COCA WORKERS RIOT AGAINST U.S. SPRAY EFFORT

TIBU, Colombia -- Riot police battled about 3,000 demonstrators in this
farming community Tuesday as angry coca leaf pickers who burned down a
refueling base for U.S. spray aircraft continued to protest the eradication
of their fields with herbicides.

The rioting, which began during the weekend, represents the most open and
violent display of opposition by coca farmers and field hands to fumigation
efforts under the U.S.-supported Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion program
designed to reduce the cultivation of the plant used to produce cocaine.

The rioters hurled molotov cocktails and large fireworks into the ranks of
the police, who formed a protective cordon around city hall and fired back
with tear gas and stun grenades. At least two police officers were hurt in
the melee.

The rioting lasted more than three hours, but finally died down as night fell.

Gonzalo Cardenas, acting mayor of this town of about 12,000 residents, said
he was waiting for a reply from the state or national governments to the
peasants' demands for an end to the 15-day-old spray campaign against the
region's 17,300 acres of coca bushes.

But when the protesters learned that Gov. Juan Alcides of Norte de
Santander province had failed to show up as promised to hear their
complaints, the rioting broke out.

The 120 riot police, armed with tear gas and plastic shields, were far
outnumbered by the coca leaf pickers who marched into Tibu on Thursday from
the coca-growing village of La Gabarra, 40 miles away.

"The situation is a little difficult, and very complex, because the
government has never done anything to answer the needs of these very poor
people," Mayor Cardenas said. "And it could get much worse."

Police sent in the riot squad after the coca workers went on a rampage
Saturday, burning down the spray aircraft's refueling equipment and a
firehouse by the side of Tibu's airstrip and looting several stores.

All counter-narcotics spray aircraft in Colombia, and the helicopter
gunships that protect them, are owned by the U.S. State Department's
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau (INL).

They are operated by DynCorp, a Virginia firm contracted by INL, using U.S.
and Latin American civilian pilots and mechanics, but are officially
controlled by the Colombian police counter-narcotics division.

The four spray aircraft operating here were at their main base in Cucuta,
100 miles to the south, when the rioting erupted, neighbors of the airstrip
said. The few policemen guarding the refueling equipment fired warning
shots into the air but ran away as the mob of leaf pickers approached,
according to eyewitness accounts.

The spray aircraft usually refuel here during the day, but have not
returned since the riots, neighbors said. The aircraft are continuing to
fly out of the Cucuta airport, police officials said.

Jose Armando Pegui, who runs a cold soda stand by the side of the Tibu
airstrip, said all the pilots he has served in the past 15 days appeared to
be Colombians, and that he had seen no Americans at all.

MELTED DRUMS

Melted plastic drums of the herbicide glyphosate and aviation fuel and the
charred skeletons of pumps and hoses were all that remained of the
refueling base, little more than an open-air pumping station.

Cardenas declared an overnight curfew and banned liquor sales after the
rampage. Most shops remained shuttered and streets were all but deserted
because of fear of more violence from the leaf pickers.

The leaf pickers are sleeping in a local soccer stadium, staying under
plastic tarpaulins to avoid the 100-degree sun and cooking in huge communal
pots, mostly meat from cows slaughtered on the dirt field.

Protest leaders complained the glyphosate is killing food crops as well as
coca and making their children and farm animals sick -- allegations
repeatedly made by farmers in other spray campaigns and just as repeatedly
denied by U.S. and Colombian officials in charge of the fumigation.

PACTS WANTED

The field hands said they want to stop the fumigation and sign pacts like
those in the southern state of Putumayo, in which the government promised
not to spray and to pay $1,000 in subsidies to farmers who agreed to
eradicate their own coca bushes manually.

"We want fumigation but not for the coca. We want it for the malaria and
the dengue," said protest leader Rafael Arciniega, 54, a city councilman
from La Gabarra who said he joined the march "to defend my people."

Tibu's previous mayor, Maria Neira Panada, died last week from a suspected
bout of dengue, a malaria-like disease borne by mosquitoes.

Cardenas said the government never offered La Gabarra's coca farmers the
same deal as in Putumayo before launching the intense spray campaign here
using four U.S.-provided Turbo Thrush spray aircraft.

This is the second round of spraying since last March launched against the
La Gabarra area, largely controlled by right-wing paramilitary fighters who
have usually avoided shooting at the fumigation airplanes.

Police officials said one of the spray aircraft was hit by ground fire
Monday but returned safely to its base.