Pubdate: Tue, 21 Nov 2006
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Steven Dudley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Colombia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Plan+Colombia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

U.S. PULLS OUT OF COLOMBIAN COCA REGION

The United States Is Pulling Some of Its Resources Out of a Key 
Battleground in the War Against Drugs.

BOGOTA - After several years of trying to wean farmers from the drug 
trade in the conflictive southern province of Caqueta, the U.S. 
government is winding down its funding of alternative development 
programs in the region. The pullout comes amid a flurry of criticism 
of U.S.-backed efforts to eliminate illegal drug production in 
Colombia, and just before the U.S. Congress is expected to vote to 
continue aid for counter-drug programs in this nation of 41 million people.

Colombia remains the largest supplier of cocaine to the U.S. market, 
and recent reports have suggested that production is increasing 
despite some $4 billion in U.S. aid for the military, crop 
eradication and economic development programs since 2000.

The Caqueta development programs are a small part -- $9 million in 
U.S. funds went to the province in five years -- of this annual aid 
package, but the region carries symbolic weight as one of Colombia's 
poorest and most notoriously guerrilla-ridden provinces.

For decades, the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces 
of Colombia, better known as the FARC, have dominated the area, which 
has 410,000 people and is a little more than half the size of 
Florida. They have used it as a training ground for new recruits and 
a launching pad for attacks.

Laboratory

Given its background, Caqueta became a laboratory for the 
counter-narcotics program known as Plan Colombia, designed to dry up 
coca, the raw material for cocaine, and replace it with viable 
alternatives. The overall plan included billions in U.S. aid for 
military training, intelligence equipment and hardware like 
helicopter gunships as well as money for economic projects and infrastructure.

At first, the plan seemed to be working in Caqueta. Under President 
Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian military launched an unprecedented 
offensive of 17,000 troops that pushed the guerrillas from their 
traditional strongholds in Caqueta and elsewhere, and disrupted the 
coca economy. Colombian police data shows a drop in coca farming in 
the province from 59,000 acres in 1999 to 12,000 last year. U.S. and 
Colombian economic programs followed, including $5.6 million from the 
Agency for International Development (AID), $3.9 million of which 
went to a project for rubber trees that benefited 579 families.

But now both parts of the effort seem to be in retreat. According to 
politicians from the area and analysts of the military, the Colombian 
army is quietly withdrawing some troops from the province. The armed 
forces do not comment on troop movements.

Meanwhile, the United States has stopped funding economic development 
programs in the Caqueta region.

"There are serious doubts about the impact of the program," said 
Alfredo Rangel, a former consultant with the Colombian military who 
now runs a think tank on security issues. "The impression is that 
these programs are very inefficient." Caqueta politicians are 
dismayed by the U.S. government's decision. They say the programs 
helped undercut the coca economy during the military offensive, but 
still need time to take root.

"When the coca left, the economy went into crisis," said Luis 
Fernando Armario, a longtime congressman for Caqueta. "Now is when we 
need the economic help." The U.S. pullout from Caqueta comes just 
months after reports by the State Department and the United Nations 
said the total coca acreage in this country is growing again. In 
March, the State Department said coca acreage had increased by 26 
percent; in June, a U.N. report showed an 8 percent rise. U.S. 
officials say that their latest survey, done primarily through 
satellite photos, covered more land than previously and say coca 
acreage is down since the plan began.

Refocused Aid

One U.S. embassy official here also said the Caqueta pullout -- which 
doesn't affect other much smaller programs in the region that focus 
on human rights and internally displaced people -- is part of an AID 
effort to refocus U.S. assistance.

"We're not pulling out of Caqueta," said the official, who wished to 
remain anonymous because the official is not authorized to speak in 
the name of the U.S. government. "That [alternative development] 
program came to its natural close." Farmers in the area disagree. 
Pablo Emilio Pineda, the head of a rubber producing cooperative, says 
the project is far from finished. He worries that many of his 
colleagues will now return to growing coca. "With this decision, many 
of these families are in limbo," Pineda wrote The Miami Herald in an 
e-mail. "They could easily return to sowing illegal crops." The U.S. 
decision appears to have been based on a set of factors more complex 
than officials have publicly acknowledged.

A State Department memo on the alternative development projects in 
Caqueta, obtained by The Miami Herald and previously reported in 
Colombian media, offers a view of some of the difficulties that U.S. 
officials face. The document states U.S. government workers were 
advised not to travel to one project in Caqueta because of guerrilla 
activity, and one project dealing with livestock in Caqueta had to be 
moved to another province because of "security concerns." The 
document also outlines the economic challenges AID is facing in 
places like Caqueta and argues that the same money in other provinces 
could benefit more families. The U.S. embassy official said this 
document was one of many that was used to analyze the situation in 
Caqueta and come to the decision to leave. "Instead of saying this 
didn't work, what the mission concluded, in conjunction with the 
[Colombian] government, is that we can do this better," the official said.

But critics of U.S. policy in Colombia contend that the decision to 
shut down development programs in Caqueta reflects a larger problem 
in the overall strategy.

Adam Isaacson of the Washington-based Center for International Policy 
says that close to 80 percent of U.S. funding for Colombia continues 
to be for military aid, leaving little for alternative development. 
Of the $700 million annual U.S. package, for instance, AID receives 
around $130 million per year for projects ranging from economic 
development to training for justice officials and investigators.

"When they think of Plan Colombia, they don't think of job 
opportunities and strengthening of governments," Isaacson said of 
rural coca farmers. "They think spray planes and helicopters, and I 
think this decision to leave Caqueta reinforces that image." Local 
farmers like Pineda agree. "It seems like they're betting on war, and 
that's the saddest thing about all this," he said in the e-mail. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake