Pubdate: Mon, 02 Dec 2002
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia (Colombia)

COLOMBIA PRES WARNS COFFEE GROWERS TO KILL DRUG CROPS

Dow Jones Newswires

BOGOTA (AP)--Colombian President Alvaro Uribe warned coffee growers, 
traditionally a bastion of society and the economy here, that he wouldn't 
hesitate to fumigate their plantations if they didn't eliminate the drug 
crops planted among the coffee bushes.

"With our policy, there is no going back," he said, in a speech Monday at 
the 62nd National Coffee Growers Congress. "The zones that are growing coca 
and poppy must be fumigated."

Coffee prices have hit record lows in the past two years, prompting drug 
enforcement officials to warn late last year that some growers had switched 
to poppies, used in making heroin, and coca, the base for cocaine, to make 
a living.

The coffee growers estimate that 14% of the acreage previously dedicated to 
coffee has been planted in the illegal crops.

The government's policy of fumigating illicit crops with herbicides is 
supported by U.S. aid.

Colombia is the world's second largest coffee producer, after Brazil. About 
500,000 Colombian families make their livelihoods on coffee plantations.
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