A New WOLA Report on the Failure of Anti-Drug Fumigation in Colombia

Aerial spraying, or fumigation, has been a central part of U.S. drug control policy in Colombia for nearly a decade. The new report, "Chemical Reactions," shows that after fumigation of more than 2 million acres of the Colombian countryside, coca cultivation and cocaine output remain undiminished. The dispersal of coca and cocaine production is exacerbating threats to biological diversity in Colombia, one of the most ecologically rich countries on the planet.

"Fumigation is part of the problem," the report says. "The aerial spray operations tend to reinforce rather than weaken Colombian farmers' reliance on coca growing, prompting more rather than less replanting, thereby contributing to coca's spread into new areas of the country."

U.S. aid to Colombia has totaled more than $5 billion since 2000. As fumigation intensified with an infusion of U.S. funds, officials portrayed the spraying as not merely innocuous to human health and the environment, but as environmentally beneficial because it would inhibit the loss of forests to coca crops. On the contrary, the WOLA report shows that:

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