ANTI-DRUG CRUSADE MARKS SUCCESSES, NEW GRADUATES

Colombia: About 700 Troops Will Join The Campaign That Has Taken A Toll On

Coca. Critics See Stability Of U.S. Cocaine Prices As A Sign Of Failure.

LARANDIA, Colombia--After surviving months of grueling training by U.S.
Green Berets, about 700 Colombian soldiers graduated Thursday to join one
of the most successful crusades against cocaine cultivation in history.

Since December, when the intensive fumigation supported by U.S.-backed Plan
Colombia began, nearly a quarter of this country's known coca crops has
been wiped out. More than 200 drug labs have been destroyed. And the
military and police have suffered only a handful of casualties.

The record stands in marked contrast to the effect of Plan Colombia in the
United States: Despite five months of the most concentrated aerial
eradication campaign ever unleashed in the war on drugs, cocaine remains
cheap and readily available, from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles.

Cocaine prices "have not gone up since Plan Colombia began," Donnie R.
Marshall, the outgoing chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
said after a news conference here Wednesday. "There are many that think the
cocaine market is saturated."

But that reality did not dampen the enthusiasm for the plan's anti-drug
strategy among those at Thursday's graduation ceremony, which took place on
a military base plunked in the middle of southern Colombia, home to more
than half the country's coca.

Under cloudy skies and withering humidity, the newly minted soldiers lined
up in long rows in front of a bandstand packed with brass: Gen. Peter Pace,
head of the U.S. Southern Command; Gen. Charles Holland, head of the U.S.
Special Operations Command; the U.S. ambassador, Anne W. Patterson; and
Colombia's top military commanders.

Vietnam-era Huey helicopters roared overhead as Gen. Fernando Tapias, head
of Colombia's armed forces, handed out shiny medals on green camouflage
trays, promising that the battalion would help bring an end to the violence
of the drug war.

"We are guaranteeing that with these new units, Colombia can return in the
near future to a safe country, a calm country, a country that can return to
its pursuit of progress," Tapias said. The U.S. trainers "share with us a
faith in a cause, a cause to forever eradicate narco-trafficking in Colombia."

Along with two other elite anti-drug battalions already in operation, the
new soldiers form the heart of U.S. efforts to halve in two years the flow
of drugs from Colombia, source of nine of every 10 grams of cocaine sold in
America.

Accounting for nearly a quarter of the $1.3 billion the U.S. has pledged to
the effort, the three battalions are supposed to clear leftist rebels and
right-wing paramilitary forces from the cocaine regions that provide much
of their income. After an area is secured, Colombian police enter to
fumigate the crops.

With Thursday's graduation, Plan Colombia's pieces are nearly in place,
lacking only the arrival later this year of about 14 Black Hawk helicopters
that will vastly improve the mobility of the anti-drug battalions.

Even without the helicopters, the battalions already have an impressive
record of success.

Their most significant contributions came from December through February,
when they helped Colombian police fumigate 84,000 of the country's
estimated 326,000 acres of coca. The battalions also destroyed more than
200 drug labs while losing three men.

They also have a sterling human rights record, with no verified abuse
complaints, according to rights groups and the military. That's no small
feat given the Colombian military's historically cavalier attitude toward
the issue.

A setback came in February, when a police pilot was shot by leftist
guerrillas and forced to land his helicopter during an eradication
operation. The pilot was rescued with the help of U.S. civilians working
for DynCorp, a State Department contractor that supports fumigation efforts.

The battalions didn't first clear the zone because evidence suggested that
the guerrillas weren't a significant threat, a source said. But police
officials have privately complained that they weren't given enough
protection before their spraying mission began.

Whatever the reality, the incident showed the tension that exists between
the military and police, who traditionally have taken the lead in the fight
against narcotics.

"I wish the Colombian military well," said a police official who requested
anonymity. "But I resent being ordered around by those who know little
about fighting drugs."

Still, Pace praised the battalions, saying the soldiers were among the most
professional and best equipped in the Colombian army. He also disagreed
with the notion that cocaine prices are the best measure of Plan Colombia's
success, pointing instead to the goal of a more democratic Colombia.

"It takes time to have a visible impact on such a wide-ranging organization
such as the narco-traffickers," the U.S. general said.

But the lack of any impact on drug prices in the United States brought
sharp criticism from Plan Colombia opponents, who have long insisted that a
U.S. strategy focused on restricting supply is doomed to fail.

Lisa Haugaard, legislative coordinator for the Latin American Working
Group, said the plan has done little to ensure that the rural poor who
depend on coca for their livelihood don't simply move their crops elsewhere.

"What really needs to be looked at is not whether they eliminated huge
tracts, which I have no doubt they did, but whether they have provided the
alternative to make sure the coca doesn't walk away," Haugaard said. "They
haven't done that."

Others have objected to the focus on cocaine: With all their resources
dedicated to the push into southern Colombia, police have yet this year to
fumigate poppy crops, which form the base for most of the heroin seized in
the U.S.

And local leaders in southern Colombia have complained that the presence of
the battalions has militarized the conflict, bringing more leftist rebels
and paramilitary forces to the state of Putumayo, where nearly half of the
country's cocaine is grown.

Local nonprofit organizations recorded a near doubling in the number of
refugees who have fled the region since the battalions began operating in
December.

"Plan Colombia must have as powerful, or a more powerful, social component
than a military one, to be a success," said Putumayo Gov. Ivan Gerardo
Guerrero. "The battalions have militarized the situation, which made things
worse."

There is little agreement on the reasons for the stability of cocaine
prices in the face of the seemingly staggering attacks against the supply
of the drug here.

Some, like DEA chief Marshall, believe that the market for cocaine is flat,
with only hard-core addicts using the drug. Others maintain that not enough
time has passed for any effects at the street level to be visible.

Still others simply believe that the economics of the cocaine trade doom
any attacks against cocaine supply. A kilogram of coca paste sells for
about $800 in Colombia. The same kilogram, when turned into pure cocaine,
brings as much as $30,000 in Miami.

With profit margins so high, drug dealers can afford to absorb whatever
losses arise from a reduction in the source of the drug, these critics argue.

"Plan Colombia and the anti-narcotics brigades have been a complete
failure," said Jorge Rojas, a leading activist and one of the plan's
harshest critics. "The U.S. is wasting its money."