Paquita has left 13 comments

Paquita comments on Uribe Detractors

MY POV To ADRIMM
I don’t believe that Uribe’s choices are the good ones. The law Justice and Peace is one example…
I agree to the fact that the US are organizing a complete diversion, the US drugs addicts are not taking cocaine because Colombia is growing coca. The Colombians are growing more and more coca and amapola because the demand is increasing in the States and in Europe.
Last time, when I was high in the Sierra, a farmer invited me for a coffee.
He asked me if I wanted “American Tomatoes”. Then, he showed me a big parcel of marijuana. When I wondered about the name he told me that, in the sixties, gringos came and advised them to grow their brand of tomatoes. They where growing FASTER, BIGGER and make more MONEY After a while, some hippies came to the farm and laughed a lot when they saw those strange tomatoes plants, it was marijuana.
At that time The US army had a great need of marijuana to calm the GI in Vietnam…
Coming back to Uribe:
Uribe needs the AUC to be re-elected.
If he is he AUC would be safer for impunity and maybe avoid extradition, they know Uribe’s directions for use and are extremely powerful, drugs, 5.000.000 hectares of stolen lands, economy, they are racketing everybody, even the poor streets vendors are,
Demobilization process should end December 31st. This is impossible, on top the Colombian government won’t be able to pay a monthly salary to all the demobilized paramilitairies.
There will not be foreign aid if the so-called law “Justice and Peace” stays as it is.
And what about the victims?
In 2006, the US government should impose the extradition of at least 10 tops of AUC leaders.
If Uribe agrees for extradition, politically he is a dead man. The negotiations will be interrupted. Uribe is the best US ally of the US Government, USAID gave 4 billion dollars to Colombia since 2000, 80% of the money is going to military purpose, the official army is deeply involved with the AUC and some US officials have meeting with their leaders..
An inextricable situation…

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Carterpillars... I read the article on carterpillars in the New York Times.
They might love yucca or malanga also...
It is like the little bugs and the fungus, nobody knows.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

environmental and ecological impacts Of course Lionheart you are right about colonisation, I was just talking about the situation today in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
Kogis, Arhuacos, Arsarios and Kankuamos never had poison falling on their heads, they have no more place to escape, if they intensify those fumigations the whole Sierra will be completely destroyed.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

ANSWERS TO JUANCEGOMEZ LAST COMMENT Impossible to compare what is written on ciponline’website and the whitehousedrugpolicy’s website.

For example, on this last one you can read that the US Government gave assistance to 2.000.000 displaced people… Can you believe that?
This site is just the American Government point of vue.

RESULT n°6 :Provide humanitarian assistance to those segments of the population which have been victimized by violence, with special emphasis on the displaced population and the most vulnerable groups.
•
Over 2,000,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been assisted; the number of IDPs requesting assistance has dropped in the past year.
The U.S.-Colombia Initiative-ONDCP FACT SHEET

As I told you a few times, I am talking about the situation in the Sierra. There are more and more killings and kidnappings of Indigenous people and others. Seven Koguis where kidnapped last week, among them, an important leader Pedro Zarabata Pinto. I receive some news from the Sierra at least twice a week.

It is far more dangerous because Spaniards didn’t send gas from the sky, they didn’t contaminate the soils and the waters and they didn’t destroy the biodiversity .

If you read my previous comments, you will discover that I gave already 9 different sources. If you need more:

-Latin American Working Group-Washington
-UNITED NATIONS
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.2 10 November 2004
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Sixty-first session Item 15 of the provisional agenda
INDIGENOUS ISSUES
Human rights and indigenous issues
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen Addendum MISSION TO COLOMBIA*
(24 pages).

If you don’t trust the most importants International ONG, I GIVE UP.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• POEA (surfactante) que produce daño gastrointestinal, alteraciones del Sistema Nervioso Central (SNC), problemas respiratorios, destrucción de los glóbulos rojos, daños al hígado y riñones, corrosivo de ojos y fuertemente irritante de piel. Además es cancerígeno y puede aumentar entre 7 y 22 veces la toxicidad oral aguda del Roundup en humanos respecto a la toxicidad del glifosato en ratas.

