1. Factual background
Under its 1999 ‘Plan Colombia’, the Colombian Government under former President Andrés Pastrana developed a counter-narcotics strategy that focused on the chemical eradication of illegal coca and poppy plantations through the aerial spraying of herbicides.
Aerial fumigations under the ‘Plan Colombia’ officially started in the year 2000. By October that year, sprayings also began along the southern border with Ecuador, in areas that abut the northern Ecuadorian provinces of Carchi and Esmeraldas. Between January and February 2001, sprayings were particularly intense in the border area that abuts the Ecuadorian province of Sucumbíos. According to the facts, as represented in the Ecuadorian application to institute proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), fumigation operations near—and even within—Ecuadorian territory were carried out between October 2000 and January 2007. In the execution of ‘Plan Colombia’, that country was actively supported by the United States. In particular, having been awarded a contract with the US Department of State in January 1998 in order to assist it in its counter-narcotic operations in Colombia, DynaCorp Aerospace Operations, incorporated under the state law of Delaware LLC, carried out the aerial herbicide spraying operations.
Click here for the factsheet (9 pages): FS_047_Dyncorp Case
