Pubdate: Thu, 12 Oct 2006
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

LESS AID FOR COLOMBIAN STATES RICH IN COCA

SAN JOSE DEL FRAGUA, Colombia -- A $4 billion battle to wean 
Colombian farmers off the cocaine trade through a combination of 
military might and American aid is quietly being cut back in a region 
where cocaine production is surging.

In an internal memo, the United States Agency for International 
Development cites unacceptable security risks for its workers and a 
lack of private investment partners for its pullout from Caqueta State.

Six years and more than $4 billion in American tax dollars after Plan 
Colombia began in Caqueta, coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, is 
still the region's No. 1 cash crop. But the programs meant to provide 
farmers with a profitable alternative to growing coca are vanishing.

Washington spends $70 million annually on development projects in 
drug-producing areas of Colombia. But under the Agency for 
International Development's new five-year, $350 million plan for 
development projects, Caqueta and four other Amazonian states where 
coca production is rising will not receive a penny.

"Instead of investing generously to eliminate dependency on the 
illegal drug trade, we're being shunned," said Luis Fernando Almario, 
a congressman from Caqueta.

An official at the United States Embassy in Bogota said resources 
from Caqueta would be redirected to areas with a greater likelihood 
of sustaining development.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman