Pubdate: Thur, 04 Nov 1999
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Author: Eric J. Lyman 

A SILENT ALLY IN WAR ON DRUGS
U.S. Accused Of Creating Blight Killing Coca Plants And Harming Other
Crops

(UCHIZA, Peru)--Standing on the edge of the dying 10acre plot of land where
he lives, coca farmer Felipe Vargas kicked the bone dry earth, raising a small
cloud of dust from the land he said would produce enough to feed his
family for months.

Less than two years ago, Vargas' small farm  an estimated 100,000
acres in the surrounding Huallaga Valley was lush and green with coca
material used for cocaine.

But most of the plants have shriveled and died, victims of a fungus
sweeping the area  a blight many observers say may have been sparked
by U.S. antidrug programs.

Critics charge that the coca killing fungus has also mutated and is
killing many traditional crops, including bananas, cacao, coffee,
corn, lemon grass, papaya and yucca. The U.S. government denies any
connection to the fungus, arguing that the problems stem from
antiquated farming methods and naturally occurring parasites.

Whatever its origins, the situation is a new twist in the decades long
standoff between coca eradication and survival for the farmers in this
Amazon jungle valley, which is the size of New Jersey.

Farmers are reluctant to abandon mature coca plants to make room for
other crops that may be killed by the fungus before yielding fruit.

‘I may be able to harvest a small amount of coca from the land this
year, and that will at least be a little help," said Vargas, 37, one
of an estimated 2,500 coca farmers in the valley.

"If I pulled up my last few coca plants to plant coffee or cacao, I
wouldn't have anything to sell for two or three years or more, even if
the new plants survived."

Though the blight, known as seca seca (Spanish for "dry, dry") has
helped curb coca production in the Huallaga Valley  along with legal
eradication efforts like alternative crop development  the area
remains the world's largest coca producing region. The valley produces
about 125,000 tons of raw coca a year, one fifth of all coca produced
worldwide.

The coca is made into a compact coca paste and smuggled to Colombia to
be made into cocaine. The traffic pumped an illicit $445 million into
Peru's economy last year, the equivalent of nearly 1 percent of the
country's gross domestic product.

About 5 percent of coca production is legal in Peru, where the broad
leaf has some industrial uses and is also central to many Andean
ceremonies. A blight that attacks both legal coca and mainstream
agricultural crops is a recipe for disaster in a region that has
already been punished over the past decade by the Shining Path rebel
movement and extreme poverty.

It is extremely difficult to pinpoint the root causes of the fungus.
But Juan Reymundo Navarro, a neighbor of Vargas' and the mayor of
Uchiza, a village in the heart of the Huallaga, claims to have seen
U.S. owned helicopters spreading a powder that he says causes seca
seca.

Eloy Molpartido Ayola, president of the Huallaga coca growers
association, said he has little doubt the United States is behind the
spread of the fungus. The association has started the process of
filing an injunction to prohibit the spraying, he said.

The U.S. government has said they want to eliminate coca in this
area," Molpartido said. "My would they care if a few farmers can no
longer make a living if that helps their goals?"

But U.S. government officials insist that charges that they are
connected in some way to the fungus are groundless. A senior level
U.S. antinarcotics official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
stories blaming the United States for the blight were invented by coca
farmers upset that Peru's anticoca laws are finally being enforced.

The U.S. Embassy in Lima has even produced a glossy fact sheet
detailing the characteristics of Fusarium oxysporum  the scientific
name for seca seca  and the United States' reasons for not employing
the fungus.

"This story surfaces whenever the situation starts to get difficult
for the coca farmers," the official said. "But the facts are that the
fungus is spread by the use of infected seeds and by other natural
means. There is absolutely no effort by the United States government
or its agents to spread the fungus."

According to the official, the United States' anti coca strategy in
Peru, which costs around $100 million a year, is based on economics:
driving down the price by limiting buyers. That strategy involves
controlling access to the coca producing areas through air and river
patrols. When the price gets low enough, the official said,
traditional crops become more attractive.

Although eradication efforts and the fungus together have reduced the
cultivated acres in the valley to 57,750 acres last year from 117,250
four years ago, the effect on coca prices has so far been mixed.

The price for coca is now between $25 and $36 per 25pound bag,
depending on the zone, according to Hugo Cabieses, an agroeconomist
specializing in Amazon-related issues.

That's up from $4.60 four years ago but far lower than the all time
high of $58.50 per bag in 1994. No legal crop is competitive
economically if coca sells for more than about $13 per bag, experts
say.

"It's difficult to eradicate coca with a strategy based purely on
lowering the price, because as the supply drops, the prices are driven
higher," Cabieses said. "Few farmers are willing to pull up coca
plants if there's a chance the crop may rise in value again.
Obviously, the U.S. needs another aspect to its strategy."

Nonetheless, U.S. officials call the past three years the most
successful in antinarcotics history in Peru.

"The program in Peru is the most effective in Latin America, and we
are very proud of that," said an anti narcotics official. ‘To be
honest, we don't spray fungal agents because the Peruvian government
doesn't want us to. If they'd give us permission, we'd probably do it.
But we are not going to do something illegal."

Independent observers, however, aren't so sure. Many say there is a
possibility that the bug that causes seca seca is spread either by the
U.S. government or by Peruvians working for it.

"I've talked to all sides involved, and I can't discount the
possibility that U.S. forces are involved," said Roger Rumrrill, the
author of two dozen books on Amazon affairs and an expert on coca
related issues. "The problem is that there's no proof aside from
accounts from farmers. It's a very difficult thing to prove either
way."

Cabieses agreed. "The main point is that there is a fungus that is
affecting all agriculture in the area, and it should be in the
interest of the Peruvian and U.S. governments to learn how to stop it,
since it affects their official goals for the area," he said.
"(Peru's) Congress should really vote to fund an investigation into
the cause of the seca seca. It is suspicious in itself that nobody is
looking into it."

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