News (Media Awareness Project) - Colombia: Coca Crop Expands By 21% In Colombia |
| Title: | Colombia: Coca Crop Expands By 21% In Colombia |
| Published On: | 2006-04-17 |
| Source: | Detroit Free Press (MI) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-14 07:24:23 |
COCA CROP EXPANDS BY 21% IN COLOMBIA
U.S. Downplays Negative Figures
BOGOTA, Colombia -- In a blow to the United States' antidrug campaign, new White House estimates indicate that Colombia's coca crop expanded nearly 21% last year.
Figures released Friday by the Office of National Drug Control Policy indicate Colombian farmers grew 355,680 acres of coca, the raw material for cocaine. That's up nearly 74,000 acres from 2004, even though U.S.-funded crop dusters destroyed record amounts of coca plants in 2005.
The United States has provided Colombia with more than $4 billion, mostly in antidrug aid, since 2000 for Plan Colombia, which was supposed to cut coca cultivation by half within six years. Yet according to the new figures, more coca is being grown than when the program started.
"You're talking about $4.7 billion spent on Plan Colombia, and this is all we have to show for it?" said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Center for International Policy in Washington and a longtime critic of U.S. counter-drug strategies in Latin America.
The Bush administration downplayed the significance of the coca crop survey, an annual study of parts of Colombia carried out by the CIA.
Rather than an increase in the crop's size, the higher numbers may reflect a more thorough job of surveying the Colombian countryside, the White House said.
However, when year-to-year drug crop comparisons have reflected positive trends, U.S. officials have touted the numbers as proof of success.
In 2002, for example, the survey showed a drop in production, and White House drug czar John Walters declared: "Our antidrug efforts in Colombia are now paying off."
Some drug policy analysts say Colombia has likely been producing far more coca than the CIA surveys indicated.
"The cultivation numbers, wherever they seem to be headed, need to be taken with a grain of salt," said Joy Olson, director of the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank.
What's more, she said, cheap, potent cocaine remains readily available on U.S. streets, indicating the drug war is having little impact.
U.S. Downplays Negative Figures
BOGOTA, Colombia -- In a blow to the United States' antidrug campaign, new White House estimates indicate that Colombia's coca crop expanded nearly 21% last year.
Figures released Friday by the Office of National Drug Control Policy indicate Colombian farmers grew 355,680 acres of coca, the raw material for cocaine. That's up nearly 74,000 acres from 2004, even though U.S.-funded crop dusters destroyed record amounts of coca plants in 2005.
The United States has provided Colombia with more than $4 billion, mostly in antidrug aid, since 2000 for Plan Colombia, which was supposed to cut coca cultivation by half within six years. Yet according to the new figures, more coca is being grown than when the program started.
"You're talking about $4.7 billion spent on Plan Colombia, and this is all we have to show for it?" said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Center for International Policy in Washington and a longtime critic of U.S. counter-drug strategies in Latin America.
The Bush administration downplayed the significance of the coca crop survey, an annual study of parts of Colombia carried out by the CIA.
Rather than an increase in the crop's size, the higher numbers may reflect a more thorough job of surveying the Colombian countryside, the White House said.
However, when year-to-year drug crop comparisons have reflected positive trends, U.S. officials have touted the numbers as proof of success.
In 2002, for example, the survey showed a drop in production, and White House drug czar John Walters declared: "Our antidrug efforts in Colombia are now paying off."
Some drug policy analysts say Colombia has likely been producing far more coca than the CIA surveys indicated.
"The cultivation numbers, wherever they seem to be headed, need to be taken with a grain of salt," said Joy Olson, director of the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank.
What's more, she said, cheap, potent cocaine remains readily available on U.S. streets, indicating the drug war is having little impact.
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