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| Aid Didn't Cut Coca Farming, U.S. Says |
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Posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 08:24:13 PT By T. Christian Miller Source: Seattle Times 
State Department officials have concluded that an alternative-development plan aimed at slashing drug crops has failed, a decision that raises doubts about the U.S.-backed effort to eradicate the primary source of narcotics on America's streets. Farmers in southern Colombia who signed voluntary agreements to eliminate coca, the source of cocaine, in exchange for aid have eliminated little or none of their harvest and have no intention of doing so before a deadline later this year, according to a confidential State Department report. As a result, U.S. Embassy officials have decided to abandon a plan to encourage the substitution of other crops and products for coca. Instead, they will concentrate on building large infrastructure projects to provide jobs, and improve living conditions and transportation. And they will rely on a controversial aerial fumigation program to show farmers, mostly rural poor with small plots of land, that their coca will be wiped out if they do not stop growing it. "There's nothing that we can offer the farmers as an alternative that comes near the value of coca," said Ken Ellis, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Colombia. The U.S. decision represents a radical new direction in the alternative-development program, long touted as the only way to ensure a permanent reduction in the coca crops that fill valleys and riverbanks throughout southern Colombia, which is the source of most of the cocaine that reaches the United States. Experts on alternative development and peasant farming say the changes spell disaster. Small-scale farmers, who often plant coca alongside traditional crops like corn, will face food shortages if spraying becomes the primary tool to encourage eradication and kills their food crops as well. And they say that many of the farmers, who migrated to isolated southern Colombia in search of work, will simply move to other areas to grow coca if they are not taught how to raise other crops. "You can spray all you want, you can spend all the money in Europe and the United States, but the problem of coca will continue," said Jesus Bastidas, the director of an alternative-development program here in this crowded state capital. Colombian government officials acknowledge that the alternative-development program has failed to produce results. But they say more time and money are needed. Only 96 of Colombia's 222 coca-growing counties have programs in place. "We need permanent support," said Maria Ines Restrepo, the head of Colombia's alternative-development program. "Our conflict is not going to end without social investment." There are few problems more stubborn in the fight against drugs than what to do about the 100,000 or so small coca farmers in Colombia, a dilemma involving social, political and economic issues intertwined with Colombia's nearly 40-year-old guerrilla war. Most of the farmers moved to isolated corners of Colombia in the 1970s and '80s in search of jobs or land. Once there, they grew traditional crops on small, 5-acre plots along with coca. They were helped by narcotics traffickers and leftist guerrillas, who provided seeds, loans and technical advice. Although estimates vary, such farmers account for at least 15 percent of the coca grown in Colombia, which last year had about 321,000 acres of coca, according to a State Department report. The rest is grown on huge plantations. Experts say that wiping out the coca through fumigation would simply lead to widespread displacement, food shortages and environmental damage, as farmers push deeper into Colombia's rain forest. That's why Plan Colombia, the $1.3 billion U.S.-backed effort to halve drug production here by 2005, included a budget of more than $100 million for alternative development. The idea was to wean farmers off coca by providing new sources of income through alternative crops or jobs in industries such as rubber production. Source: Seattle Times (WA) Related Articles & Web Site: Colombia Drug War News Witness: Drug War Spraying Colombia To Death Activist Speaks Against U.S. Policy in Colombia Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #17 posted by DdC on March 29, 2002 at 22:18:33 PT |
| Or Novocaine, Latocaine and Protocaine or the Opium Poppies for Codine and Percodine and Morphine? Whomever it is could also supply the war drugs to Clinics and eliminate the D.E.A.th's statistics... and profits, property and taxes on the misery of WoD... Not prudent at this juncture! Peace, Love and Liberty or D.E.A.th! DdC Ingredients Korry, who served Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, told how US companies, from cola to copper, using the CIA as an international debt collection agency and investment security force. Indeed, the October 1970 plot against Chile's President-elect Salvador Allende, using CIA 'sub-machine guns and ammo', was the direct result of a plea for action a month earlier by Donald Kendall, chairman of PepsiCo, in two telephone calls to the company's former lawyer, President Richard Nixon. Donations/% To Republicans A Marxist threat to cola sales? Pepsi demands a US coup. Pepsico in McSpotlight Chemical Manipulation of Consciousness In the time it takes you to read this sentence, another 100,000 people worldwide will reach for a Coca-Cola soft drink. carbonated beverage, Carbon Emmissions Enjoy Coke Climate Change Coke Spotlight AsacondA [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #16 posted by dddd on March 29, 2002 at 14:37:53 PT |
| ..he has trained me to be as obedient as I expect him to be......I'm his master,,but he aint no slave.
