SOS FOR THE AMAZON.

[Mark Brown]

SOS FOR THE AMAZON.
-from the website : http://www5.gratisweb.com/campesinoingles

Grave threat to the Amazon Ecosystem;
The UnitedStates government has passed a bill to give £1.6 billion in aid to
Columbia.  The majority of this money is to be spent on military hardware
with which the Columbian government will kill its own people. A sizeable
portion will also be spent on hericide that will be sprayed on the Amazon
jungle on the pretext of eradicating the coca crop from which cocaine is
derived.
The ayttached condition of this "aid" package is that the Columbian
government proceed with the use of a fungal herbicide called FUSARIUM or
EN4.  This species of plant eating fungus will be unleashed upon the fragile
Amazon ecosystem in a huge EXPERIMENT with nature!  This is despite warnings
from scientists and ecologists that this fungus could mutate and wreak havoc
in the "lungs of the earth" and furthermore could threaten human health.
The constant fumigations of the coca crops are initiating environmental
changes of unknown proportions and complication both for the present and the
future of the region.
The fumigations have arrived with savagery and ignorance due to the
imperialist pressure of the USA.
Not only is the health of thousands of human beings threatened, thousands of
animals, birds, fish and insects have also been killed.
Fumigations which the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) oblige the puppet
government to carry out and which they carry out without previous study,
without care, without limit and only with the aim of carrying out the orders
of their imperialist masters.
All the ecological organisations of the world appear to ignore this crime
against NATURE and the human rights organisations appear to ignore this
crime against human life.
Important agreements not to fumigate are being violated by the puppet
government of Pastrana.
Important peace agreements are being violated by a government which attacks
the lives of thousands of innocent campesinos (country people) and pueblos (
villages) with weapons and poison.
The USA has important interests in the Colombian Amazon but the pueblo
campesino is a hinderance to its objectives.
What relationship is there between the hidden agendas of the USA and the
systematic murder of campesinos, the contamination and poisoning of the
streams and rivers by the DEA and the creation of groups of assassins by the
USA?
Horses, cows, chickens and dogs etc. ill and dead due to the fumigation. The
innocent population suffering from stomach aches, strange digestion, fever,
diarria etc. It can't be a coincidence that after these fumigations
epedemics of upset stomachs and eye infections have affected many people in
the areas of fumigation.
It is well known that the fumigations are done from a considerable height so
that the bullets of those who defend their rights to life don't reach the
planes - a right on which they say the government has closed all doors. This
makes it very difficult, infact, IMPOSSIBLE to aim with precission at the
targets of the poison and the wind disperses it in the air, spreading it
very far, not only to the innocent villages of Caqueta but also to villages
in neighbouring departments.
These are only the effects which we can see to be immediately obvious:
Wild birds dead, thousands of fishes floating in the rivers, tanks and
lakes, other fishes with attacks of strange fungi which make them ill and
finally kill them. We have found both wild birds and chickens dead. From
examining and comparing their symptoms we have found a green colour on the
bone joints in some cases and in other cases we have found the meat to be
turning blue. We have also seen that the intestines are full of a sickening
white milky substance.
Cows and horses are weakened until they die, others have strange swellings
and lose all their energy. Many of these animals have died from these
strange illnesses which no-one has seen before.
We don't know what sort of protection the intelligent doctors and
consultants are able to offer against this crime against Mother Earth. The
truth is that in these marginal zones there are no authorities on health and
environmental hygene who can be relied upon to give clear conclusions as to
the environmental, biological, ecological and final SOCIAL IMPACT of these
"solutions" which the gringos are carrying out. We can't, therefore, say
with any accuracy what way this chemical war in the Colombian Amazon will
finish.
We are campesinos who know that the right to education is refused for lack
of
resources because all the resources are destined for this crazy war
organised by the USA.
We give witness to what is happening because we live at the scene of the
tragedy and we describe with horror and pain the agents of this holocaust
and their actions. This is very different to making a "blind" description
from an office or in an article for one of the magazines owned by the
animals who are against nature.
No-one defends the human rights.
No-one defends the environment.
No scientists of the subject have instigated, announced or made any study
with respect to the short and long term effects of these fumigations on the