• Cosmo Flux 411F (surfactante), sin que se hayan hecho estudios sobre sus posibles efectos, ha sido aprobado su uso en Colombia. No forma parte de la formulación comercial, pero se le añade para aumentar el nivel de acción del herbicida. Se ha demostrado que aumenta en 4 veces el efecto del Roundup al incrementar el poder de penetración del glifosate.
ACCION ECOLOGICA-ECUADOR (2001)

You can use the two spellings, KOGIS or KOGUIS.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Do others outside of Colombia Very few people know the truth about what‘s going on in Colombia.
Between 1999 and 2004, 600.000 hectares where fumigated (more than half size of the state of Rhode Island), 8.500 hectares where eradicated.
In 2004 Dyncorp fumigate more than ever for no result.
The obstinacy of US Government is terrific for Indigenous people and for the biodiversity of Colombia.
All the Indians in the Sierra have the same problems: killings, kidnappings, fumigations, illness and displacement.
The Sierra North’s slope is invaded by very active AUC (paramilitaries), no ceasefire.
The Caribbean coast is a strategic place to grow coca and ship it.
On the Southern slope of the mountain, there are the FARC. From above, the Indians are fumigated.
They are shut up in a terrible trap.
A part of he Kogis escaped from the Spanish invasion, this time it is far more dangerous.
The Kogis never wanted to enter into the money system, they can’t just go and buy food.
Their territory is shrinking, when their crops are dead or contaminated, they are obliged to move to other lands where there is not enough to eat for everybody.
They don’t understand why we are acting like barbarians.
They are lost.
If you want to know more about this useless so-called drugwar, make a Google search: ciponline.org “Plan Colombia and Beyond”. You’ll learn a lot.
To help them, a simple way, forward this story as much as you can.
Thank you.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

What kind of chemical...Davidfounds If you are really interested in Agent Green have a look at the pdf. version of:
www.tni.org/archives/jelsma/viciouscircle-e.htm
There are a lot of pages but it is interesting.
Also, Biological Weapons in the Drug War:
www.sunshine-project.org
Fusarium Oxysporum is biological.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Mr HOLLYWOOD My English is not that good, I tought it was nice to correct me. Don't apologize, please do it again.
Here is an extract of a report by UNITED NATIONS.
I couldn't send the whole report, it has more than 20 pages.

UNITED NATIONS
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.2 10 November 2004

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Sixty-first session Item 15 of the provisional agenda

INDIGENOUS ISSUES
Human rights and indigenous issues
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen Addendum MISSION TO COLOMBIA*

Page 10

On the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an area visited by the Special Rapporteur, the Kankuamo people (3,000 families, 13,000 people and 12 communities), who live inside the “black line” which marks the traditional boundary of their territory, are now in the process of reclaiming their indigenous identity. Their lands have been recognized, but no reserve has yet been established. Guerrilla groups started arriving in the 1980s and AUC set up a base there in the 1990s, with the result that the number of kidnappings and murders escalated to a level far above the rural and regional average, particularly from 1998 onwards. It was then that the massacres of indigenous people, the mass displacements, the blockades and the forced confinement of communities to their villages began. More than 300 families are reportedly still displaced as a result of attacks and threats of various kinds. The accounts given to the Special Rapporteur testified to the continued ethnic cleansing, genocide and ethnocide of the Kankuamo people despite the protective and precautionary measures requested by the Ombudsman and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and several urgent appeals by a number of special mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights.

