Pubdate: Sun, 06 May 2001 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Section: International Author: Juan Forero Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia (Reports about Colombia) POOR REGION'S GOVERNORS IN COLOMBIA UNITE TO OPPOSE DRUG PLAN IBAGUE, Colombia — Normally, Guillermo Jaramillo, governor of a poor and debt-ridden province, could expect to be ignored by Colombia's highly centralized government in far off Bogota. It has been this way since colonial times, with the capital, high in the Andes, dictating policies as it sees fit, often regardless of the wishes of local officials. But these days, Mr. Jaramillo and five like-minded governors — all from southern provinces mired in civil conflict and where most of the country's illicit drug crops are grown — have not only attracted the attention of Bogota but also angered entrenched politicians who frown on insolent regional leaders. The reason is that the governors, all of whom won office last October, have organized into a formidable political bloc that has harshly criticized the central government for everything from the handling of finances to the drug war. That has embarrassed officials in Bogota and highlighted the lack of support in rural Colombia for an American-financed program that largely relies on aerial defoliation to stamp out drug production. Indeed, the governors have gone as far as Europe and Washington to criticize the program, which has destroyed coca fields across southern Colombia but displaced and alienated farmers. The governors instead propose their own voluntary eradication program of coca and heroin poppy fields, and have sought out foreign governments for financing and technical expertise. Most troubling to Bogota, some of the governors have expressed the desire to hold their own talks with insurgencies that have been at war for years, leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries. Some in Bogota, however, see such a proposal as nothing short of treason, since peace negotiations are held under the sole mandate of President Andres Pastrana. "This is a threat against the Constitution and against the peace process," said Robert Camacho, a Bogota congressman. "This is something that can jeopardize the country's well-being," added Mr. Camacho, who in a recent speech said the governors' bloc is akin to a secessionist movement. "It is about war and peace and too delicate for them to do what they want." Some Colombia experts say that the governors' efforts, while understandable in a country whose rural regions have long been forgotten, could prove damaging to the country as a whole. The governors' movement, called the southern bloc, has stirred enough concern that new life has been injected into proposed congressional legislation that would sanction local officials who are seen as meddling in the peace process. The bill was first proposed last fall, before the governors took office. "These governors are popularly elected, and they are realizing a program contrary to their duties: dividing the state," said Fernando Giraldo, dean of the political science department at the Javeriana University in Bogota. Because of the southern bloc, said Mr. Giraldo, Colombia is "before the international community displaying a fragmented voice, the president on one side and the governors on the other." In interviews, the governors said their goal is not to destabilize. Rather, they said, the aim is simply to draw attention to their region's problems and to obtain resources for regional public projects and agricultural development programs seen as alternatives to defoliation. If the aid comes from Bogota, so be it, the governors say; but they say they will continue to appeal to foreign governments, too. The southern bloc's proposals are still in the planning stages, and little financial support has gone their way. "What we want for the regions, for the provinces as well as the towns, is the possibility to express ourselves," said Mr. Jaramillo, speaking in his office overlooking a public square here in Ibague, the capital of the province of Tolima. "That is why we've gone out to explain our ideas, and present what we think is a bit different from the national government's concepts." The governors said that they supported Mr. Pastrana's peace efforts and respected his authority when it came to negotiating, but they said they wanted the particular concerns of their provinces to be aired by local officials in those talks with the insurgencies. The governors and other provincial officials also hinted, as many local officials in Colombia do, that the government should open dialogue with paramilitary groups, something Mr. Pastrana's government has refused. Recently, in fact, Mr. Jaramillo met with the paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, and also paid a visit to the rebels. "What we've said is we cannot sign a peace pact, but we can do a peace process," said Floro Tunubala, the governor of Cauca. "And to do a peace process means talking." The southern bloc is a mixture of traditionalists and upstarts. They include Parmenio Cuellar of Narino, a former senator and minister of justice, and Mr. Jaramillo, a pediatric heart surgeon who has operated on 1,200 children. The group also has the most unlikely governor in Colombia, Mr. Tunubala, a Guambiano Indian who won office in a province well known for discrimination and social inequality. Mr. Tunubala's political movement — composed of Indians, union leaders, poor farmers, intellectuals and others outside the province's circle of power — has already angered some people in Cauca and prompted death threats. The other governors, longtime local politicians, are from Huila and the two provinces where most of Colombia's coca grows, Putumayo and Caqueta. The governors acknowledge that local officials have more control since the country's 1991 Constitution gave regional leaders more decision- making powers and resources. But revenue is still raised by the central government. The six provinces, the size of Kansas and with a combined population of six million, also remain desperately poor and rural in a largely urban country. The region also contains three-quarters of the country's coca crops and nearly all the poppy fields, employing 335,000 people in all. The very fact that an alliance exists is "essentially a cry for help, a collective petition for the government to do something," said Larry Birns, a Colombia expert and director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. "These are governors that, because they come from peripheral states, have been neglected." The issue that most unites the governors is their opposition to defoliation, which they warn alienates their constituents without resolving the problems that lead farmers to cultivate illegal crops. Juan de Jesus Cardenas, governor of Huila, said regional leaders across the south believed that defoliation would simply drive farmers to cultivate coca and poppies in other regions. "That is what has happened with defoliation of Putumayo, with the movement of displaced people into Narino," said the governor, whose province serves as a corridor for drugs and rebels. The governors want to replace illicit crops by prodding farmers to eradicate in exchange for subsidies and markets for their products. The Colombian government, with American money and expertise, is running such a program, but the governors said they were working to tailor their own programs to meet the needs of farmers in their provinces. "We need gradual eradication," said Mr. Tunubala. "We need to put in new crops, and we need to look for markets nationally and internationally." That was the reason for Mr. Jaramillo's recent trip to a mountainous rebel-controlled region in southern Tolima. There, Mr. Jaramillo met with farmers to urge them to participate in the eradication program financed by the Americans. It was not easy. Most had felt ignored by a central government they view as inept and unresponsive. Several farmers, after meeting with Mr. Jaramillo, said they would not have agreed to meet with or participate had it not been for the governor, whom they view as independent from Bogota. Leftist rebels who showed up uninvited — and had the power to quash any government plan in the region — allowed farmers to move forward in part because of Mr. Jaramillo's involvement. "He's from these lands," said one farmer, Ramiro Perez, 38, standing on a steep mountain where he grows poppies. "We've seen him here. He has worked hard to get here. Maybe that means good news." - --- MAP posted-by: GD