Judge lifts ban on spraying Amazon coca

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The U.S.-backed spraying of herbicides on drug crops can resume in Indian lands in the Amazon, a judge ruled yesterday, 11 days after he had ordered it suspended.

Judge Gilberto Reyes had ordered a temporary suspension of the aerial spraying July 27 after the Organization of Indian Peoples of the Colombian Amazon said the herbicide glyphosate was causing health problems and environmental damage.

Reyes said he ordered the suspension to give the Indian group time to back up its claims with evidence. The group did not provide evidence, and Reyes revoked the suspension order, an aide said.

Jorge Rojas, of Paz Colombia, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations, said the decision would be appealed. Opponents say the spraying causes skin, respiratory and intestinal illnesses and harms Colombia's diverse ecosystems.

The aerial spraying is a major component of President Andrés Pastrana's Plan Colombia, which Washington is supporting with $1.3 million in aid. The effort is aimed at reducing crops that produce cocaine and heroin and denying income to leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries who earn a fortune by "taxing" the drug crops.

Gen. Gustavo Socha, chief of the Colombian anti-narcotic police, said the ruling affirmed the government's claim that the spraying is not harmful.

U.S. officials say the herbicide, manufactured by the U.S. company Monsanto and sold as common weedkiller under the name "Roundup," is safe.

However, a British company said last week that it had stopped supplying an additive — Atplus 300F — used in the herbicide, saying it has not been properly tested.

The additive is used to make the glyphosate less likely to drift in the wind as it floats down from the planes, and to make it adhere better to the drug crops. Cosmo Flux uses a substance called Atplus 300F, sold by the British company Imperial Chemical Industries.

Since the spraying began under Plan Colombia in December, 123,500 acres of coca have been sprayed. The goal for the end of 2001 is 197,600 acres.

Information from Reuters is included in this report.