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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Secretary Of State Colin Powell And Colombian President
Michael Isikoff Newsweek (US)
Monday 17 Sep 2001 SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL AND COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA TO RETHINK ANTI-DRUG PLAN AMID PERCEPTION THAT IT HAS BEEN 'A CATASTROPHE' NEW YORK Disturbed by the failings of the controversial plan he inherited to fight drugs and guerrillas in Colombia, Secretary of State Colin Powell is on his way this week to meet with Colombian President Andres Pastrana for a "frank" discussion about "what has worked and what hasn't," according to a State Department official. Many U.S. officials told Newsweek Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff that they fear that Plan Colombia has had little success. "What's happening down there is a catastrophe," one congressional staffer says in the September 17 issue (on newsstands Monday, September 10). Plan Colombia was approved by Congress as an "emergency" response over a year ago, after being vigorously pushed by then-President Clinton and his hard line drug czar Barry McCaffrey. George W. Bush signed off on the $1.3 billion program in his first few weeks in office and even asked for an additional $880 million for an "Andean regional initiative" to expand key elements to neighboring countries. But since then, Isikoff reports, the situation on the ground has gone from bad to worse. Leftist guerrillas control large swaths of countryside, peace talks with the Colombia government have all but collapsed and drug production continues to soar. The architects of Plan Colombia envisioned, among other things, a dramatic increase in aerial fumigation flights, dosing large segments of the country's agricultural regions with chemical herbicide, but public opposition to crop eradication has been growing. The anti-fumigation campaign is picking up support from Colombian provincial governors and environmental groups, the country's comptroller general called for immediate suspension of spraying, and even Pastrana may be having doubts, telling reporters last week that a new "evaluation" of the fumigation program was needed. Officially, State Department officials remain bullish, citing the success of a U.S. supported Colombian Army-backed offensive in the guerrilla-controlled Putumayo region on the Ecuadorian border that they claim eliminated 25,000 hectares of coca growth. "It's sort of like establishing a beachhead in an amphibious operation," says one U.S. official. "We've secured the beach -- and the first reports from the field are promising."
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