Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 29 March 2017

US says Colombia’s coca production surges to record levels

coca, knowing they would an area more than twice
later be awarded subsidies the size of New York City.
if they agreed to renounce “Colombia is in the midst
coca and grow products of a coca boom,” Adam
like potatoes and fruit in- Isacson, an analyst at the
stead. Cocaine produc- Washington Office on Latin
tion began increasing in America, wrote in an anal-
2013 and has steadily risen ysis of the soaring numbers.
every year since, in part U.S. President Donald
also due to a rise in the dol- Trump has proposed to
lar’s value and a decision slash foreign aid by 37 per-
to end aerial fumigations in cent, a cut that the U.S.
2014 over health concerns. State Department’s top
“We have been fumigat- counter-narcotics official,
ing these illegal fields for William Brownfield, called
20 years and we have not “a bit worrying” in an in-
achieved great results,” terview with a Colombian
said Rafael Pardo, the Co- newspaper last week.
lombian government’s top “The coca boom’s causes
post-conflict strategist. are complex, and Colom-
When the U.S.-backed
In this March 3, 2017 photo, workers weight sacs of harvested coca leaves at a coca field in anti-narcotics initiative bia’s government is hoping
Puerto Bello, in the southern Colombia’s state of Putumayo. Coca cultivation surged last year and that the U.S. government
now covers more territory than it did when a multibillion U.S.-led eradication campaign began Plan Colombia began will respond in a manner
16 years ago, according to a new survey published recently of illegal crops taken by the U.S. in 1999, Colombia had that recognizes this com-
government. 123,000 hectares (304,000 plexity and joins it in pur-
(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) acres) of coca — about suing a lasting solution
one-third less than it did
ALBA TOBELLA planted on an estimated gal crops in the aftermath last year. Those figures rose within the peace accords’
CHRISTINE ARMARIO 188,000 hectares (465,000 of a historic peace accord to a high of 170,000 hect- framework,” Isacson wrote.
Associated Press acres) of the Andean na- last year. ares (420,000 acres) in 2001 Colombian government
PUERTO BELLO, Colombia tion. “The coca leaf is our suste- and then began to de- officials and leaders in the
(AP) — Coca production Much of the coca boom nance,” said Eduardo Espi- cline. The biggest percent- Revolutionary Armed Forc-
in Colombia has surged has been centered in re- nosa, 49, who has relied on age increase over the last es of Colombia have been
to levels unseen in two mote hamlets like Puerto coca production to make two decades took place in traveling to remote areas
decades of U.S. eradica- Bello, in southern Colom- a living for 17 years. “But it 2015, when coca produc- seeking to persuade farm-
tion efforts, according to bia, where peasant farmers has only brought us exhaus- tion rose nearly 42 percent. ers to voluntarily eradicate
a White House report re- who’ve lived for decades tion, notoriety and disillu- But at no point since at coca crops, while police
leased recently. under the dominance of sion.” least 1994 has coca pro- and military have been
Cultivation of the plant leftist rebels are anxiously Yet U.S. officials contend duction been this high. deployed to manually de-
used to make cocaine awaiting the rollout of a the agreement has also The new figures indicate stroy plants. The govern-
rose 18 percent last year joint rebel-government provided a perverse in- last year’s coca produc- ment’s goal is to eradicate
from 2015, with coca crops plan to wean them off ille- centive for farmers to grow tion has expanded across 100,000 hectares (250,000
acres) of coca this year
OAS weighs punishing Venezuela for disrupting democracy between both approach-
es.
“We have a plan in action
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dip- possible to resolve a power the opposition-controlled largely ignored Congress that is concrete and mea-
lomats from across the struggle that is taking place legislature and holding re- since a landslide loss to surable, with sticks and
Western Hemisphere met against the backdrop of gional elections that were the opposition in legislative carrots,” President Juan
Tuesday to determine widespread shortages and originally slated for last elections in 2015, and sus- Manuel Santos said in a
whether to punish Venezu- triple-digit inflation. year. pended a recall campaign speech Tuesday night.
ela’s socialist government While OAS Secretary Gen- “He’s a liar, dishonest, bad aimed at forcing him from Thus far, 55,000 families in
for violating the country’s eral Luis Almagro has urged actor, mercenary and trai- office before the 2018 elec- eight departments have
democratic order. Venezuela be suspended tor,” Foreign Minister Delcy tion. signed pledges to stop
The special meeting at the for alleged repeated viola- Rodriguez said of Almagro The OAS has in the past sus- growing coca, though
Organization of American tions of the Inter-American on Monday while speak- pended Cuba, following many experts are skeptical
States came as the U.S. Democratic Charter, many ing to the OAS’ permanent the triumph of Fidel Cas- that poor peasants with
joined 13 other regional nations are urging dia- council. “He’s a dark fig- tro’s 1959 revolution, and little faith in government
governments in pushing logue to prod Maduro into ure intent on intervening in Honduras, after a 2009 mili- institutions will entirely re-
President Nicolas Maduro freeing “political prisoners,” Venezuela.” tary coup, for breaking with nounce an illicit crop that
to hold elections as soon as recognize the legitimacy of Maduro’s government has democracyq provides their livelihoods.q