Amazon jungles that are the lungs of the world.
Grave environmental changes, malign particles and elements floating in the
air which carry the bitter feelings of the USA.
Genetic changes and molecular mutations in the enzymes of the plants, trees
and herbs etc.
Everything breathes the stench of death from the poisons which are the
prefered aroma of Clinton, Janet Reno and the anti-drug Tsar Barry MaCafrey.
The perfect trinity for the perfect crime.
We campesinos of today address the liberation of the Truth and with
sincerity are making a big crusade in defence of the Amazon, the green
heritage of the world, because the representatives of this; the different
organisations and institutions appear to obtain their wages for remaining
passively and lazily on their comfortable sofas in front of the TV or
watching football.
We ask the whole world, the people of valour and consciousness, to put
themselves in our situation and understand that we don't have the authority
to make a scientific study of these things - we don't have the money or
technology to do it because death and poverty is the legacy for us at the
end of this millennium.
We call for the human sensitivity which distinguishes us from the beasts,
for the whole world and its good men to unite and take action in defence of
the Amazon.
The pueblo campesino of Colombia has been denied all possiblity of
participation in the politics of the nation and is only able to feel,
intuit, cry out and spread the word about the actions of the "civilized"
beasts whose leader, the USA, is the tyrannical director of the new world
order.
The saddest of all this is that because of the lack of public services and
environmental and public health organisations etc. meat from ill and
contaminated animals has to be sold by campesinos as quickly as possible so
that they don't lose the little money to which they have access.
Projects for the provision of replacements for illegal crops have been a
farce. The organistion in San Jose which is responsible for this has stolen
money and work from the campesinos and in areas around Curillo and Solita
rubber and other crops, which they claim to be replacements for coca, have
been fumigated.
The USA has criticised the partial withdrawal of the military from the zones
of conflict for ends of peace because they say that this will allow these
areas to become a "Paradise of drug traffiking". We don't have a paradise
but we do have an inferno of blood, hunger, illness and contamination, all
of which is occuring, paradoxically, in the middle of real nature.
What does it serve if the replacements for illegal crops are fumigated ?
Hunger is the best way to subdue the pueblos and the imperialists of the USA
know this.
The government has not yet begun making an investigation to certify the
cause of these disturbances and their relationship to the fumigation, they
only plan ways of hiding, deflecting and falsifying the truth and for this
they can count on the support of the media which has always collaborated in
the falsification of information.
The ecological organisations of Colombia are managed by the imperialist
machine; by bribery, corruption and inexpert people without proffesional
knowledge. The ecologists of Colombia are not worried about ecology. The
Ministry of the Environment is a ministry managed for political gain, a
ministry which knows all about corruption but knows nothing about protection
of the flora, fauna and the colonists or Indians who are an integral part of
the Amazonian environment.
The function of the Ministry for the Environment, un to now managed by
people ignorant of the subject, only seems to be to prohibit the trading of
timber by the campesinos who tade in it in order to escape the problem of
coca cultivation. The government, however, hasn't to date, given ANY
solution other than the continuous massacres and violations of the
constitutional rights of the campesinos, colonists and indians.
But due to the fact that the Ministry of the Environment is ignorant of the
subject they ignore the fact that this measure to stop the cutting of timber
only promotes the cultivation of coca therefore favouring the violence and
contamination of the war against the Amazon.
The campesinos, colonists and indians of the pueblos know about ecology.
They know that in one hectare of jungle it is possible to find ten or so
trees which can be sold as timber and therefore pay for their subsistence.
this does not damage the overall integrity of the jungle and the damage is
easily repairable by nature. Neither does such activity badly affect other
species or kingdoms. If it is prohibited to cut timber the campesinos will
be virtually obliged to cut down not only one but up to ten hectares of
jungle to plant coca, yucca, plantain, maize or rice and this proportionally
a thousand times worse. What's more, later there will be more air attacks on
the new coca and food crops by the DEA and so the brutal cycle of
extermination of the Amazon, as promoted by the USA, will continue.
At this moment we can see the immediate effects; wild flora and fauna dead
or in agony and HUMAN beings ill, in pain and dead.

