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U.S. Surrenders In Colombia Drug War, Cuts $4 Billion In Funding
(Associated Press, 12 October 2006)
A $4 billion effort to wean Colombian farmers off the cocaine trade through military might and U.S. aid is quietly being cut back in a region where cocaine production is surging. . . . In an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press, the U.S. Agency for International Development blames unacceptable security risks for its workers and a lack of private investment partners for its pullout from the Caqueta region, a former rebel stronghold in impoverished southern Colombia. . . . After six years and the expenditure of more than $4 billion, Plan Colombia, which began in Caqueta, Colombia's army is still fighting rebels in the region and coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, is still the region's main cash crop. . . . Development programs meant to provide farmers with profitable alternatives to growing coca are vanishing in Caqueta, a symptom, critics say, of Plan Colombia's failure to persuade enough coca growers to switch to legal crops. Meanwhile, coca production is higher than it has been in years. . . . "It's a complete contradiction of Plan Colombia," said Luis Fernando Almario, a congressman from Caqueta who supports President Alvaro Uribe's aerial eradication drive. "Instead of investing generously to eliminate dependency on the illegal drug trade, we're being shunned." . . . An Agency for International Development official at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota said resources from Caqueta would be channeled to other areas with a greater likelihood of sustaining long-term development. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly on the issue. . . . Critics say that by writing off southern Colombia, the U.S. and Colombian governments are leaving the region with few alternatives to coca. . . . About 400 coca farmers gathered here recently for a conference. In sweltering heat, typically tight-lipped peasants railed for hours against the lack of government aid while a U.S.-supplied crop duster dumped clouds of the herbicide glyphosate on nearby fields. . . . Since June, when the latest round of spraying began, six peasants in the area have been arrested on charges of having coca on their land. . . . "All the government ever does is fumigate and fumigate. It's their own fault we grow coca because they never show their face to offer alternatives," said Juan Carlos Mazabel, one of the organizers. . . . Instead of more spraying, Caqueta's 450,000 residents want financial support, their representatives say.

posted by LoZo 7:58 PM