Pubdate: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Contact http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Feedback: http://www.sfgate.com/select.feedback.html Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/ Address: 901 Mission St., San Francisco CA 94103 Copyright: 2003 Hearst Communications Inc. Author: Juan Forero U.N. REPORTS SHARP DROP IN COLOMBIA COCAINE CROP U.S.-Financed Eradication Credited With 32% Decline Bogota, Colombia -- The United Nations said Wednesday that American-financed aerial eradication of Colombia's vast coca fields was starting to pay big dividends, releasing new estimates that show the size of the crop dropping by 32 percent in the first seven months of the year. Production of coca -- the main ingredient in cocaine -- is increasing slightly in Peru and Bolivia. But the sizable reduction in Colombia's crop means that for the first time overall coca production in the Andes is dropping at a rapid pace. The new estimates from the U.N. Drug Control Program show that coca fields in Colombia fell from 251,940 acres in December to 170,430 acres on July 31. At this rate, the United Nations said, Colombia's coca crop will be reduced 50 percent by the end of the year. "The reduction is heavy, and it seems as if it's accelerating," said Klaus Nyholm, who as chief of the U.N. anti-drug efforts in Colombia oversaw the study. He announced the results on Wednesday afternoon along with Colombia's interior minister, Fernando Londono. The U.S. Congress is debating whether to provide an additional $700 million in aid to Colombia, on top of $2.5 billion Washington has spent since 2000 to eradicate coca and undercut the financing source for Colombia's insurgent groups. Human rights groups frequently criticize President Alvaro Uribe's government, and some U.S. members of Congress have questioned the effectiveness of U.S. aid. The new data, though, are sure to encourage supporters of eradication. "Many people who thought this couldn't be done in the past are having to rethink their assumptions," John Walters, the White House drug policy chief, said from Washington. The United States, which does its own study of Colombia's drug crops, first started to register a decline in Colombian coca production last year. But the findings were tempered by discrepancies in American data and a corresponding rise in coca cultivation in Peru and Bolivia. The figures released on Wednesday, the first time Nyholm's office has presented half-year figures, are based on satellite imagery and calculations. His office also releases an annual census, which found Colombia's drug crop dropped by 30 percent from December 2001 to December 2002. The U.S. figures showed a much smaller drop, 15 percent, during the same period. Colombian and U.N. officials said the latest estimates showed that Uribe's aggressive stance on drugs -- one long sought by American policy-makers -- was paying off across the region. Unlike his predecessors, Uribe has in his 13 months in office allowed American planners to use spray planes whenever and wherever they see fit. Londono also attributed the decline in coca production to a fall in cocaine consumption in the United States. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the number of occasional users fell from 6 million in 1988 to 3 million in 2000. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens