Report: Colombia Coca Cultivation Remains

[Rose Siding]

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Alvaro Uribe vowed on Friday to press ahead with U.S.-financed fumigation of cocaine-producing crops, even as a new White House report found that a massive aerial spraying offensive last year failed to dent the area of coca under cultivation in Colombia.

Critics of Washington's effort to crush drug production in Colombia -- the world's main cocaine-producing country and a major supplier of heroin -- say the report indicates the Colombian and U.S. governments are losing the war on drugs, which has cost more than $3 billion in U.S. aid here since 2000.

"The U.S. government's own data provides stark evidence that the drug war is failing to achieve its most basic objectives," said John Walsh, of the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank critical of U.S. drug policies in Colombia.
....
Walsh also pointed out that prices of cocaine and heroin have been steadily dropping over the years on U.S. streets, indicating availability of the drugs has not diminished.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-us-drug-war,0,1396288.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[XemaSab]

1. Herbicide: the Panacaea

n/t

[EFerrari]

2. I hate to be so cynical but all I can think is, they want to control

the market.

Not that I've any reason to assign such motives to the Cabal.

[ngGale]

20. Meet another cynic here...

too much means a low price. Iran-Contra made me cynical, Afghanistan and the poppy production made me more cynical. Can't help myself - the Cabal doesn't have a good record to fall back on.

[firefox]

3. The Colombian Supreme Court ordered the spraying to stop

The rule of law is a joke and it was the drug war that destroyed the Constitution. The sprayings are about driving people off the land so that it can be exploited with strip mines and clear cutting. If a peasant threatens to sue over the illegal and immoral sprayings, he is shot by US puppets.

Plan Colombia was introduced to the Colombia legislature in English, an insult beyond belief and it was Kerry that sponsored Plan Colombia in the Senate, one of only seven pieces of legislation he ever introduced that passed, where four were ceremonial.

The US has imposed a civil war on Colombia for over 30 years. It used to be that people wanted to save the rain forest and now the USG will not let anyone stop them from destroying it, even if they have to kill those that object. There is no effort to reduce the harms of substance abuse. It is the CIA that is the most global of all players in the high demand, high profit game of addictive substances.

The drug war and prohibition live because of a controlled media and people's blissful ignorance.

[Say_What]

13. Not only was Plan Colombia written in English, they presented it to the

planet before the the Colombian congress even debated it!! It was a done deal between Clinton and Pastrana without consulting anyone in Colombia.
:puke:

[Moderator]

4. kick to combine

[Say_What]

5. Report: Colombia drug war failing

Yet the USSA is planning to send nearly 600 million of your tax dollars to Colombia again this year, despite the fact that Colombia has the worst human rights record in this hemisphere.
:banghead:


<clips>

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A new White House report showed that a massive aerial spraying offensive last year failed to dent the area of coca under cultivation in Colombia.

But President Alvaro Uribe vowed on Friday to press ahead with U.S.-financed fumigation of cocaine-producing crops.

The war on drugs in Colombia, the world's main cocaine-producing country and a major supplier of heroin, has cost more than $3 billion in U.S. aid here since 2000. Critics of Washington's effort say the report indicates the Colombia and U.S. governments are losing the war.

"The U.S. government's own data provides stark evidence that the drug war is failing to achieve its most basic objectives," said John Walsh, of the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank critical of U.S. drug policies in Colombia.

The report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said that despite a record-setting aerial eradication offensive, 281,694 acres of coca remained in Colombia at the end of 2004 -- an increase from the 281,323 acres left over after spraying the year earlier.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/04/01/colombia.coca.ap/

[vogonjiltz]

6. no fucking kidding,

I happen to think all this military aid is to set Colombia up as a proxy for us to fight Venezuala.

edit; spelling

[Nevernose]

7. This is LBN?

I could have given you the same information in 1975!

[SoCalDem]

8. Symbolic "wars on" always fail..

war on poverty?? flop
war on alcohol?? flop
war on drugs?? flop..

Human nature is stronger than any "faux war". there will always be people who want heroin/cocaine/whatever no matter what the consequence, and there will always be people who will sell it to the ones who want it.. It's capitalism at its purest.

Instead of wasting tons of money destroying rainforest with defoliants and terrorizing local people, the best approach would be to set up clinics in every community that needed one, and offer treatment.

I am no expert, but my guess is that most hardcore addicts started out doing it as a lark, and ended up addicted. If they COULD get clean, they would.. But if you are on the margins of society and have no money and no health insurance...AND you are stealing to support your habit, it's very unlikely that you will seek treatment.

We need to use that money on education and treatment...not on making "war" on intangibles..

[The Devils Advocate]

11. "Treatment" is a waste of money.

The rate of success for people remanded to rehab is 2.5%. The rate of success of people who simply want to quit is over 85%. It seems that drug "addiction" is really choice, and it is a waste to invest in treatment. No amount of treatment will change someone who doesn't want to, and nothing will stop someone who does want to change.

Don't just end the war on drugs, end the stigma of drug use.

[leesa]

16. Right. Like 'terrorism' or 'communism'

I agree. Totally bogus concepts...but they sell alot of weapons and allow us to grab a lot of loot and resources.

[SoCalDem]

18. It's all Jingo-Lingo Feel-good Words

Empty rhetoric with pathetic results costing Billions:(

[Judi Lynn]

9. Interesting, and depressing to learn that as Bush pursues his losing war

on the peasants of Colombia, to sustain themselves they are starting to move into what has been the rainforest in serious ways. _Bush will be responsible for the destruction of large areas of despserately needed rainforest simply in order to have the feeling he can control these poor folks in their own country at will.

Has to have the upper hand, even when it means his policies are destroying our only home. Shortsighted, to say the least. Selfish, too. Throw in stupid.

[firefox]

10. Coca will be the only poison resistant plant left in Colombia

They are killing everything under the plane loads of Monsanto poison to drive the population into the slums so that vast regions can be exploited for its resources in the most economical way. There is already reference to supercoca at NarcoNews and with biotechnology the new frontier of scientific research, taking the place of the computer frontier, one thing is certain- they can poison all of Colombia and the only plant left standing will be coca.

[NNN0LHI]

12. Another Boosh Mission Accomplished! n/t

[Say_What]

14. ICC probes Colombia on war crimes

<clips>

The International Criminal Court has asked the Colombian government for details of crimes against humanity which may have occurred in the country.

Colombia is suffering from a four-decade-old civil war which sees about 3,000 people killed every year.

Colombia's ICC representative has said his government will fully co-operate with the tribunal.

The ICC considers cases of genocide or crimes against humanity committed since it started work in 2002.

'Thousands killed'

The ICC has also asked for details of government proposals for a truce with the main right-wing paramilitary group, the AUC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4399027.stm

[leesa]

15. Well, thank God we have THAT as a steady source of income.

[jonnyo]

17. More effective to just hose down the Bush twins

Cut off demand at its source.

[shadowknows69]

19. I had some colombian coca myself this evening

thanks to a colombian friend of mine. well ok actually he's Irish. :hippie: