Five years and $3 billion into the most aggressive counternarcotics operation ever here, U.S. and Colombian officials say they have eradicated a record-breaking area of coca plants. Yet cocaine remains as available as ever on American streets, perhaps more so.
"It's very disturbing," said a senior State Department official traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a five-day tour of the region.
Colombian traffickers still provide 90 percent of the cocaine used in the United States and 50 percent of the heroin, just as they did five years ago, the government says.
"Key indicators of domestic cocaine availability show stable or slightly increased availability in drug markets throughout the country," the White House drug policy office said in February. Officials added that prices have remained stable and purity has improved.
Several senior officials said they were perplexed and disappointed. The White House report said, "There is little interagency consensus for this disparity."
Over five and a half years, the United States has spent nearly $3 billion on programs to fight drug trafficking, train the Colombian military to battle insurgents who control much of the drug trade and improve institutions of government. The initiative is called Plan Colombia.
The centerpiece of this effort has been the use of a small air force, 82 aircraft, to spray herbicide on coca plants across the country. Over five years, more than 525,000 hectares, or 1.3 million acres, of coca plants and 21,000 hectares of opium poppy have been destroyed at great cost. Traffickers have shot down at least five of the planes; three lives have been lost.
Theories abound on the reason for the disparity between the eradication numbers and the availability estimates, and how to deal with it. Luis Alberto Moreno, the Colombian ambassador to the United States, said he believed the enforcement teams should be uprooting the plants instead of spraying them with herbicide.
The senior State Department official said he suspected traffickers were hoarding vast supplies of cocaine and doling it out slowly. Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, said he thought the Colombians should be using a more powerful herbicide. And the White House drug policy office hypothesizes that the data on drug cultivation might be inaccurate.
General Jorge Daniel Castro, director of the Colombian national police and one of the country's primary experts on the issue, described the drug-enforcement paradox as "a complex phenomenon," but added when pressed that he believed the traffickers were replanting plants as soon as the planes left.
The Bush administration is asking Congress to extend Plan Colombia for at least one more year. The president's budget proposal asks for an additional $734 million next year on top of the $2.9 billion already spent.
A senior State Department official who is involved in the Colombia program said, "Give us another year or so and see if there is any effect." Moreno said the traffickers had "improved their productivity, but I think we are getting close to the tipping point." He is lobbying Congress to renew the financing.
Each eradication mission is a complex operation involving a former military plane converted to crop duster and five or six other aircraft including helicopter gunships that provide protection. The planes spray glyphosate on the crops; that is the generic name for the herbicide sold commercially as Roundup. It kills the plants but is said to leave no residue in the soil.
Earlier this year, the State Department reported that 2004 had been "another banner year." The spray planes had eradicated 136,000 hectares of coca plants. But it seemed a pyrrhic accomplishment. At about same time, the White House drug policy office reported that 114,000 hectares of coca plants remained, an area that was "statistically unchanged" from the previous year.
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$3 billion later, Colombian drugs still flow freely
By Joel Brinkley, NY Times
April 29, 2005
Link
"It's very disturbing," said a senior State Department official traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a five-day tour of the region.
Colombian traffickers still provide 90 percent of the cocaine used in the United States and 50 percent of the heroin, just as they did five years ago, the government says.
"Key indicators of domestic cocaine availability show stable or slightly increased availability in drug markets throughout the country," the White House drug policy office said in February. Officials added that prices have remained stable and purity has improved.
Several senior officials said they were perplexed and disappointed. The White House report said, "There is little interagency consensus for this disparity."
Over five and a half years, the United States has spent nearly $3 billion on programs to fight drug trafficking, train the Colombian military to battle insurgents who control much of the drug trade and improve institutions of government. The initiative is called Plan Colombia.
The centerpiece of this effort has been the use of a small air force, 82 aircraft, to spray herbicide on coca plants across the country. Over five years, more than 525,000 hectares, or 1.3 million acres, of coca plants and 21,000 hectares of opium poppy have been destroyed at great cost. Traffickers have shot down at least five of the planes; three lives have been lost.
Theories abound on the reason for the disparity between the eradication numbers and the availability estimates, and how to deal with it. Luis Alberto Moreno, the Colombian ambassador to the United States, said he believed the enforcement teams should be uprooting the plants instead of spraying them with herbicide.
The senior State Department official said he suspected traffickers were hoarding vast supplies of cocaine and doling it out slowly. Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, said he thought the Colombians should be using a more powerful herbicide. And the White House drug policy office hypothesizes that the data on drug cultivation might be inaccurate.
General Jorge Daniel Castro, director of the Colombian national police and one of the country's primary experts on the issue, described the drug-enforcement paradox as "a complex phenomenon," but added when pressed that he believed the traffickers were replanting plants as soon as the planes left.
The Bush administration is asking Congress to extend Plan Colombia for at least one more year. The president's budget proposal asks for an additional $734 million next year on top of the $2.9 billion already spent.
A senior State Department official who is involved in the Colombia program said, "Give us another year or so and see if there is any effect." Moreno said the traffickers had "improved their productivity, but I think we are getting close to the tipping point." He is lobbying Congress to renew the financing.
Each eradication mission is a complex operation involving a former military plane converted to crop duster and five or six other aircraft including helicopter gunships that provide protection. The planes spray glyphosate on the crops; that is the generic name for the herbicide sold commercially as Roundup. It kills the plants but is said to leave no residue in the soil.
Earlier this year, the State Department reported that 2004 had been "another banner year." The spray planes had eradicated 136,000 hectares of coca plants. But it seemed a pyrrhic accomplishment. At about same time, the White House drug policy office reported that 114,000 hectares of coca plants remained, an area that was "statistically unchanged" from the previous year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$3 billion later, Colombian drugs still flow freely
By Joel Brinkley, NY Times
April 29, 2005
Link
