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From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 6:30 PM
Subject: [mobilize-globally] The European Parliament rejects Plan Colombia
Subject:
[MLNews!*] NYTimes.com Article: A Foolish Drug War
Date:
Sat, 24 Feb 2001 22:26:08 EST
From:
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Subj: [CIA-DRUGS] NYTimes.com Article: A Foolish Drug War
Date: 2/24/01 6:57:47 PM Mountain Standard Time
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (fcmacar)
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>
> A Foolish Drug War
>
> February 10, 2001
>
> By ANA CARRIGAN
>
> TOLIMA, Colombia -- Secretary of State Colin Powell recently
affirmed
> the Bush administration's support for Plan Colombia - the plan
> inherited from the Clinton White House that pledged $1.3 billion to
> fight drugs in Colombia. But this plan - based almost entirely on
> military strategies - could well lead to America's next proxy war
> in Latin America.
>
> In Putumayo, the province with about half of the coca crop, recent
> aerial spraying of herbicides has already caused social and
> environmental havoc. In Strasbourg, France, last week, the European
> Parliament, worried by the human rights consequences of America's
> support for this approach and for an army that maintains links to
> drug-financed paramilitaries, voted 474 to 1 to reject Plan
> Colombia.
>
> But there are workable alternatives being developed by local
> governments in Colombia that are on the front lines of this drug
> war. In six southeastern Colombian provinces where some 80 percent
> of the Colombian drug crop is grown, new governors have proposed
> several promising initiatives.
>
> The governors oppose Plan Colombia because they fear their
> provinces will be overwhelmed by its traumatic impact. They also
> say no one in the region was consulted when it was designed by
> officials in Bogot and Washington. The governors want to use
> manual eradication of the coca crops rather than widespread
> fumigation. And, most important, they are identifying pragmatic
> ways to help peasant communities with livelihoods now tied to drug
> crops.
>
> These regional leaders know military approaches have not worked.
> Parmenio Cullar, a former justice minister and the new governor of
> Nario Province, said in a recent interview: "We all want this
> plague to be eradicated. But in 20 years, Colombia's anti-narcotics
> policies have not reduced, much less eliminated, drug production.
> We have to recognize that the problem of drugs in Colombia is tied
> to the poverty of the peasants."
>
> Manual eradication with the voluntary labor of the peasant growers
> uproots crops peacefully, without environmental harm. Persuading
> these growers to eradicate their drug crops is the easy part
> because they are sick of drug-related violence and scared of the
> fumigation and mass displacement that follow.
>
> But alternative eradication methods do not address the central
> economic problem that is driving coca production. Colombia's
> traditional rural economy is in crisis. Take coffee, for example.
> Since Colombia opened its agricultural markets in the early 1990's,
> the coffee harvest has been reduced almost by half. Ten years ago,
> agricultural imports to Colombia were 700,000 tons, and today they
> are 7 million tons. One million rural jobs have been lost during
> the past decade. A quarter of a million peasants have turned to
> coca production. Any long-term solution has to provide sustainable
> crops or employment.
>
> Recently, two of the governors held exploratory talks with
> European diplomats in Bogot to discuss the kinds of programs they
> intend to present to European governments in Brussels this spring,
> when Europe will decide how to spend $800 million over five years.
> There are a few infrastructure projects on their list: a highway
> linking Tolima, Huila and Nario to the Pacific coast; improvements
> to the Pacific port of Tumaco. They have identified competitive
> products for export: rubber, African palm, cocoa, and wood. And
> they say milk production, tropical fruits and cotton could be
> linked to microenterprises in rural towns. One small town near the
> Narino-Ecuador border, for example, currently employs 1,000 people
> producing specialty foods for Japan.
>
> As for the war, the governors have reason to believe that once
> peasant communities have some economic alternatives to coca
> production, the guerrillas in the region will not be able to oppose
> the citizens' collective will.
>
> Last week, Plan Colombia's operations in Putumayo were temporarily
> suspended, in part because of local protests. The Bush
> administration now has an opportunity to evaluate this project's
> performance. There is still time to turn this ill-conceived plan
> around and get behind the development proposals of the local
> governors. With American support, their integrated vision of a
> drug-free, more peaceful Colombia is still possible.
> Ana Carrigan, who writes from Colombia for The Irish Times, is the
> author of "The Palace of Justice: A Colombian Tragedy."
>
>
>
>
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/10/opinion/10CARR.html?ex=983939555&ei=1&en=b
252d39a8df8ed77
>
> /-----------------------------------------------------------------\
>
>
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>
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>
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