Colombia Abandons Manual Coca Eradication In Favor of Spraying After Workers Killed

摘要

Bogota—Colombia will use aerial herbicide spraying to eradicate coca leaf bushes in a na-tional park in the wake of the killing of six individuals who were working on manual eradication, President Alvaro Uribe announced Aug. 3.rnEnvironmentalists and others have long criticized the practice of spraying herbicide from planes because the substance used, glyphosate, is a broad-acting herbicide that also kills forest and crops.rnAccording to some reports, glyphosate also causes health problems in humans and animals. Critics say that because of wind and poor aim by pilots, who are sometimes shot at by people protecting drug fields, the herbicide often misses the coca crops.