Pubdate: Sat, 30 Mar 2002
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: New York Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/colombia.htm (Colombia)

U.S. EFFORT TO CURB COLOMBIA COCA TAGGED A FAILURE

WASHINGTON -- The State Department has concluded that its strategy to 
persuade peasant farmers in Colombia to replace their coca fields 
with legal crops is failing, administration officials said Friday.

The alternative development strategy, for which Congress has 
allocated more than $50 million, has suffered from a lack of security 
in the coca-growing regions, a lack of follow-up by the Colombian 
government, and the difficulty of finding crops that can thrive in 
areas with poor soil, the officials said.

The United States has invested nearly $2 billion since 2000 to 
support the country's armed forces, fumigate drug crops and provide 
economic options to farmers in Colombia and its neighbors. The U.S. 
ambassador to Colombia, Anne Patterson, ordered a review of the 
program late last year.

"They have concluded that we need to do stuff differently," said a 
senior State Department official. Asked if that meant rethinking the 
entire approach, the official replied, "Absolutely."

The State Department review of the program, which was first reported 
Friday in the Los Angeles Times, concluded that many farmers have no 
intention of destroying their crops. The federal government estimated 
this month that coca cultivation in Colombia surged by nearly 25 
percent last year, to 419,000 acres, despite fumigation, new military 
aid and the crop substitution campaign.

The crop substitution effort has been focused in the southern 
provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta, where about 40,000 peasant growers 
signed an eradication pact in return for government aid.

Under the program, Colombia is to provide seed for alternative crops 
or other immediate aid, and farmers are obliged to eradicate their 
coca fields by July. The U.S. Agency for International Development 
has pledged to provide incentives, training and money for 
infrastructure projects.

The General Accounting Office reported last month that the strategy 
"faces serious obstacles." Among them, it cited a weak Colombian 
development agency with uncertain funding and the lack of a mechanism 
to ensure farmers' compliance.

Mark Schneider, the Clinton administration's former development 
agency chief for Latin America, said the strategy was doomed unless 
the Colombian government can establish a credible presence and 
provide security in a region that is overrun by leftist rebels and 
drug traffickers.

Karen Hasbert, the development agency's deputy assistant 
administrator for Latin America, said it is too early to judge 
whether the alternative development strategy has failed.
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