Related Resources:
State Department Letter (3 October 2003)The Sunshine Project
News Release
6 April 2004
US State Department Launches New Push to Use Agent Green in Colombia
Plan was defeated by NGOs and indigenous people in 2001; but US diplomats renew pressure on Colombia.
(Austin and Hamburg – 6 April 2004) - US State Department officials have revived a controversial scheme to use biological weapons to forcibly eradicate coca and opium poppy crops in Colombia. The eradication technique calls for testing types of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum (dubbed "Agent Green" by the Sunshine Project) and using airplanes to blanket coca and poppy-growing areas of the country with the biological agents. A previous attempt to use Agent Green was shelved amidst protests in 2000-01 and following a determination by then-President Clinton that it could run afoul of the Biological Weapons Convention. If the renewed US pressure continues, it is very likely to generate protest by civil society organizations, indigenous peoples, and Colombia's neighbors, all of whom oppose the fungus.
The renewed US pressure came to light last week when Colombian Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo released government correspondence including an October 2003 letter sent by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Deborah McCarthy to Colombia's Ambassador in Washington. The letter requested that Colombia send a team to Washington including agriculture officials and a senior policymaker. The Colombians were to be briefed by US officials on their "mycoherbicide" research (the term used by the US for Agent Green) in a bid to acquire Bogotá's approval for field testing in Colombia. It is unclear if the meeting has taken place.
The correspondence first appeared on the Indymedia Colombia website on March 30th. (1) The Sunshine Project has confirmed that the letter is authentic, and that its assertion that a senior US Congressman (Henry Hyde of Illinois) is leading a push for Agent Green is correct. In late 2002, another US Congressman (Rep. John Mica of Florida) urged use of Agent Green in Colombia, saying "it would do a lot of damage" (see news release, 17 December 2002). The most recent US activity, however, is more worrying because it involves senior State Department officials and appears to relate to new US technologies that the State Department's letter suggests have been developed since 2001.
Prior Controversy: This is not the first time that Colombia has been pressed to test and use Agent Green. US officials pushed the plan in 2000, when the US Congress imposed a requirement that Bogotá agree to use Agent Green in return for foreign aid. At the time, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, formerly UNDCP) supported the project. But the specter of a biological escalation of Colombia's civil conflict – far and away the bloodiest in the Western Hemisphere - raised strong objections from governments and civil society. Colombia's neighbors were deeply concerned about the environmental, health and social effects of fungus use, and were staunchly opposed. Brazil lodged its opposition with UN Secretary General Annan, and the European Parliament voted 474-1 to condemn the plan.
While Colombian officials delayed formal action on US demands, UNODC came under fire from governments and civil society ggroups and withdrew its support. Agent Green was profiled in an hour-long documentary for BBC Panorama, in which the primarily scientific author of the US plan, a plant pathologist from Montana State University, told the BBC that he knew that Agent Green is biological warfare; but that he endorsed its use in countries where narcotic crops are grown, with or without the consent of foreign governments. The controversy over Agent Green prompted consideration of the issue by the US National Security Council. Thise discussions raised concern that Agent Green would violate US commitments under the Biological Weapons Convention. As a result, in August 2000, then-President Clinton signed a determination waiving the requirement on Colombia to accept Agent Green, citing concerns over biological weapons control and proliferation. With that letter, US pressure on Colombia began to dissolve, and the controversy slowly faded away.
The Bush administration has made no determination (of which the Sunshine Project is aware) that addresses the serious issues raised by the Clinton administration in 2000.
Faulty Reasoning: Based on its research, the Sunshine Project expects the US defense of Agent Green to include some dubious assertions. Specifically, it will be claimed by US officials that by using a Fusarium strain isolated in Colombia (as opposed to a foreign-originating type), that concerns about biological weapons and the environment will be allayed.
The arguments are faulty. According to Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project "From a biological weapons perspective, whether a locally-isolated or a foreign fungus is used is irrelevant. The US has anthrax in Texas, hantavirus in the southwest, and tularemia on Martha's Vineyard (Massachusetts). If a biological agent is tested, formulated, and used for the purpose of causing harm, logically and legally, it no less of a biological weapon because it can be found domestically. The same holds true in Colombia." With respect to health and environmental concerns, Hammond continues, "If the US were to use a 'Colombian' fungus, an approach derisively termed the 'hongo criollo' ('creole fungus') by Colombian NGOs, that has no bearing on its safety. It is blatantly incorrect to equate the health and environmental implications of the natural occurrence of a soil fungus with the dispersal of tons of it from the air."
More Information: Forthcoming publications will further address US efforts to revive Agent Green. Latest news and detailed background information can be found at http://www.sunshine-project.org/agentgreen/.
(1) See: http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/11692.php