Pubdate: Fri, 24 Mar 2006
Source: Belfast Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/42
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Colombia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

$75M BOUNTY ON COLOMBIAN REBELS IN US WAR ON DRUGS

The United States has launched a fresh offensive in its Latin American
war on drugs by putting a $75m (UKP 43m) bounty on the heads of 50
alleged leaders of the Colombian rebel group they accuse of running
half of the world's cocaine trade.

Announcing the move against a group whom Washington calls
"narco-terrorists", the US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, said it
was "the largest drug trafficking indictment in US history".

The announcement raised the prospect of US troops being sent into
Colombia to pursue the rebels, a move that Mr Gonzales refused to rule
out, although he insisted that there were other "effective options".

The Justice Department claimed that from its stronghold in the
mountainous jungles of Colombia, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia (Farc) now accounted for 60 per cent of the cocaine smuggled
into the US, worth over $25bn (UKP 14.4bn), and 50 per cent reaching
world markets.

Washington said Farc was also responsible for kidnapping, torturing
and murdering farm workers who refused to co-operate.

The indictment comes as Colombia's centre-right President, Alvaro
Uribe, seeks a second term - an ambition that he had to change the
constitution in order to pursue. Mr Uribe is in effect the last of
Washington's allies in the southern hemisphere, after a series of
elections have swept left-wing politicians to power, from Hugo Chavez
in Venezuela to Evo Morales in Bolivia.

The US is facing widespread opposition to its regional trade deals,
and a Bolivian government that campaigned on the platform of
legalising coca production.

The US invests an estimated $1bn across the region annually to combat
the narcotics trade, much of which has been spent on military budgets
and the eradication of coca leaves, the raw material for producing
cocaine.

Any increase in the US military presence in Colombia could see Bogota
further isolated from its neighbouring countries.

Of the 50 individuals charged by the indictment, 47 are currently at
large. The US will seek the extradition of the three other Farc
leaders who are already in custody. They are identified as Jorge
Mendieta, Erminso Cabrera, and Juan Jose Martinez Vega.

This may improve the likelihood that the US Congress will extend
funding for "Plan Colombia". This initiative, launched during the
Clinton administration by the former Colombian president Andres
Pastrana, calls for billions of dollars to eradicate Colombia's drug
trade. It includes substantial US aid for the Colombian military.

But its effectiveness has been widely questioned. UN figures last year
showed that coca production in the Andes region rose 3 per cent in
2004, suggesting that any decline in Colombia was more than made up
for by increases in cultivation in Peru and Bolivia. Moreover, there
has been scant change in either quantity or quality of the cocaine
available in the US.

The Justice Department says that since the 1990s, Farc has switched
from taxing cocaine producers in regions it controlled, to taking over
production itself. It now sets prices for cocaine paste and runs
jungle laboratories where the finished cocaine is produced and shipped
to the US and other countries.

The 50 leaders, the indictment claims, collected millions of dollars
in proceeds, using the money to buy arms to sustain its military
campaign against the Colombian government.

Farmers who violated Farc rules were allegedly shot, stabbed or
dismembered alive. Farc leaders also told their members to shoot down
US planes spraying suspected coca crops with herbicides.

That fumigation policy is also controversial. Critics say that it also
destroys legal crops.

President Uribe is riding high in the opinion polls ahead of May
elections, largely on the back of a tough stance against Farc that has
seen a significant decrease in the kidnap and murder rates, and
improved security along the country's once notorious main roads.

However, Mr Uribe maintains a tight control over media outlets and
uses a weekly television address to cultivate his image as an
incorruptible leader.

The President's attempts to deal with right-wing paramilitary groups,
who were previously deployed as a weapon against the Farc rebels, have
been widely criticised by human rights groups. His controversial
Justice and Peace law, aimed officially at demobilising the
paramilitaries, has seen thousands of fighters escape prosecution over
human rights abuses, and sparked fears that they have shifted to
criminal activities instead.

Mr Uribe has so far resisted US attempts to extradite right-wing
paramilitary members, who, like Farc, Washington accuses of
participation in drug trafficking into the US.

[Sidebar]

THE ANTI-DRUGS CAMPAIGN

* The US has been engaged in international anti-drugs campaigns for
more than a hundred years, following a deal signed in 1880 with China
forbidding the shipment of opium between the two countries. Nixon
coined the phrase "War on Drugs" in 1971, and the vast majority of
federal time and money is now spent combating the drug trade in Latin
and South America.

* Colombia isseen as the epicentre of today's war, as rebel groups
supply most of the cocaine used in America. The US has funded coca
eradication through private contractors, and helped train the
Colombian armed forces to eradicate coca and fight guerrilla
organisations.

* Critics say the war is unwinnable because of a lack of alternative
crop options for poverty-stricken Latin American farmers, and
America's appetite for cocaine. Rights groups accuse the Colombian
government of atrocities in rebel areas.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake