COCA FIELD ACREAGE, YIELD PER ACRE RISING IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Despite hefty U.S. aid for counter-drug programs,
the acreage under coca cultivation in Colombia appears to have
expanded by 50 percent in the last two years, according to U.S. and
Colombian estimates.

Colombian officials say the increase is largely the result of the
strengthened alliance between drug traffickers and the leftist
guerrillas they pay to protect coca plantations in southern Colombia.

And per-acre production is also up, they added, because growers are
using a new variety of coca, the plant from which cocaine is made,
that can be harvested eight to nine times per year, compared to three
to four for the older variety.

Such a huge expansion in acreage would embarrass both Washington and
Bogota, longtime allies in the war to eradicate Colombian plantations
that produce 70 percent of the cocaine sold on U.S. streets.

"This is very difficult for the United States, because if there's
proof of a huge number, the U.S. anti-drug policy falls to the floor,
said one senior Colombian armed forces official.

Washington has long focused its security aid to Colombia on
counter-narcotics programs, mostly for National Police units, and
shied away from direct involvement in Bogota's long war against
leftist guerrillas.

It provided $85.7 million in 1997, then committed another $289 million
in the wake of President Andres Pastrana's election last year and is
now considering an additional $500 million package for the coming
fiscal year.

Yet the U.S. strategy left the military under-financed in their fight
against guerrillas, who blossomed and moved deeply into the drug
protection racket, in turn triggering a sudden growth in
plantations.

An armed forces survey this year of military officers stationed in
coca-growing regions estimated coca cultivation at 247,000 acres,
while a June report by the U.S. watchdog Government Accounting Office
put it at 296,400 acres. A previous GAO report put total coca lands at
166,000 acres in 1996.

"Even though the police have been eradicating 123,000-148,000 acres a
year, the cultivated surface has not only not dropped but is growing .
. . without precedent, armed forces commander Gen. Fernando Tapias
said.

Figures Challenged

The U.S. and armed forces figures have been strongly challenged by the
National Police and the government agency in charge of estimating coca
acreage, the Environmental Accountancy for Illicit Crop
Eradication.

A series of Accountancy overflights of coca-growing regions March
20-31 found only 185,000 acres of coca, a drop from the 185,250 acres
that the agency estimated last year from pictures taken by the French
SPOT satellite system.

Armed forces officers say the agency is too closely identified with
the police, in charge of the coca eradication program. Police
officials say the military and Washington are exaggerating the growth
to raise more U.S. aid for anti-narcotics programs.

All three sides agree that coca plantations have recently experienced
explosive growth in the southern states of Putumayo and Caqueta,
redoubts of the leftist Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as
FARC.

Some Washington officials, putting a positive spin on the cultivation
spurt, say it was the result of a highly effective program to
eradicate illegal coca plantations in Peru. Colombia has since
replaced Peru as the world's leading coca grower.

"It was an unintended consequence that the Peru crackdown forced
traffickers to expand plantations in Colombia, one senior Defense
official said. "Actually, it's a victory of sorts.

Guerrilla Areas

A Colombian government study last year showed that most of the growth
in coca plantations has come in areas dominated by guerrillas, mostly
the FARC but also the smaller, leftist National Liberation Army and
right-wing militias.

With heavily armed FARC rebels making it all but impossible for police
units to raid or fumigate coca plantations in Putumayo, military, U.S.
and Accountancy officials agree cultivation boomed from 42,000 acres
to somewhere between 86,500 and 99,000 acres in the past year alone.

In comparison, plantations in the nearby state of Guaviare, where
police have been able to fumigate plantations since 1994, dropped from
247,000 acres that year to less than 15,000 this year.

Tapias said much of the new acreage in Putumayo is planted with a new
variety of coca plant from Peru that can be harvested every 40 days,
instead of the 90-120 days required by the older variety.

Coca plants are harvested by stripping them of their leaves, which are
later mashed to release their chemicals. The resulting paste is later
purified into cocaine.

Colombian and U.S. officials estimate that even without a further
expansion in the coca plantation acreage, the Peruvian variety could
allow the production of refined cocaine to grow by 25 to 50 percent a
year.