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Comment #15 posted by freddybigbee on March 29, 2002 at 13:20:19 PT:
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| I read recently of a case where a high-school kid was suspended because a dog said it smelled marijuana on his coat. He was searched, his locker was searched; no drugs. But since the dog said he smelled marijuana (apparently it was a talking dog), his opinion trumps all other evidence, and the kid is suspended. The moral of this story is that dog's are smarter than people. When there is a difference of opinion between a suspected druggie and a dog, the dog takes precedence. I think the Supreme Court is working on a case now that will establish once and for all that a dog's opinion trumps a man's. Dogs stupid? They may be on the Supreme court before long. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #14 posted by kaptinemo on March 29, 2002 at 13:07:26 PT:
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| One of my Canadian friends has gently chided me for being 'intense' at times, and on this subject I plead guilty... Many thanks for your well-wishing for a nice holiday weekend, and hope that all the far-flung members of our CNews 'family' enjoy the same! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #13 posted by dddd on March 29, 2002 at 13:02:16 PT |
| ....he told me that he couldn't talk.......he told me this with his mind!...I am not sure whether dogs have minds or not...he may be trying to fake me out......but...unless I am mistaken,,,I think he said that the future looks rather bleak so dont mess around being bummed out or unhappy because that may cause you to forget to give me more dog food"..........I dont know FoM,,,,,his mind may have been influenced by dog food,,and I may have mis-interpreted his message.....of course,,,keep in mind that he might be kinda stupid,,they take after their masters...dddd [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #12 posted by kaptinemo on March 29, 2002 at 12:59:41 PT:
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| If you are like me, you are surrounded by well-meaning but essentially ignorant people. I don't mean ignorant in the mean-and-nasty brutish way. Just unaware of the extent that their lives are curtailled...and controlled...by those who have ulterior motives having nothing to do with their welfare. America's infrastructure is crumbling. Has been for two decades. In one area where I lived, a bridge I drove under every day for years to get to work collapsed on some hapless motorists, killing two of them. No warning, just crunch! and two people dead. Unnecessarily. Beacuse the bridge had been known to be marginally unsafe; it was slated for repair...as soon as the money came in. But what's even more troubling: America has next to no support programs for the crumbling social infrastructure. I am proud to be a Libertarian. But I am no wide-eyed idealist. I've been down ,way down, put on the bottom of the economic ladder thanks to the DrugWarriors. I'd be dead if it hadn't been for the support of friends and family. Imagine what happens to people unlucky enough to have neither? I am painfully aware that there must be some sort of saftey net. And right now, in hard times, that net is needed more than ever. Whenever I am asked why I feel so passionately about this issue, I always try to couch things in terms they have intimate knowledge of...like money. I ask them how much money they think the United States has spent in attempting to interdict drugs. The number is invariably laughably conservative. When I tell 'em that it's in the neighborhood of 200 - 500 BILLION dollars over the last 20 years, their eyes glaze over; they simply cannot comprehend a sum so enormous. So I break it down even further. I explain that for that 200-500 Billion, there could have been brand new schools, elder care and hospice facilities, roads, community centers, hospitals, and cheap transit systems that could have freed our highways (originally meant for national defense) from being choked with cars, medical care for those most needy, every kid could have had a college education...and best of all, no hunger anywhere in America. Anywhere. Couched in those terms, antis have little to counter with, particularly when you point out what hasn't been done with the money extorted from us through taxation. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 12:33:18 PT |
