Colombians expand coca crops

An United States Government survey has found a 26 per cent increase in land devoted to Colombia's coca crop.

Coca is the core ingredient in cocaine and, according to Washington, 90 per cent of the cocaine to reach the US originates in Colombia.

The US Government used satellite imagery to identify 144,000 hectares of coca fields across Colombia.

Despite the one-quarter increase from 2004, the US claims its $US4 billion 'Plan Colombia' anti-drug policy is working.

ABC Online(OZ)

;)

they have to do something with all the cash.

April 16, 2006, 12:46AM
Coca crop jumps despite U.S. aid
The CIA finds Colombian acres grew 21% during eradication effort costing billions


By JOHN OTIS
South America Bureau

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - In a blow to the United States' anti-drug campaign here, which cost more than $4 billion, new White House estimates indicate that Colombia's coca crop expanded by nearly 21 percent last year.

Figures released late Friday by the Office of National Drug Control Policy indicate Colombian farmers last year grew 355,680 acres of coca, the raw material for cocaine. That represents a jump of nearly 74,000 acres from 2004 even though U.S. funded crop-dusters destroyed record amounts of coca plants in 2005.

Washington has provided the Bogota government with more than $4 billion, mostly in anti-drug aid since 2000 for a program known as Plan Colombia — which was supposed to cut coca cultivation by half within six years.

Yet according to the new figures, more coca is now being grown here than when Plan Colombia started. "This is going to turn heads" on Capitol Hill, said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Center for International Policy in Washington and a longtime critic of U.S. counterdrug strategies in Latin America.

"You're talking about $4.7 billion spent on Plan Colombia, and this is all we have to show for it?"
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3796474.html

I wish all the best for the Colombian farmers. For the record; tobacco has killed a lot more people than cocaine.

All South America is growing more coca, Afghanistan is growing much much more opium. The wealthy are getting much much more wealthy. No wonder Bush* loves his wars.....

And by success, I mean a vicious and dubious waste of tax-payer money.