By Latin America Reports | Created at 2026-09-09 23:27:08 | Updated at 2026-09-10 03:01:10
3 hours ago
Colombia will fumigate coca fields in undisclosed locations as part of a one-week test, marking the expansion of President Abelardo de la Espriella’s quest to aggressively curtail narcotics trafficking.
The pilot program was authorized by an August 18 resolution of the National Narcotics Council, which states that it will be carried out in a “controlled, limited, temporary and evaluable experimental phase.”
If successful, the pilot could be the first step toward the first widescale aerial fumigation in Colombia in more than a decade.
The fumigation is allowed to cover only up to a cumulative 1,000 hectares of land and it will not include the use of the herbicide glyphosate, which is commonly known by the brand name Roundup.
The controversial chemical was used by Colombia to eradicate coca, the plant used to create cocaine, starting in the 1990s but was later banned due to concerns about its environmental and health risks, including links to cancer.
Instead, the pilot program will use glufosinate ammonium, a different herbicide already approved for land eradication efforts that the World Health Organization rates as “moderately dangerous,” compared to the more severe “slightly dangerous” it gives to glyphosate.
Under the resolution, the fumigation can not be carried out in sensitive areas, including Afro-descendent communities, parks, wetlands and population centers. The exact location of the test was not revealed, though Colombian media widely reported speculation Wednesday that it could be done in Putumayo, a state that borders parts of Ecuador and Peru, starting later this month.
Forced eradication of coca plantations is a pillar of de la Espriella’s hard-handed approach to reining in organized crime and drug trafficking in Colombia, key issues that won him popularity in his political ascendancy.
During the campaign, de la Espriella said his administration would use alternatives to glyphosate.
“From the very first day of the administration, Colombia will resume aerial spraying of illicit crops using state-of-the-art bioherbicides, with technologies that pose no risk to human health or the environment,” de la Espriella’s campaign website posted in June.
De la Espriella nevertheless repealed the glyphosate prohibition shortly after taking office in August.
According to United Nations estimates, a record level of about 253,000 hectares of coca was cultivated in 2023 in Colombia, accounting for about 67% of all coca grown in the world.
Widescale aerial fumigation faces strict conditions set by Colombia’s constitutional court, including that the government prove its safety. The new resolution, first obtained and reported by Valora Analitik, states that the “the pilot aims to obtain verifiable scientific evidence on its effectiveness, precision, drift, risks and impacts on health and the environment and the sufficiency of the management measures.”
The Petro government favored incentivizing farmers to substitute their crops instead of forced eradication, which the August 18 resolution noted decreased by 54% between 2023 (20,325 hectares) and 2024 (9,403 hectares). Late in his presidency, however, Petro backed aerial fumigation through the use of unmanned drones.
Though its proposal occurred prior, the revelation of the pilot program came the day after a visit to Colombia by United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Under U.S. President Donald Trump and de la Espriella, the two longtime allies are poised to take a hard-handed approach to issues of security and narcotics trafficking.
