US sends biological weapons to Colombia

[jacdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Friends: The following statement on the projected U.S. use of a type of
chemical-biological warfare in Colombia was written and distributed by
the International Action Center (IAC) July 8  (iacenter.org or
212-633-6646).
Jack A. Smith, Mid-Hudson NPC and IAC.

US BIO-WARFARE AGAINST COLOMBIA

A portion of the $1.3 billion allotted to the Colombian military in the
recent US ?Plan Colombia? package is set aside to facilitate the
large-scale distribution of a toxic fungus (Fusarium oxsporum, EN-4
strain) over coca-producing regions.

?The U.S. plans to spread this toxic fungus are only part of the Plan
Colombia, 90% of which is military aid and includes 18 Blackhawk and 42
Huey II helicopters.  The US had to enact Plan Colombia, heightening the
war against the impoverished Colombian people, in order to maintain its
imperialist domination of the region.

?The spraying of the Fusarium fungus as a biological warfare agent is
just another example of US escalation of the Colombian civil war,?
stated Andy McInerney, a Colombia expert at the International Action
Center.

The US Government?s imperial alibi for use of the toxic fungus is the
?War on Drugs,? but numerous Colombian scientists are still opposed to
the plan.

Eduardo Posado, head of the Colombian Center for International Physics,
wrote a letter of opposition to the Colombian Minister of the
Environment stating that, ?The mortality rate for people infected by
Fusarium is 76%.? Posada lists the scientific literature indicating that
fusarium toxins are ?highly toxic? to animals and humans.

The application of the fungus in Colombia will explode the internal
refugee problem.  People fleeing from the areas rendered unlivable by
the EN-4 application will certainly be malnourished and potential
victims for infection by the fungus, which has been documented in
medical literature to kill patients with suppressed immune systems.

Jeremy Bigwood, an ethnobotanist, stated at the 13th International
Conference on Drug Policy Reform that, ?To then apply a myoherbicide
from the air that has been associated with a 76% kill rate in
hospitalized human patients is tantamount to biological warfare.?

The US government and Dr. David Sands, who developed the EN-4 strain as
a mycoherbicide, or fungal plant-killer, while working for the
Department of Agriculture, continue to maintain that the fungus is not
hamful to humans, animals, or plants, other than the intended target.
Sands, however, can hardly be counted as nonbiased as vice-president of
Ag/Bio Con Inc., the corporation that owns the EN-4 strain and the plans
for the deployment apparatus.

The US-directed coca eradication crusade of the past decade has failed
to stop coca growing, but has destroyed farms and sickened peasants.
Despite the massive effort of the Colombian National Police to spray
coca fields from the air with glyphosate (Roundup as marketed by
Monsanto), tebuthiuron (Spike 20 as marketed by Dow Agro) and other
powerful chemical herbicides, coca production in Colombia has expanded.

There have been reports that Roundup has sickened children and killed
food crops, but the effects of Roundup do not compare to the threat
posed by the toxic fungus.  Even Luis Parra, a herbicide expert
monitoring the chemical spraying to eradicate coca, is opposed to the
use of Fusarium.

He says, ?It is very different to apply a chemical herbicide (such as
Roundup) that has known predictable and undeniable risk, than to apply a
microbe (such as a mycoherbicide) where the risks are unknown.?

The problem of drug trafficking was recently addressed at a June 29-30th
Conference of Illicit Drug Crops and Environment, held as part of talks
between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People?s Army
(FARC-EP) and the Colombian Government.

Representatives of 21 nations heard testimony of peasants from
coca-producing regions about the devastating effects of fumigation on
their lives.  The FARC presented the government with a five-year test
plan to stop coca growing completely in one region of Colombia through
government aid that would allow farmers to plant alternative crops.  The
government rejected the plan completely.  The US refused even to attend
the conference.

?The Solution is not fumigation.  Money is needed for social investment
in order to begin plans to replace coca, poppy and marijuana with
healthy products,? said Paul Reyes, a spokesman for the FARC
(Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

?We are organizing against US intervention in Colombia and in support of
the Colombian people?s struggle for liberation,? explained Sara
Flounders, co-director of the International Aciton Center and leading
activist against US use of depleted uranium weapons.
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