Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jul 2003
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2003 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Kevin G. Hall, Knight Ridder News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Peru (Peru)

AS TRAFFICKING RISES IN PERU, FARMERS WANT LARGER LEGAL MARKET

AGUAYTIA, Peru - Imagine being sent to war by generals who are unable
to agree on the enemy's strength or where to fight.

That's the case in the war on drugs in Peru, where the United States
is spending more than $140 million this year to eradicate coca, the
raw material from which cocaine is made, and to provide alternative
crops to the desperately poor coca farmers known as cocaleros.

How big is the problem? The best guesses differ wildly.

The CIA's Crime and Narcotics Center, relying on satellite images,
estimates that 88,900 acres of coca was grown in Peru last year. The
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, using different methodology, puts the
figure at almost 116,000 acres. Independent researchers suggest the
cultivation is as high as 148,300 acres.

What is clear is that Peru is losing the battle against traffickers.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Peru grows
enough illicit coca to produce 120 to 140 tons of cocaine annually. By
all measures, new plantings are outpacing eradication efforts.

Recent Compromise

Some clarity on Peruvian coca growing may be coming soon. In a late-
April compromise with the cocaleros, embattled President Alejandro
Toledo agreed to launch a study on the supply and demand for the legal
use of coca in the country. That may -- or may not -- help
drug-control efforts.

An estimated 1.4 million Peruvians chew coca leaves regularly and
legally or use them in medicinal teas. The National Coca Co., known by
its Spanish acronym Enaco, buys and distributes coca for their use
under an exclusive arrangement.

Enaco hasn't surveyed Peru's coca market or updated its registry of
authorized farmers since 1978. Cocaleros are hoping the new study will
justify expanding the legal market. They say the legal consumption of
coca is greater than the U.S. and Peruvian governments recognize.

In the context of the larger Andean drug war, things are going badly
in Peru. It was held up as a model in the 1990s, when Washington
credited it with reducing the amount of coca under cultivation by 70
percent. But since 2001, the year Toledo assumed office, Peru has seen
an explosion in coca planting.

A U.S. official in Peru, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
Peru's survey of the legal coca market was welcome if it also helped
to clarify the larger illegal market.

But the Bush administration is wary of any expansion of the legal
market, wanting to hold Peru to its September 2002 pledge of near-
eradication by 2006. Months after making that pledge, Toledo
compromised with the cocaleros, agreeing to give them until 2008 to
switch to alternative crops.

"What we need is for them to sit down with us and forge an
agriculture policy, so that the farmer doesn't need to grow coca.
That's why we are asking for five years of [coca] production," said
Flavio Sanchez, a cocalero leader who was interviewed at a recent
march in his town of Aguaytia. "When we have markets assured, farmers
are ready to produce."

That day may never come, however. While crops such as coffee are
harvested once a year, the hardy coca bush is harvested four times in
the same period. Prices for coffee, a leading alternative crop, are
mired in historical lows and coca is proving a lifeline for poor farmers.

Alternative Crop

In the Aguaytia area, not far from the jungle border with Brazil, the
U.S. Agency for International Development has spent more than $1
million on infrastructure projects and is trying to wean farmers to
another alternative crop, palm oil, which is widely used for cooking.
But it takes roughly two years for the palms to reach productive
maturity, and farmers complain they aren't receiving the promised
installment payments to get them through the transition. U.S.
officials acknowledge delays but say the program is working now.

Enaco declines to discuss the content of its impending survey on the
legal coca market. Enaco President Armandina Aguirre canceled an
interview with Knight Ridder News Service without explanation.

"There is a huge fight over who does it, with what criteria and under
what methodology," offered Hugo Cabieses, a former anti-drug advisor
in Peru.

Cocaleros demand that the study look beyond law enforcement to address
social conditions in the desperately poor coca-growing regions. The
U.S. government, Cabieses said, wants a study that approaches the
matter strictly from a drug-control angle.

"I think it's very important for Peruvians to see what the
traditional consumption is versus the use for drug trafficking,"
Cabieses said. "I think the results will show traditional and ritual
consumption are much more important than we white citizens of Lima
think. It might not be as many acres as the cocaleros want, but not as
few as the U.S. Embassy says."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake