COLOMBIAN GOVERNORS PROTEST U.S.-BACKED SPRAYING OF COCA

WASHINGTON, March 12 — Four governors from Colombia charged today that
American-supported aerial spraying of illicit crops is jeopardizing the
health and food supply of small-scale farmers.

The governors are urging President Andres Pastrana and the Bush
administration to rethink what the governors call a militaristic approach
toward peasant farmers, in exchange for a plan involving social pacts and
alternative crops in southern drug-growing states, which the governors
represent. They plan to publicize their objections at a news conference
here on Tuesday.

Ivan Gerardo Guerrero, governor of Putumayo Province, which produces 60
percent of the nation's coca, said intensified herbicide spraying since
December might unintentionally drive the poorest farmers deeper into the
arms of drug traffickers by ruining their food crops and alienating people
from their national government.

"Fumigation is not the solution," said Mr. Guerrero, who spoke for his
fellow governors from the states of Narino, Cauca and Tolima in an
interview tonight. "It has a great defect. It doesn't really take into
account the human being. All it cares about are satellite pictures."

The Bush administration vigorously defended the eradication program, saying
it has destroyed tens of thousands of acres of illicit crops, slashed the
drug income of leftist rebels and has already induced about 1,500 peasants
to sign agreements to plow up their coca fields in return for future
subsidies in alternative crops.

"The turnout of farmers who are voluntarily offering to agree to sign these
pacts and eradicate has really been quite promising," William R.
Brownfield, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs, said today at what was the Bush administration's first detailed
briefing related to its policy in Colombia.

The defoliation effort is part of an aggressive assault on coca-growing
regions dominated by leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia or right-wing paramilitary groups. The United States, which is
providing the Pastrana government with nearly $1 billion in mostly military
aid, is training three army battalions to protect the low-flying spray
planes against rebels, and it is furnishing combat helicopters and even
some pilots for the task.

After a six-week assault that ended in January, American and Colombian
officials claimed to have destroyed a quarter of all coca crops in the key
provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta. Mr. Brownfield acknowledged today that
those boasts may have been premature, since "it's too soon to say
scientifically" how much of the crop would withstand defoliation.

Mr. Brownfield and other American officials at the briefing here vowed to
continue the Clinton administration's support for Colombia, but broaden it
considerably to include aid to neighboring nations already feeling a
"spillover effect" from its struggle.

"You cannot deal with Colombia in isolation," Mr. Brownfield said. "We need
a more regional approach to address the issues."