We know only for the experience of Vietnam and other places of the
destruction brought by the chemical war led by the USA. But now we know
little about the new gringo experiment which they try on us, we know little
of the long term results for the flora, fauna, the surrounding environment
and the cycles of rain, wind and evaporation.
However, this is only to speak of the level of ecological impact. Who
guarantees us that there will be no social impact with the increase in
violence and the massacre of innocents by the government for the reason that
the pueblos want peace and respect for their RIGHTS.
SOS for the Amazon.
The church has been an accomplice in all of these crimes and has blessed the
arms of the murderers of the villagers who are only demanding their right to
a just life.
Other religions manage to camoflage and ignore the reality saying that it is
only necessary to have faith, leaving the tyrants to act against us and not
offering any resistance nor working for justice and the good of the
community in general.
After the most recent fumigations of this first quarter of 1999 the pueblo
campesino of the areas of Savaleta, Fraguita, Yurayaco etc remained in
poverty because they damaged all the food crops, contaminated the water and
poisoned the fish etc. To round it all off on 6.3.99 they (the government)
sent a group of paramilitaries to kill campesinos, rob the village shops and
leave the dead lying in the streets.
Is this the peaceful solution of the directors of the world government, the
USA?
Does anyone say anything about this?
All are cowardly accomplices in this hidden crime.
The farcical news announcements said that the massacre of the campesinos was
due to confrontations between the guerillas and the paramilitaries but this
is false. Witnesses and survivors said that there was no confrontation with
any guerillas. The defenceless campesinos were killed brutally by the
paramilitaries.
The pools of blood in the streets gave testimony to the slaughter. The
looting and robbing were directed from the air by army helicopters which
patrol the area daily.The paramilitaries had radio communication with the
military and fled under their protection.
These are the conclusions we make from this bloody episode in the face of
which no-one says a thing. However the government and the hypocritical
journalists have spoken of and stood up against the killing of three
Americans on the border with Venezuela. What has happened that three
Americans are more important than hundreds of campesinos massacred in
Colombia by order of the USA? Open your eyes, react.
This is a part of the social impact caused by the USA in our country. If in
Putamayo and Caqueta the paramilitaries massacre campesinos and torture
children of all ages then everyone begins to see the chaos and confusion of
the cities ; unemployment, crime and insecurity leading to the creation of
new groups of young delinquents which is as much due to the police who
attack the pueblos as due to the efforts of the pueblos to defend
themselves.
The recent earthquake in Armenia was a punishment from mother nature for the
indifference and lack of solidarity between the Colombian people. Nature is
accelerating the revolution which is coming because the tyrant is ignorant
and doesn't want to give of itself for peace, it only wants to conquer more
each day and has now conquered the pueblo campesino.
The poor and badly hit people of Armenia saw and felt with horror and
insecurity the pain, the tears and the anguish; the desperation of hunger,
looting and many things more. The town of Armenia saw how the police shot at
the hungry and killed innocents whose only crime was that they were affected
by the earthquake.
The people of the markets saw how the government sent anti-guerilla troops
to the areas affected by the quake to repress the poor misfortunate people
with hate, arrogance, pride and high-handedness. And the aim of the contras
was to give to those who suffered the misfortune! The people of Armenia
suffered more than anyone from the earthquake yet there are 800.000 of us
and they sweep us aside like rubbish in the streets.
Wake up pueblo, open your eyes because if you don't nature will do so with
great force.
Armenia is an example and there may be another at any time and in any place.

CAMPESINOS OF COLOMBIA.
IMPORTANT: We are collecting messages of support for this campaign against
fumigation which will in due course be presented along with a petition to
the US and Colombian governments via their embassies in London. Please send
your messages to:Campesinoingles at latinmail.com