Page 14

Indigenous organizations described to the Special Rapporteur the adverse effects of indiscriminate spraying, including environmental damage to the topsoil, fauna, flora and water, the destruction of subsistence crops and direct damage to human health, including birth defects. The Special Rapporteur was also told that there are technical and scientific studies to substantiate these assertions. The indigenous peoples see the aerial spraying of coca plantations as yet another violation of their human rights and, save for a few occasions when they have given their consent, actively oppose the practice; this position again brands them as guerrilla sympathizers, as happened after the rights marches organized by certain indigenous communities to protest against the spraying. The Office of the Ombudsman has received 318 complaints concerning spraying operations in three municipalities in Putumayo in July 2002 and their effect on 6,070 families and 5,034 hectares of land.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Mr HOLLYWOOD Thank you for correcting my English. You are right, but I hope that everybody understood.
I did not answer your question because what we do internal in our NGO is confidential.
Very few get compensations but we can still dream.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

JUANCEGOMEZ Agent Green is a mixture of Round Up Ultra, POEA, Cosmo Flux 411F and fusarium oxysporum EN-4.
I’ve asked to a Dr in Molecular Biology if I could use the words chemical and biological, the answer was yes. Even Dr David Sands agrees that we can name it a biological weapon…
I like Colombia very much, I was traveling there since 1975. Of course I am aware off the different problems on environment but not enough to write about them.
As I said, we are a very small NGO, our goal is to help the Kogis, they are, among many others, suffering a lot from the consequences of the fumigations.
We can’t face everything. I know that I am not going to stop the sprayings but maybe some people are going to open their eyes.
The Government of the Netherlands proposed a good program for crop substitution and social development, they might give up.
We did eradication by hand, the result is that La Luna was illegally fumigated and devastated.
Do you really think that all the people fighting against fumigations are just “GREENIES”?
This is a stupid assumption.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

About fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta If you look to my photogallery, you will see the difference between La Luna before and after the fumigations.
In the movie, the images are much more spectacular. If I say I couldn't believe it, it's true.
There is an aerial fumigation base near the airport of Santa Marta, the planes are really easy to recognize.
If you don't have enough time to read the pdf version of the article "Vicious Circle" look at the pictures and you'll understand.
www.tni.org/archives/jelsma/viciouscircle-e.htm
In the US, when they had a few cases of Anthrax, it was called a biologic attack done by terrorists...
If Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, WWF, CIP, UNESCO, Red Cross, etc... are complaining, it's because this problem is really important. You should read their articles and letters on Internet.

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

About fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta First, I never said that Kogis are angels, it would be absolutly stupid.
If the Dyncorp's planes have sophisticated instruments to localise the coca crops as they say, how is it possible that they could not detect a Kogi village and his inhabitants? They are flying too high but not that high.
Yes, we can criticize because we eradicated by hand all the coca crops in La Luna and around not to face those fumigations. The farmers around helped us.
As I wrote, La Luna is an "Indeginous Reserve", a protected aera.
Why did they destroy that wonderful place?
We are a very small NGO and I think we made a great job.
And you, what have you done????

Paquita comments on About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

About Fumigations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta I justed wanted to talk about the Sierra because it is a place I really know.
The fumigations also, unfortunately.
Of course, I have compassion for all the people suffering from that horrible Drugware wherever they are.
I am also really worried about the consequences on biodiversity.
We don'have to forget that we are part of the Nature, if we destroy it, we will destroy ourselves.
If you are really interested in the Drugwar read:
www.tni.org/archives/jelsma/viciouscircle-e.htm

Paquita comments on Let's defend our national parks from chemical warfare...

Fumigations If you are mixing chemicals like Round Up Ultra + Cosmoflux 411-F + the fungus fusarium oxysporum EN-4, Agent Green is becoming a CHIMICAL and BIOLOGICAL WEAPON.
Taken one by one those ingredients are not looking that dangerous.
All together, with high concentrations, much more than the ones recommanded by the manufactures Agent Green is becoming a terrible weapon. You should read the article
www.sunchine-project.org on Biological Weapons in the Drug War and have a look on the webside of the Center for International Policy ciponline.org
It is the best site on Colombia.
If I talk about Nazis it is just because Dyncorp is also using gas.
I guess you know what are the consequences of Agent Orange in Vietnam, they are still there after 45 years.
Philip Johns Griffiths, a great photoreporter who covered the war in Vietnam, made a book on Agent Orange last year. The images are terryfying. He is working with MAGNUM photo agency.