Colombia news

Some excerpts from the Sept. 26 edition of Colombia This Week:

Sunday Sept. 18

The Colombian government plans to spray the country's national parks with herbicide despite protests from environmental groups. Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt said spraying the parks would save them from destruction at the hands of drug smugglers, who damage the environment with chemicals used to make cocaine, such as sulphuric acid: "The government' in a US-funded programme, will damage pristine jungle environments and harm ins duty is not to allow our nature reserves to be wiped out by these ecological criminals," Pretelt told reporters. Environmentalists say spraying with the herbicide glyphosate,digenous peoples. Two-thirds of Colombia's 80,000 hectares of coca leaf was planted in 13 of the country's 51 nature reserves at the end of 2004, according to satellite data from the United Nations, Reuters reports.

Thursday Sept. 22

A UK delegation of students and academics currently in Colombia denounce the tragic death of Jhony Silva Aranguren and the injury and arbitrary detention of students at the University of Valle. As a demonstration of solidarity, students at the Universidad del Valle held a protest against the brutal treatment of the population in the neighbourhood of Candelaria who have been protesting in response to the cut off of water in the area. In the attack, 21-year old student Johny Silvia Aranjuren was shot by police and died on the way to the Valle Hospital where other students gravely injured by police are currently being treated. The delegation demands that those responsible are brought to justice, UK-based Colombia Solidarity Campaign reports.