US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA4101

UNCLAS BOGOTA 004101 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/AND, INL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR, KPAO, OPRC, PREL, SNAR, PGOV, PTER, SENV, CO 
SUBJECT: FUMIGATION IS WORKING: COM'S RESPONSE IN POLITICAL 
WEEKLY CAMBIO 
 
 
1.  (U) The Chief of Mission responded to press articles 
challenging the success of eradication efforts in Colombia, 
and calling for a change in policy in an article published 
by leading political weekly Cambio on its April 11-18 issue. 
 
2. (U) BEGIN ARTICLE: 
 
"There has been a lot of discussion surrounding the recent 
release of the U.S. coca and poppy cultivation estimates in 
Washington, including the estimate that coca hectarage did 
not change significantly in 2004 in spite of record 
fumigation levels.  In fact, although it would have been 
nice if the hectarage numbers had also gone down, last year, 
and every year for the last four years, the U.S. Colombian 
effort has had great success in what really matters here: 
reducing the amount of cocaine and heroin produced in 
Colombia. 
 
When Plan Colombia began in 2001, Colombia alone had a 
potential production of an estimated 700 tons of pure 
cocaine.  Today that figure is 430 tons.  It declined by 
some 30 tons in 2004.  Original goals for Plan Colombia 
included reducing the supply of Colombian cocaine by 50% 
over a five-year period, and we are approaching that goal. 
 
We are also measuring more extensively.  For the first time, 
the estimates include coca grown in national parks.  Drug 
growers are destroying Colombia's natural patrimony and will 
continue to do so until they can be stopped.  Recent aerial 
footage shows wide spread deforestation in the Sierra 
Macarena, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and Choco due to 
drug cultivation.  In just six national parks included in 
the study, there were almost 7,000 hectares of coca, and we 
believe there is much more in the protected areas.  Between 
parks and other reserved areas, more than 10 percent of 
Colombia is off limits to spraying.  And the drug growers 
are taking advantage of it.  But we are on to them. 
 
We are making the drug producers work harder.  Because of 
our successful spraying, they are having to replant coca in 
record quantities and, even so, are not able to maintain 
production levels. Because newly planted fields do not yield 
the same production as mature fields, production levels 
dropped even though hectarage did not.  This is expensive 
for the narcotraffickers and, we believe, ultimately 
unsustainable.  Drug eradication is a war of attrition 
against determined, well-funded narcoterrorist 
organizations; we do not expect a knock-out blow, just that 
our opponent will get weaker and weaker until he disappears. 
 
Finally, it is worth noting that, in keeping with our 
increased focus on heroin in 2004, opium poppy cultivation 
was reduced 52 percent, a huge success.  Opium poppy 
cultivation fell steeply from an estimated 4,400 hectares in 
2003 to 2,100 hectares in 2004.  In 2001, Colombia was the 
largest producer of heroin in the hemisphere; that has not 
been true for two years thanks to our bilateral efforts. 
 
The cooperation between the United States and the military, 
police, and civilian officials of Colombia is working and 
will continue to work.  Last year our combined efforts led 
to record seizures and fumigation, and the lowest production 
of both coca and opium poppy in years.  This is making life 
harder for the drug traffickers who spread addiction in the 
U.S., and form the basis for criminal and terrorist violence 
here in Colombia.  Together, we will win." 
 
END ARTICLE. 
 
WOOD