COLOMBIAN CHIEF SELLS COCAINE PLAN

VILLA GARZON, Colombia (AP) - Months after the arrival of U.S.-trained
troops and fumigation planes, President Andres Pastrana ventured into the
world's cocaine heartland to sell the "soft side" of his Plan Colombia
antidrug initiative.

It was a hard sell.

In a sun-splashed plaza in Villa Garzon, chanting demonstrators repeatedly
drowned out the president this week as he tried to explain that the
biggest-ever injection of economic development aid into Putumayo state had
begun.

Tens of thousands of peasant farmers in the southern state grow coca - the
main ingredient of cocaine - because it is about the only business that
will give them a meager profit.

Plan Colombia has drawn criticism, because while the aerial fumigation of
coca and the deployment of U.S.-trained counternarcotics troops and
helicopters began late last year, the social side - also supported with
U.S. aid - has lagged far behind.

By making his symbolic visit to Putumayo on Thursday and Friday, Pastrana
tried to show that delivery of infrastructure improvements and funds for
alternative development was underway, and would gather steam. But in a
state historically neglected by the central government, Pastrana found
skepticism.

"We must make a new Putumayo, one that is tranquil, at peace and without
coca," Pastrana, flanked by Cabinet ministers and military commanders, said
during his first stop in this town nestled below emerald mountains.

"We will make Putumayo a model state," Pastrana declared from a
balloon-festooned podium.

"Liar!" someone shouted from 3,000 people packed into Villa Garzon's plaza.
A few dozen people picked up the chant: "Liar, liar!"

They then switched chants: "Pastrana, Pastrana, don't deceive the people!"

Pastrana, wearing a white polo shirt emblazoned with the words "A New
Putumayo," plowed ahead with his prepared remarks and ignored the protesters.

Putumayo produces most of the coca in Colombia, which in turn produces most
of the world's cocaine. The crops are protected and "taxed" by leftist
rebels and rival paramilitary forces.

To stem the flow to the United States and beyond, Washington has deployed
fumigation planes and trained soldiers to protect them from being shot
down, and is sending combat helicopters.

Anger in Villa Garzon at Washington's military support was evident,
underscored by a sign that read: "We don't want more weapons or
helicopters, but instead more classrooms and books."

"The United States thinks they're the boss here," fumed a resident. "We
don't want fumigation, and we don't want money from Uncle Sam."

The audience of villagers and farmers, many of them coca growers, looked on
blankly as Pastrana, making the first visit ever by a Colombian president
to Villa Garzon, told of the huge sums that would be spent.

Pastrana's aides said $60.9 million in Colombian government funds, some of
it loaned by the World Bank (news - web sites) and similar institutions,
would be spent in Putumayo. About three-fifths of the money would go for
schools, hospitals, aqueducts, expanding the electrical system and other
projects, and the rest for roads.

The only burst of applause came when he announced that paving had started
on a highway leading from the state capital, Mocoa. There are few roads in
Putumayo, and most are pitted dirt tracks.

Two young coca harvesters drank cold sodas alongside Villa Garzon's plaza,
listening to Pastrana's speech.

"The money will never reach the people," predicted one, Jorge Ceron. "It
always goes into the politicians' pockets."

Pastrana said it would be up to communities to ensure the funds are
properly spent. He insisted he was not coming with empty promises.

He handed out vouchers to a dozen poor families in Villa Garzon. The
government is also building a processing plant for heart of palm, one of
the crops being touted as an alternative to coca, near the village of Santana.

Pastrana said 20,000 families had agreed to cut down their own coca plants
in exchange for aid.