Colombia To Resume Drug Crop Eradication

Just two days after angrily suspending drug-crop eradication over differences with Washington, the government announced Friday it was resuming the program, but without help from the United States.

Justice Minister Carlos Medellin declared that spraying would begin again on Wednesday and that Colombia would try to pay for the eradication on its own, using assets seized from drug traffickers.

Medellin told reporters the government wants “to be 100 percent autonomous in the operation.”

Colombia would be hard-pressed, however, to reach that goal. It lacks the funds to adequately equip the army with enough helicopters to fight a leftist insurgency.