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)
Author: T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times
Published: Friday, March 29, 2002
Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/

Related Articles & Web Site:

Colombia Drug War News
http://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm

Witness: Drug War Spraying Colombia To Death
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12171.shtml

Activist Speaks Against U.S. Policy in Colombia
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12146.shtml

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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 prohibiton creates.

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...Kap,,,you rang a bell with your reminder about how good we have it.....When I was in Honduras a few years back,I had to hire some local help,,there were lines of guys hoping I would hire them..... 2 or 3 bucks an hour was all that was expected,,I couldnt hack such paltry wages, .It was kinda embarassing to realize that $50.00 was equivelent to a weeks pay..If only people knew the reality of the rest of the world,then they would be shocked into knowing how lucky they are,,,...ya know,,,someone who complains about the price of the gas that they are putting into their SUV,is obviously a spoiled American!...a safe place to sleep,and a blanket is deluxe!..a source of clean water to drink,,,superdeluxe!...a source of food..etc..etc...etc..
...my dog still says that a catastrophic event is eminent in the near future,,,however,,,he has not yet come up with a color to denote the level of alert..I'll let you know as soon as he does....until then,,let's just say that we are in an off white zone of alertness......dddd

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Our neighbors on this planet and the judgment of history will be harsh for these transgressions.

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But I guess that's too much to ask of antis; too many of them came out of the public school system, too...

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That's what they need 'money' and will do what will make them money to feed their families and that's reality.

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