COLOMBIA FIGHTS ITS DEPENDENCE ON COCA ECONOMY

PUERTO ASIS, Colombia -- In this frontier town of noisy cantinas, bustling
brothels and nighttime murders, there is little positive to show for the
sprawling fields of coca that pockmark the outlying jungle.

``Coca has only brought us a wave of violence and deforestation,'' laments
Jorge Devia, governor of the surrounding state of Putumayo.

Up till now, coca growers have taken refuge in Putumayo state. It is
largely out of range of U.S-financed fumigation planes. But change is
coming. A new anti-narcotics air base is about to enter operations.

Surprisingly, Devia thinks that will worsen matters: ``The peasant farmers
will just cut down more trees and plant more coca.''

Devia has joined a chorus of voices in Colombia urging the United States to
curb its policy of aggressive spraying of coca. They say the U.S.- financed
aerial eradication has displaced coca farmers ever deeper into the jungle,
poisoned legitimate crops and created peasant resentment that may favor
leftist guerrillas.

Heeding such sentiments, President Andres Pastrana announced at his Aug. 7
inauguration that he would create a ``Marshall Plan'' for large-scale
social and economic investment in regions where coca is grown --without
halting forced eradication.

The plan has spurred debate about strategies to slow a startling increase
in coca in Colombia. In the past two years, satellite images show that coca
crops have grown 56 percent, helping Colombia leapfrog Peru and Bolivia to
become the No. 1 coca grower in the world.

U.S. advocates spraying
--------------------

U.S. officials say bold aerial spraying is vital to fighting the cocaine
trade. This year, fumigation planes, many piloted by U.S. civilians, have
braved a fusillade from leftist guerrillas. Planes have been hit at least
50 times by gunfire while dropping herbicide at double last year's rate.

``[Reducing] drug production is clearly a central element to our strategy.
And that can't be taken off the table,'' White House drug czar Barry
McCaffrey said in a visit to Colombia earlier this month.

But the program is coming under attack. Non-U.S. experts say alternative
development plans should be added for a carrot-and-stick approach, and that
forced eradication alone is a near-futile exercise.

``I think it's a waste of money,'' said Francisco Thoumi, a Colombian
academic living near Washington, who frequently writes about drug issues.

``It just pushes [coca crops] elsewhere, so we have more primary forest
being wiped out.''

Even cautious voices are joining the criticism.

``Fumigation has not proven very successful,'' said Klaus Nyholm, chief of
the U.N. Drug Control Program in Colombia. ``I don't think you can spray
yourselves out of this.''

Lessons from Putumayo
------------------

In a sense, Putumayo is a laboratory for what happens without spraying.
Nestled along the border with Ecuador, Putumayo is a region of rolling
jungle hills that has witnessed a number of bonanzas this century. First
rubber, then timber, then oil. In the mid-1980s, coca took off.

The mastermind was Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, a legendary founder of the
Medellin Cartel known as ``El Mexicano'' who was killed in 1989.

``He came in a chartered plane. He would arrive with his orchestra,'' said
Diego Orozco Gomez, a longtime resident and chief of an alternative
development program in this state of 278,000 inhabitants. ``He owned
everything.''

In the last several years, the coca boom has intensified.

``Whole towns have grown out of nothing,'' said a local priest, who asked
that his name not be used.

After a recent survey, Devia determined that Putumayo held an astonishing
99,300 acres of coca, nearly as much as all of Bolivia.

While those numbers are questioned by federal officials, few dare venture
into the near-lawless setting of Putumayo. Infested with guerrillas and
armed coca growers, the state is a world unto itself, ignored by those in
Bogota, the capital.

Putumayo falls largely within the 15 to 25 percent of coca-growing areas
out of range of fumigation planes. The planes fly from four bases in
Caqueta and Guaviare states, although the Miraflores base was overrun by
rebels Aug. 3-4. Soon, planes are expected to fly from the Villa Garzon air
base in Putumayo.

Peruvian example
-------------

Other factors besides the limited range of the planes may be contributing
to the spread of coca in Colombia. In Peru, coca crops have been disrupted
by a leaf blight and President Alberto Fujimori's decision to have his air
force shoot down planes suspected of carrying cocaine paste.

``The bottom has dropped out of the coca market in Peru,'' said a senior
State Department official.

Colombian traffickers who once sent pilots to Peru for semi-processed
cocaine do so less often now because of cost. Pilots ``charge three times
the normal rate for flying into Peru,'' said a Colombian intelligence
official.

``It used to be $25,000 to $30,000 a run, and now it's up to $100,000 a
run,'' a U.S. drug enforcement source added.

U.S. experts say Colombian coca farmers are planting more because of higher
prices and greater demand, and because guerrilla activity gives them cover.

To fight fumigation, larger farmers leave tall trees scattered around
fields to block low-flying aircraft, or string wire between high posts to
try to bring the aircraft down, police say. Smaller farmers intersperse
food crops with coca, appealing to the humanitarian instincts of pilots not
to spray.

In Putumayo and other coca-growing areas, many peasant farmers clamor for
help in changing to legal crops.

``Farmers don't have any other alternative,'' said Oscar Caicedo Reina, a
former coca grower and now head of the Putumayo Agricultural Society.
``Coca is a product you can sell anywhere. In contrast, getting rice and
corn to market is a problem.'' Nyholm, the U.N. official, urged more
emphasis on pushing other livelihoods for farmers. Aerial eradication of
small coca plots is backfiring, he said.

``If you get your field fumigated, you move and you plant three or four
acres instead of one acre. And you go as far into the forest as you can,''
he said.

Herald staff writer Tim Johnson may be reached by e-mail at
timjohnson@herald.com

Copyright 1998 The Miami Herald

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson