First modification:
The Colombian Constitutional Court made public its decision to overthrow the government’s new attempt to resume aerial spraying of illicit crops with the herbicide glyphosate, a practice that has been prohibited since 2015. The Court also reaffirmed the need to consult the affected communities in advance.
The Government of Iván Duque in Colombia suffers a new judicial setback. This Wednesday, the Colombian Constitutional Court made public its decision to overthrow the Executive’s attempt to resume aerial spraying of illicit crops (coca leaf and cannabis) with the herbicide glyphosate. The decision had been made in November, but was not published until January 19.
The Court recognized “the fundamental rights to due process, participation, prior consultation and access to information of the plaintiffs” before the possible return of a practice that was eradicated in 2015. At that time, the World Organization for Health (WHO) alleged that glyphosate is carcinogenic to humans and harmful to the environment.
Thus, the Government of Juan Manuel Santos gave the order to stop spraying with the aforementioned herbicide. With the new ruling, the argument of the National Police and the Ministry of the Interior, which claimed that the land that would be affected by the fumigation did not belong to indigenous communities, which in many cases see coca as a plant, is also overthrown. sacred.
The National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) had given the green light to the project. According to the Court, “The ANLA could not make a decision about modifying the plan without first consulting all the ethnic communities likely to be affected by the spraying.” The three estates now have a period of one year to open a consultation with the Afro-descendant and indigenous communities that would be affected.
Long fight to keep the glyphosate ban standing
From the moment crop spraying with glyphosate was stopped, there have been various processes to try to reactivate it. The decision of the Constitutional Court confirms a sentence of the Nariño Administrative Court of July 10, 2020 that granted “the protection of fundamental rights to prior consultation.”
Previously, in 2017, the high court had suspended aerial fumigation, although it left open the possibility of reauthorizing it if the government complied with six environmental requirements that were recorded in the ruling.
Guillermo Rivera, former Minister of the Interior with Juan Manuel Santos, welcomed the ruling on his Twitter profile.
“I applaud the Constitutional Court that annulled the environmental management plan for glyphosate. This is a discussion that we should overcome because health and the environment are at stake. We should unite around rural development that provides alternatives to peasants” , he claimed.
Spraying with glyphosate also goes against the principle of voluntary substitution of illegal crops signed in the Peace Agreements between the Government and the extinct FARC guerrilla in 2016.
With EFE and local media
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