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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 5,781
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 Colombia V.P. Casts Doubt on Drug War
#7389364 - 09/09/07 07:19 PM (11 months, 20 days ago) |
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Colombia V.P. Casts Doubt on Drug War
September 9, 2007 - Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's vice president said Sunday that a U.S.-backed program to fumigate coca fields is failing to stem cocaine trafficking and called for anti-drug efforts to shift away from the practice.
Vice President Francisco Santos' comments were Bogota's strongest critique yet of Washington's multibillion-dollar anti-narcotics strategy here, and came on the heels of a Senate vote to slash funding for the Colombian drug war.
"After a five-year frontal attack against drug trafficking, the results aren't the most successful or the ones we hoped for," Santos told a news conference.
He said Bogota is committed to fighting drug cartels, but "at the end of the day, the benchmark is whether the street price of cocaine in New York, London or Madrid rises or the quality falls. So far, we haven't found any statistics that bear this out."
Despite record herbicide spraying of coca fields last year, the White House drug czar's office said in June that Colombia is producing more of the plant used to make cocaine than when Washington enacted the $5 billion Plan Colombia in 2000.
According to recent government figures, coca production rose 9 percent last year , its third consecutive annual rise , to 388,000 acres. A recent dip in the U.S. street price of cocaine and a rise in purity also point to abundant supply.
That and concern about the Colombian government's human rights record led the U.S. Senate on Thursday to cut by almost $100 million Washington's annual military aid to Colombia, the bulk of which supports coca fumigation. A House of Representatives bill that passed in June calls for even deeper cuts.
The two versions must be reconciled before being sent to President Bush, who opposes any reduction in military aid to Colombia, his strongest ally in Latin America.
To partially offset the cuts, Senate and House Democrats have pushed through funds aimed at weaning Colombian farmers off coca crops and aiding prosecutors investigating massacres by illegal militias.
The Colombian military currently receives about 80 percent of some $700 million in aid from Washington. The Andean nation gets more U.S. aid than any country outside the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Santos said Colombia will focus more on manual coca eradication, which is more dangerous and time-consuming but allows for the plants to be ripped out at the roots.
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 Nasrudin
Stranger
Registered: 07/23/07
Posts: 144
Last seen: 1 day, 3 hours
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Re: Colombia V.P. Casts Doubt on Drug War [Re: veggie]
#7390481 - 09/10/07 01:16 AM (11 months, 20 days ago) |
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Gotta love the drug war, eh?
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Jive turkey
friend
Registered: 07/12/07
Posts: 369
Last seen: 6 hours, 42 minutes
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Re: Colombia V.P. Casts Doubt on Drug War [Re: Nasrudin]
#7390756 - 09/10/07 04:04 AM (11 months, 20 days ago) |
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I feel like blowin a bunch of coke
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If you developed your political views from listening to Hollywood you shouldn't be allowed to vote.
-me-
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