Thwarted in its efforts to reduce coca cultivation, Colombia’s government early this month was preparing to fumigate coca crops in its national parks for the first time ever. Colombian officials and the U.S. government, which has underwritten anti-drug efforts here to the tune of US$3.3 billion, say the initiative is needed to stop growers from cultivating coca in remote locations. But environmental groups and prominent media have denounced the strategy, saying it would violate national and international agreements and threaten some of the world’s most biologically rich areas. “This would constitute an environmental blunder, establish a dreadful legal precedent and represent the worst prolongation imaginable of a severely questioned [drug] policy,” El Tiempo, the nation’s most influential daily, warned in a May 16... [Log in to read more]