| dddd that's my answer! Hope you are feeling chipper these days and let us know how your dog is reading things. I know that sounds funny but animals and plants have sensitivities that humans need to observe more frequently in my opinion. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by dddd on March 29, 2002 at 12:19:23 PT |
| ...right on FoM....I think hate is bad hoo-doo......I guess the opposite of hate would be something...?....dddd [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 12:03:34 PT |
| I have a real problem. I care about all people not just me and my family and people in the USA. I don't hate people but I do hate certain things. I hate seeing a family hungry or cold or sick with no one to help them even to ease the pain. I love the earth and the birds and oceans and all the wonder of this marvelous planet. I want everyone in every country to have a chance to live in peace and with their own beliefs and traditions. If someone grows a crop that is prohibited and the money they make puts food in their hungry children's stomachs then I don't blame them but blame the inflated price that prohibition creates. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by dddd on March 29, 2002 at 11:55:38 PT |
| ...just got off the fone with 4q..he gave me your nice message..Thank you.
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| Comment #7 posted by Dark Star on March 29, 2002 at 11:21:37 PT |
| Isn't that special. Isn't that convenient. The Feds admit that they cannot pay the campesinos enough dinero to break them of the coca-growing habit. Whose fault is that? Could we blame prohibition? If cocaine were legal and regulated, other types of employment might be more logical to Juan Valdez. Now the Feds seem to provide themselves no alternative to chemical warfare to kill the drug crops, and a lot of other living things along with it. Seems like a war crime to me. Too bad that our government is now withdrawing recognition of a court beyond our borders. Our neighbors on this planet and the judgment of history will be harsh for these transgressions. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on March 29, 2002 at 10:36:39 PT:
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| We Americans can bitch all we want, but materially we have it over the rest of the world. There are countries where homeless little kids are hunted like animals...because they bothered tourists for money...because they were effin' starving. Most Americans have rarely gone without a day or two of food, and think they know what hunger is. Hunger is one of the most powerful motivating forces in nature; that's why most animal traps are baited with food instead of trinkets. You'd think our 'leaders' would understand that the same economic forces that drive some literally dirt-poor campesino to grow coca bushes are the same ones that make crop substitution laughable. Because "Juan Valdez" of coffee fame just can't get by on growing coffee, alone. His kids' bellies are empty; you'd think the antis would consider whether think he's going to care if some rich fool from El Norte gives himself a heart attack or aneurysm from snorting the nose candy he grows the basic component of? But I guess that's too much to ask of antis; too many of them came out of the public school system, too... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by goneposthole on March 29, 2002 at 10:29:01 PT |
| can add and subtract. When it comes to heroin dealing, she was pretty good at numbers. Is she a terrorista? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 10:26:26 PT |
| And you tell dddd when you talk to him to have a peaceful Easter too. What a sad day in the news. It is almost prophetic. My mind is spinning from it all. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by qqqq on March 29, 2002 at 10:18:31 PT |
| ...dddd called....said to leave no comment other than to wish you and Kap Best wishes for Easter [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 09:55:33 PT |
| I knew you would comment or hoped you would. Ain't that the truth! The fact is: Give me money that's what I want that's what I want that's what I want. That's what they need 'money' and will do what will make them money to feed their families and that's reality. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on March 29, 2002 at 09:47:44 PT:
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| An ounce of cocaine fetches thousands of dollars. An ounce of coffee? Pennies. Seems antis are not only ignorant of history, they need to go back to grade school remedial classes for basic arithmetic as well. And these people run the country? More proof of the 'dumbing down of America'. [ Post Comment ] |
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