Colombia is moving into an experimental phase with a new herbicide, glufosinato de amonio, to fumigate coca crops from the air in Putumayo, using two police aircraft in a push by President Abelardo de la Espriella to bring back aerial spraying after Gustavo Petro had prioritized voluntary substitution of illicit crops.
Who Gets Sprayed
Putumayo, a border department with Ecuador, is where the state wants to test the new chemical. The plan targets coca crops from the air, and the government has already framed it as a "controlled and evaluable" program after the National Council on Narcotics gave it a green light. That language does a lot of work. It turns a coercive campaign into a technical exercise, even as the people living under it are the ones who will absorb the fallout.
The Constitutional Court suspended aerial spraying with glyphosate in 2015 as a precaution over possible health and environmental damage, including a probable cancer risk. De la Espriella first repealed the 2015 resolution that had kept the spraying suspended, but the government still needs an environmental license, consultation with ethnic communities and a favorable opinion from the National Health Institute before any full restart. The machinery of approval keeps grinding. So does the pressure on the ground.
A judge in Putumayo later ordered a temporary suspension until a final ruling on a tutela filed by a foundation alleging violations of fundamental rights. That challenge landed because the state’s plan doesn’t stay abstract for long. It reaches homes, crops, water and bodies.
What People at the Bottom Say
The Association of Peasants of the Southeast of Putumayo said it was very worried because past fumigation with glyphosate damaged soils, human life and animals. It called the decision "nefarious" and said it would condemn communities to an unprecedented economic, social and humanitarian crisis. The association also said the effects of the poison would spread to nearby crops and homes.
That warning comes from people who’ve already lived through the consequences of aerial spraying. They’re not talking about theory. They’re talking about land, food and survival under a policy designed far above them.
María Alejandra Vélez, a professor and researcher at the Center for Security and Drug Studies at the University of the Andes, said aerial fumigation has already been shown not to work as promised. "We have a lot of evidence that supports that this is a cost-ineffective strategy, regardless of the fact that they are now changing the chemical. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 1.7 million hectares were sprayed with glyphosate and we didn't manage to end the problem," Vélez told The Associated Press.
She also warned of "harmful socio-environmental effects," including pushing illicit crops into other areas, contaminating water, increasing violence and causing a "loss of legitimacy of the state in those territories" among peasant growers, whom she called the "weakest link in the chain." That phrase cuts through the official jargon. The weakest link pays first.
What the State Calls Control
Colombia had 261,000 hectares planted with coca in 2024, according to the latest available report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In Putumayo, more than 44,000 hectares of coca are estimated, and thousands of families have joined a program to substitute illicit crops. Even there, the state is choosing aircraft and herbicide over the slower, messier reality of people trying to survive outside the drug economy.
Putumayo also has the presence of illegal groups including dissident factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that did not join the peace accord signed a decade ago, and the National Liberation Army. De la Espriella ended all dialogue tables with illegal groups on Friday, including talks with the Comandos de la Frontera dissident group, which had about 100 members in a temporary location zone while moving toward disarmament.
The presidency said, "Those who express a real willingness to lay down their arms must submit to justice." That’s the language of the apparatus: surrender first, then maybe mercy later, all under the same hierarchy that keeps deciding who gets treated as a problem and who gets to issue orders.
The Anti-Narcotics Police said the experimental phase will restrict areas in Putumayo where specially protected subjects are present, including Afro-descendant communities, environmental protection zones and bodies of water. Putumayo has indigenous reserves, Afro-descendant communities and signatories to the FARC peace accord who remain in the legal fold. The state says it will draw lines on a map. The people below still live inside them.