Pubdate: Wed, 20 Dec 2006
Source: International Herald-Tribune (International)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2006
Contact:  http://www.iht.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212

DEFENSE MINISTER: PERU COMMITTED TO CRUSH ILLEGAL COCA
PRODUCTION

Peru's president is promoting the virtues of legal coca, but the 
country's defense minister said Wednesday that Peru remains committed 
to eradicating the illegal portion of the crop that is the raw 
material for cocaine.

"Should illegal coca leaf crops disappear? There is no doubt. That is 
the objective," Defense Minister Allan Wagner told Radioprogramas 
radio. "How to achieve that requires a lot of intelligence and 
political sensitivity to know how this can truly advance."

Eradication is a touchy -- and deadly -- issue in Peru, the world's 
second-largest producer of cocaine after Colombia.

About 90 percent of the coca grown in Peru is grown illegally, but 
Peru permits legal cultivation of about 10,000 hectares (25,000 
acres) for chewing or for sale to companies that produce coca tea, 
pharmaceutical cocaine or extracts used in soft drinks.

President Alan Garcia said Tuesday that Peru should promote more 
legal uses for the plant, suggesting even that it "can be consumed 
directly and elegantly in salad."

Coca growers who vehemently oppose Peru's manual eradication policy 
won several key mayoral posts in Peru's central and southern jungle 
in November elections.

Last weekend, suspected Shining Path guerrillas believed to be 
working for drug traffickers shot and killed five police officers, 
two workers from the National Coca Company -- the only authorized 
seller of coca -- and a young boy.

Wagner said Garcia's government has a plan to increase military and 
police presence in Peru's lawless, remote coca growing regions that 
would work with programs to promote cultivation of alternative crops 
to produce coffee, palm oil and other products.

"If we get ahead of ourselves with eradication, we could frustrate 
other elements of the plan," Wagner said.

President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed a six-month renewal of 
trade benefits for Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia under the 
Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which eliminates 
tariffs on thousands of goods from those countries as a reward for 
cooperating in the war on drugs.

Garcia in an October visit to Washington assured Bush that Peru would 
continue its policy of manual eradication of coca.

On Tuesday, Garcia told foreign correspondents that coca has for 
centuries been considered a sacred medicinal and ceremonial plant in 
Andean culture, and that it should not be seen merely as a source of 
illegal cocaine.

A recent report by a Peruvian anti-drug nonprofit questioned coca's 
potential benefits to people, however, citing several studies that 
say its nutrients cannot be absorbed from the leaf into the human body.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine