – which it did in May 2015.
The National Environmental Licensing Agency made that decision final when it revoked authorization of the spraying program in September 2015.