A DEEP HOLE

These days $1.3 billion just doesn't go as far as you might think. That's
how it seems in Colombia, where American money isn't persuading coca
growers to plant corn and petunias instead.

In Putumayo province, where much of Colombia's coca is produced, farmer
Jaimec Aguirre Gomez won't be substituting his crop, according to a story
Sunday in The Washington Post. He at one point planned to skip coca and
raise pigs instead. He shelled out $400 to build pens and to plant fodder
for the pigs. Then U.S.-financed spray planes dusted his fodder with
herbicide, killing the plants and his pig- farming plans.

"This pretty much ended my confidence in the program," he told the Post.
"They told us they were going to organize credit, new markets, all of this.
But now nothing."

The $1.3 billion in U.S. aid to Colombia likely won't ever be spent on a
crop substitution program. The Colombian government can't secure the
coca-growing areas. It can't provide the roads and other infrastructure for
farmers to deliver crops. Even if the government built the roads, it
doesn't make much sense to substitute crops that can't be delivered to
markets that don't exist.

So now U.S. officials think maybe the money might be better spent on
community development projects in less hostile environs. This means places
where coca isn't grown and therefore isn't taxed by rebels and right-wing
paramilitary forces.

So the U.S. aid money that was supposed to subsidize Putumayo coca farmers
will be spent on development a safe distance away from those farmers.
Presumably, some of that money will continue to be spent spraying herbicide
indiscriminately, further infuriating farmers.

The White House, meanwhile, is reportedly considering not only requesting
more money for Colombia; it also is considering lifting the restriction
that U.S. aid be spent on drug suppression only. The aid money could then
be used by the Colombian government to battle two rebel armies in a civil
war that has been raging for nearly four decades.

Colombia isn't a quagmire. It is a deep and dangerous dark hole. The reason
for U.S. aid is rapidly disappearing. U.S. involvement should do the same.