Pubdate: Fri, 28 Feb 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Christopher Marquis
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia

WHITE HOUSE REPORTS A DECLINE IN COLOMBIA'S COCA CULTIVATION

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 - With aggressive aerial spraying in the past year, 
antidrug forces in Colombia for the first time have reduced the amount of 
coca being cultivated in the Andean country, Bush administration officials 
said today.

Land being used to grow coca - the raw material for cocaine - fell by 15 
percent in 2002 to 356,791 acres, said the officials, who used satellite 
images to estimate production.

The report comes as the administration's efforts in Colombia are coming 
under fresh scrutiny with the kidnapping of three Americans by leftist 
rebels on Feb. 13 after their plane crash-landed in the jungle.

The Pentagon has sent 49 soldiers and advisers to Colombia to assist with 
efforts to free the Americans, who were were apparently conducting aerial 
surveillance for a company under Pentagon contract.

John P. Walters, the director of national drug control strategy, offered 
lawmakers the reduction in coca acreage as evidence that the strategy, 
backed by the United States and known as Plan Colombia, is working. Since 
2000, the United States has provided Colombia with $1.9 billion to fight 
drug traffickers, and more recently, leftist guerrillas of the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who have waged war against 
Colombia's government for almost four decades.

"Our antidrug efforts in Colombia are now paying off, and we believe that 
this represents a turning point," Mr. Walters said.

But lawmakers, while praising the advance, greeted the news with 
skepticism. Some said cultivation went down in Colombia but increased in 
Peru and Bolivia, both considered success stories in the late 1990's.

Mr. Walters acknowledged "a balloon problem," where pressure in one region 
shifts traffickers elsewhere. Still, the shift in Colombia comes after 
years of rising cultivation estimates, including last year, when production 
reached a record high despite increased coca destruction. The increase last 
year provoked deep distress within the administration and resulted in an 
unusual interagency fight over the estimate.

Mr. Walters and other officials attributed the progress to a decision last 
year by Colombia's new president, Alvaro Uribe, to lift restrictions on 
aerial spraying and to step up the number of crop-duster flights in 
Colombia's coca-growing heartland.

The State Department, working with the Colombian National Police, 
effectively sprayed 303,057 acres last year, Mr. Walters said, adding that 
the figure could rise by 98,800 acres because many crops were destroyed 
after the satellite photos were taken.

Democrats accused the administration of focusing too heavily on military 
solutions in Colombia at the expense of social development. "I find it 
increasingly difficult to understand how we spend enormous amounts to 
eradicate, and then not go the next step to ensure that people have 
something to turn to," Representative Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the 
ranking Democrat on the Western Hemisphere subcommittee.

The Americans who have been kidnapped were working for California Microwave 
Systems, a subsidiary of the Northrup Grumman Corporation. A company 
spokesman, Jack Martin, declined to identify the employees or discuss their 
mission. A spokesman for the United States Southern Command in Miami also 
refused to discuss the mission.

Two passengers, a Colombian and an American, were shot dead. The American, 
Thomas John Janis, 56, a resident of Montgomery, Ala., was a former Army 
warrant officer. He was buried with military honors at Arlington cemetery 
on Monday.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D