Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jul 2003
Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA)
Copyright: 2003 Ledger-Enquirer
Contact:  http://www.l-e-o.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/237
Author: KEVIN G. HALL, Knight Ridder Newspapers

PERU'S COCA FARMERS HOPING TO BOOST CROP'S MARKET

AGUAYTIA, Peru - Imagine being sent to war by generals who are unable to 
agree on the enemy's strength or where to fight.

That's the case in the war on drugs in Peru, where the United States is 
spending more than $140 million this year to eradicate coca, the raw 
material from which cocaine is made, and to provide alternative crops to 
the desperately poor coca farmers known as cocaleros.

How big is the problem? The best guesses differ wildly.

The CIA's Crime and Narcotics Center, relying on satellite images, 
estimates that 88,900 acres of coca was grown in Peru last year, or 139 
square miles. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, using different 
methodology, puts the figure at almost 116,000 acres, or 181 square miles. 
Independent researchers suggest the cultivation is as high as 148,300 
acres, or more than 231 square miles.

What is clear is that Peru is losing the battle against traffickers. 
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Peru grows enough 
illicit coca to produce an estimated 120 to 140 tons of cocaine annually. 
By all measures, new plantings are outpacing eradication efforts.

Some clarity on Peruvian coca-growing may be coming soon. In a late-April 
compromise with the cocaleros, embattled President Alejandro Toledo agreed 
to launch a study on the supply and demand for the legal use of coca in the 
country. That may - or may not - help drug-control efforts.

An estimated 1.4 million Peruvians chew coca leaves regularly and legally 
or use them in medicinal teas. The National Coca Co., known by its Spanish 
acronym Enaco, buys and distributes coca for their use under an exclusive 
arrangement.

Enaco hasn't surveyed Peru's coca market or updated its registry of 
authorized farmers since 1978. Cocaleros are hoping the new study will 
justify expanding the legal market. They say the legal consumption of coca 
is greater than the U.S. and Peruvian governments recognize.

In the context of the larger Andean drug war, things are going badly in 
Peru. It was held up as a model in the 1990s, when Washington credited it 
with reducing the amount of coca under cultivation by 70 percent. But since 
2001, the year Toledo assumed office, Peru has seen an explosion in coca 
planting.

A U.S. official in Peru, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said 
Peru's survey of the legal coca market was welcome if it also helped to 
clarify the larger illegal market.

"Anything that will tighten the control on the legal market and better 
distinguish the legal from the illegal is a good thing," the official said. 
"Right now, the illicit numbers are on their way up. The real question is, 
can you turn the corner and control the licit market and eliminate the 
illicit?"

The Bush administration is wary of any expansion of the legal market, 
wanting to hold Peru to its September 2002 pledge of near-eradication by 
2006. Months after making that pledge, Toledo compromised with the 
cocaleros, agreeing to give them until 2008 to switch to alternative crops.

"What we need is for them to sit down with us and forge an agriculture 
policy, so that the farmer doesn't need to grow coca. That's why we are 
asking for five years of (coca) production," said Flavio Sanchez, a 
cocalero leader who was interviewed at a recent march in his town of 
Aguaytia. "When we have markets assured, farmers are ready to produce."

That day may never come, however. While crops such as coffee are harvested 
once a year, the hardy coca bush is harvested four times a year and needs 
little care or up-front investment for fertilizers and insecticides. Prices 
for coffee, a leading alternative crop, are mired in historical lows and 
coca is proving a lifeline for poor farmers.

In the Aguaytia area, not far from the jungle border with Brazil, the U.S. 
Agency for International Development has spent more than $1 million on 
infrastructure projects and is trying to wean farmers to another 
alternative crop, palm oil, which is widely used for cooking. But it takes 
roughly two years for the palms to reach productive maturity, and farmers 
complain they aren't receiving the promised installment payments to get 
them through the transition. U.S. officials acknowledge delays but say the 
program is working now.

Enaco refuses to discuss the content of its impending survey on the legal 
coca market. Enaco President Armandina Aguirre canceled an interview with 
Knight Ridder without explanation.

"There is a huge fight over who does it, with what criteria and under what 
methodology," offered Hugo Cabieses, a former top anti-drug adviser in Peru.

Cocaleros demand that the study look beyond law enforcement to address 
social conditions in the desperately poor coca-growing regions. The U.S. 
government, Cabieses said, wants a study that approaches the matter 
strictly from a drug-control angle.

"I think it's very important for Peruvians to see what the traditional 
consumption is versus the use for drug trafficking," Cabieses said. "I 
think the results will show traditional and ritual consumption are much 
more important than we white citizens of Lima think. It might not be as 
many acres as the cocaleros want, but not as few as the U.S. Embassy says."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart