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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
AIDS: auditors criticise Bush administration
WTO disapproves of EU sugar subsidies
Demobilisation in Afghanistan a success
Additional funds for German civil peace service
Kemal Dervis next head of UNDP
New World Bank data on governance
Monetary fund for Asia under preparation
New leaders for WTO and UNCTAD
Canada concentrates development aid
The failure of Plan Colombia
06/2005
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The failure of “Plan Colombia”
The US administration has been supporting military measures against drug cultivation in Colombia for more than five years. Its “Plan Colombia” has devoured almost three billion dollars so far but has had little impact on the supply of Colombian narcotics to the USA. According to a New York Times report, 90% of the cocaine and 50% of the heroin on the US market come from Colombia, as was the case before the anti-drug campaign began. “It’s very disturbing,” the New York Times quoted a State Department official. Within the administration, there are several approaches to explaining the failure. One is that the drug barons probably have large stocks so that short-term production losses from coca fields sprayed with herbicides have not led to supply shortages. Another is that the coca growers simply replace the sprayed plants with healthy ones. Rather than just being sprayed, the plants have to be uprooted completely, said the Colombian Ambassador in Washington. Despite the failure to date, President Bush wants to continue the war. He has applied to Congress for a further 734 million US dollars for Plan Colombia. (ell)
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