On Friday March 9th, Rensselaer County Green Party co-chairperson and local peace activist Karl Breyman will depart to Colombia to observe first-hand the effects of an aggressive U.S. drug control policy. Part of a nationally selected one hundred person Witness for Peace delegation, Breyman, a statewide organizer for Campus Greens USA, will travel to Bogota to meet with government officials and a wide range of experts and activists to hear their analysis of U.S. policy in Colombia.He will then travel to smaller communities in the heart of the conflict zones to meet with a broad cross-section of Colombian civil society. The delegation was organized by the human rights group Witness for Peace (WFP), which resolved to send the observers after the Congress voted to provide $1.3 billion earmarked almost entirely for a large-scale U.S. military intervention in Colombia. Witness for Peace joined with other human rights groups in expressing concern that most of the aid will go to the Colombian army, which has been repeatedly linked to brutal paramilitary groups and accused of serious human rights violations.
"Colombia has endured nearly forty years of brutal armed conflict between the national army, leftist guerrilla movements, and right-wing paramilitary forces. Civilians aren't exempt from the rampant political violence, but instead have been targets of U.S. funded death squads," stated Karl Breyman, a resident of Poestenkill. "Colombia averages one massacre per day, and we can attribute 80% of civilian deaths to paramilitary activity," added Breyman, who was campaign manager for Mark Dunlea for State Assembly in the recent election.
The U.S. aid also funds a massive opium poppy and coca eradication campaign designed to curb illegal drugs at their source. Aircraft are spraying herbicides containing glyphosate, the active ingredient in the well-known weed killer Roundup, over the countryside. While the State Department and pesticide giant Monsanto deny there are adverse health effects from glyphosate, there have been many reports of dizziness, nausea, muscle and join pain, and skin rashes in Colombian communities. Medical reports have also linked exposure to increased risk of miscarriages, premature birth, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In many places the chemical spraying has killed legal crops like yucca and banana trees. "While killing fish, livestock, and contaminating water supplies, there have been accounts of the spray landing on resident's homes and schoolyards," said Breyman. He continued, "Due to the impact of unfettered corporate globalization, small farmers have found it difficult to eke out a living in rural Colombia." The government needs to offer ecologically sustainable economic opportunities as an alternative to growing coca plants. Mr. Breyman plans a speaking tour on college campuses and community forums upon his return.
