Pubdate: Tue, 13 Nov 2001
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2001 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Page: 14
Author: Jared Kotler, Associated Press

REBEL ATTACKS HINDER PLAN COLOMBIA

Guerrillas Target Aid Workers As Spying Suspects, Stifle Assistance

PUERTO ASIS, Colombia - An aid worker in a U.S.-funded program to eradicate 
drug crops in Colombia is kidnapped by guerrillas, accused of spying for 
the military, and executed.

A colleague is abducted and forced to play Russian roulette while being 
interrogated. Another, a 60-year-old agronomist, is kidnapped and tied to a 
tree.

Attacks on development workers are the latest snag to emerge in 
Washington's $1.3 billion anti-drugs initiative in Colombia, which produces 
most of the world's cocaine.

Plan Colombia began last December when U.S. crop-dusters sprayed a blanket 
of herbicide on coca plantations in southern Colombia's Putumayo state, 
ground zero for the war on drugs. The planes left in February to spray 
elsewhere and are expected back soon.

In the interim, aid deliveries were supposed to have begun to tens of 
thousands of peasants who agreed to eradicate their plantations of coca - 
the main ingredient in cocaine.

But most farmers have not received any aid, so many have nursed their 
fumigated fields back into acres of robust coca bushes. And now, danger for 
aid workers threatens to paralyze a U.S.-funded alternative development 
program, just as it was finally getting started.

Juan Carlos Espinoza, who manages the aid program in Puerto Asis, 
Putumayo's largest town, suspended field visits by his staff after the 
attacks by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Security 
concerns are forcing other aid organizations to avoid rebel-infested areas.

The FARC, which earns huge profits by taxing the cocaine trade, has grown 
suspicious that the aid workers may be spies for the military or its 
paramilitary allies, Mr. Espinoza said. Fueling the rebels' paranoia, 
officials said, is the fact that visits by some aid workers have been 
followed by military attacks on the same areas.

The problems come as Colombia's government is seeking more support from 
Washington, where the drug war has taken a back seat to the war on terrorism.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana met with President Bush on Sunday. Last 
Thursday and Friday, Mr. Pastrana met with U.S. lawmakers and officials 
including Attorney General John Ashcroft, telling them the drug trade is 
financing terrorism.

Washington's aerial fumigation of Putumayo, a lush expanse of jungle and 
hills bordering Ecuador, has bruised its cocaine-fueled economy. Many 
migrant workers have lost their jobs stripping the shiny green leaves off 
coca bushes and hauling them to processing labs hidden in the jungle. From 
farm-supply stores to brothels, many businesses are reeling.

U.S.-trained troops, meanwhile, have destroyed hundreds of the clandestine 
labs and made it harder for traffickers to slip in and out of Putumayo with 
cash and cocaine.

But like the hardy coca bush, Colombia's drug business stubbornly hangs on.

U.S. officials believe some 60 percent of farmers whose crops were sprayed 
during the December-February blitz have replanted. They say many farms must 
be repeatedly fumigated.

Coca is also sprouting in other parts of the country, and U.S. officials 
don't expect big reductions in Colombia's coca crop until 2003.

About 38,000 farmers - whose crops represent two-thirds of the coca in 
Putumayo - have pledged to destroy their plants in return for aid to 
develop legal businesses such as medicinal herb farms, cattle ranches and 
fish hatcheries.

The government also promised short-term aid - about $850 worth of seeds, 
livestock and tools per family. But even that has not arrived.

Private Colombian organizations distributing aid for the government blame 
delays on bureaucracy and the need to survey every family's needs. The aid 
groups say they expect to begin deliveries later this month, but admit it 
could be many months before they reach every family.

There is deep mistrust on both sides. Some Colombian officials doubt the 
peasants will tear up their crops as promised. Many farmers suspect the 
government is making empty promises - or doubt that alternative development 
will succeed in a region with poor soil and few roads.

"Coca is the only thing worth planting here," Wilmar Ospina said while 
weeding coca bushes behind his house near the Putumayo town of La Hormiga.

When the planes sprayed his field in January, Mr. Ospina quickly pruned the 
plants before the herbicide seeped in.

On a recent cool morning, he stood amid chest-high coca bushes and smiled. 
"Today they are prettier than ever," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart