Talk:Herbicide spraying in Belize
Discussion page of Herbicide spraying in Belize
More actions
Talk
Discussion for: Herbicide spraying in Belize • View • Links • Related changes
Use this page for verification notes, disputes, and action items. Keep narrative content on the article.
Page scope
Herbicide spraying in Belize treats the aerial spraying of marijuana in Belize from October 1983 to the end of the 1980s: the Mexican paraquat spraying of 1983, the pause of 1984–1985 and the regular programme assisted by the United States from 1987, with what the sources say about its effects on growers and the trade.
Data verification
Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.
Discussion
Sources
- The Belize newspaper reports of October 1983 (The Reporter, Amandala, the Belize Sunday Times, the Toledo Star) and of September–October 1985 (The Reporter, the Belize Times) were read in the United States government's Joint Publications Research Service transcripts, Latin America Report No. 2770 (JPRS 84872, 2 December 1983, pp. 34–36) and JPRS-LAM-85-098 (26 November 1985, pp. 53–54), in Internet Archive full-text copies. The newspapers themselves were not seen.
- The State Department testimony of October 1983 was read in the House select committee's hearing volume (pp. 18–19, oral; p. 111, written summary), in an Internet Archive full-text copy.
- The NNICC reports for 1985–1986 (p. 19) and 1989 (p. 70) and the INCSR of March 1988 (pp. 20, 26, 28, 35) were read in NCJRS scans; United Press International (2 May 1991) on upi.com.
Where the sources disagree or are thin
- Amandala (7 October 1983) relayed a source's claim of 30 Mexican helicopters; The Reporter (9 October) names two, and Amandala itself (21 October) four spraying daily. The article gives The Reporters two hired helicopters and Amandalas later four.
- The Reporter wrote that paraquat is "known also as Agent Orange"; that is wrong (Agent Orange was a mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T) and is not repeated.
- American money in 1983: the Toledo Star claimed it; the State Department's testimony speaks of Mexican aircraft and pilots and of US readiness to support paraquat use. The article gives the newspaper's claim as the newspaper's.
- The herbicide sprayed from October 1985 is not named in the sources read. In September 1985 the government said it was looking at "Glythosat" (presumably glyphosate), but no source read confirms which herbicide was then used, so the article does not name it.
Not used
- A UPI report of 9 April 1985 relays DEA agents' allegation that a cabinet minister recommended halting the eradication programme in 1983, in the context of a criminal case; an allegation about a named individual, not used.
- The Reporter's statement that the 1983 spraying was the government's "second offensive" is quoted; the first offensive is not described in the sources read.