Colombia's plan to resume aerial spraying of coca crops has run into opposition from both inside and outside the country. Nineteen members of the US Congress, led by Democratic Representative Mark Pocan, have written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking Washington not to provide any financial or logistical backing for the programme. Signatories include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal, James McGovern and Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia.
The Colombian government, under President Abelardo de la Espriella, has already repealed the resolution that banned aerial spraying and is preparing a pilot scheme to test ammonium glufosinate from the air on 1,000 hectares in Putumayo, a southern department deep in the Amazon foothills. The push follows a steep drop in manual eradication — down 54% between 2023 and 2024, from 20,325 to 9,403 hectares — while coca cultivation hit a record 261,000 hectares in 2024, according to the UN's SIMCI monitoring report.
The lawmakers argue spraying simply doesn't work long-term and carries real risks for people and ecosystems. They note Colombia suspended glyphosate spraying in 2015 after the WHO's cancer research agency classified it as probably carcinogenic, and point out that ammonium glufosinate lost its EU authorisation in 2018. They also warn that previous operations hit rural farming, Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities hardest.
Legal hurdles remain. Colombia's Constitutional Court has set strict conditions for any resumption: scientific evidence on health and environmental effects, consultation with affected communities, and spraying only as a last resort. The environmental regulator ANLA still has to issue a management plan, and in September a court in Mocoa, Putumayo, temporarily suspended the pilot, saying those conditions weren't yet demonstrably met. The government has appealed.
The letter also criticises the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID, whose programmes in the Colombian Amazon funded sustainable agroforestry, ecotourism and environmental crime prevention as alternatives to coca. Around US$25 million earmarked for Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities was cancelled. The lawmakers have asked Rubio to answer four questions about US involvement by November 13, including whether the State Department pushed for the programme's restart.
For travellers, this matters beyond the headlines. Putumayo and the wider Colombian Amazon are emerging destinations for jungle lodges, river trips and community-based ecotourism — exactly the kind of projects USAID was funding. The health of these ecosystems, and the communities who host visitors, is tied directly to how coca eradication is carried out. Anyone planning a trip to southern Colombia should watch how this debate unfolds, as it will shape both the environment and the local tourism economy for years.
