Pubdate: Tue, 05 Dec 2000
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 2000 Bergen Record Corp.
Contact:  http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/feedback
Website: http://www.bergen.com/

TREE PLANTING SYMBOLIZES ATTEMPT TO HALT COCA CROP

BOGOTA, Colombia - Yanking a coca bush from the ground and planting a
magnolia tree in its place, officials kicked off an ambitious program
to eradicate drug crops in the heart of Colombia's cocaine-producing
region.

During the weekend ceremony in southern Colombia's Putumayo province
- -- home of nearly half the world's cocaine-yielding acreage -- about
700 peasant farmers agreed to destroy their coca plots in return for
government aid to adopt alternative, and legal, livelihoods.

The crop-substitution program is the "soft side" of a U.S.-backed
military push into the region, in which remaining coca fields will be
seized by government troops and destroyed by aerial fumigation.
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