DRUG CROPS ON RISE IN THE AMAZON BASIN

BOGOTA -- Farmers have covered swaths of land in Colombia's Amazon Basin
with drug crops, defying a campaign to eradicate cocaine- producing
plantations, the interior minister has said.

"The crops are spreading like the plague," Sabas Pretelt told reporters
after visiting the jungles of Guaviare state.

The interior minister blamed drug traffickers and rebel groups for
recruiting the farmers, and he told the land owners that they run the risk
of having their belongings seized by the government.