> http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2519/hughes2519.html
> British chemical company ICI has pulled out of Plan Colombia's controversial
> fumigation campaign. The firm was supplying ingredients for toxic chemicals
> used in the U.S.-funded aerial spraying of coca-growing regions, but
> abandoned the scheme amid health concerns. Local hospitals in the Putumayo
> region, where the coca fumigation is taking place, have reported increases
> in skin rashes, diarrhea and stomach aches (see "Death Falls from the Sky,"
> April 30).
Clinton's ambassador to Colombia called these "folk stories". Charming.
Re: links, one of the better pages on Colombia is from researcher Paul Wolf:
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/drugwar.htm
If you read Spanish, or half read it like me, then his page on possible U.S. involvement in the assassination of Colombian populist Gaitan in 1948 is very interesting:
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/gaitan/gaitan.htm
"The CIA knows something about the death of Gaitan but it refuses to reveal it."
The still-mysterious murder of Gaitan sparked the Bogatazo, the massive riot/bloodletting that destroyed colonial Bogota, and which in turn led to the 'la Violencia', the 15+ year civil war that gave rise eventually to the FARC. Manuel 'Sureshot' Marulanda, the head of the FARC, got his start as a Liberal party militia organizer during la Violencia. The "folk story" is that he sought revenge for the confiscation of his chickens.
Exiled Colombian journalist Alfredo Molano has an essay on the FARC and its origins and its relation to drug production. The essay is translated on Wolf's site:
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/molano.htm
(If memory serves, it's somewhere on the narconews site too, but the latter is nearly unnavigable.)
Here's another good resource:
http://www.colombiareport.org/
- David