Article: Officials from State, USAID Testify on Andean Regional Initiative

11 July 2001

Article: Officials from State, USAID Testify on Andean Regional Initiative

Discuss administration's "regional-centric" policy in Andean

by Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Two U.S. officials coordinating the Bush Administration's strategy toward the Andean region say that meeting the wide range of challenges facing the area involves strengthening democracy, providing for social and economic development, and reducing the supply of illegal drugs to the United States at the source.

Testifying July 11 before a Senate subcommittee, Rand Beers, assistant secretary of state for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the administration's proposed $882 million Andean Regional Initiative (ARI) recognizes that no nation in the area "is free of drug trafficking or the attendant ills of other crime forms and corruption." To combat those ills, he said, the administration proposes a regional rather than a "Colombia-centric" policy, and a comprehensive, integrated aid package that brings together democracy and development as well as anti-drug initiatives.

Beers said that Plan Colombia, the Colombian government's action plan to confront that nation's complex problems, is "now well underway and showing good early results." In addition to stemming the flow of narcotics entering the United States, Washington's $1,300 million aid package to Colombia is intended to support institutional and judicial reform, as well as economic advancement in the nation, he said.

Beers told the Senate Appropriations' Subcommittee on Foreign Operations that of the $882 million for the ARI, $731 million is going to fight drugs under what is called the Andean Counterdrug Initiative. Half of that $731 million will be for Andean countries other than Colombia. Beers said that by following this course, "we intend to bolster the successful efforts and tremendous progress we have made in counter-narcotics in countries such as Peru and Bolivia, while preventing the further expansion of the drug trafficking problem into other areas of the region, such as Brazil, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador."

The official also reiterated that glyphosate, used in the Plan Colombia aerial spray operations against the growing of coca, is one of the least harmful herbicides available on the world market. As he has on numerous other occasions, Beers refuted claims that glyphosate represents a health risk to humans, saying that it is used throughout the United States and over 100 others countries and has been rigorously tested to make sure it is safe.

Nonetheless, Beers said "we feel compelled to probe assertions that it is making people sick." In that regard, the U.S. government is sponsoring a study on the issue, he said. Beers said "every effort" is being made to protect legitimate farming operations from possible damage from the aerial spray program.

Meanwhile, Michael Deal from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said the ARI operates on the premise that the region's problems with drugs and violence "will not be solved in any sustained way unless the fundamental causes of these problems are also addressed." In that regard, he said democratic institutions in the region must become stronger, national and local government must increase their presence in rural areas and provide better services to the rural poor, and the justice system must be more accessible and efficient. In addition, Deal said the region's human rights environment must improve.

Deal, who is deputy assistant administrator for USAID's Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, said after a decade of work in Bolivia and Peru the United States understands that a "three-pronged strategy of eradication, interdiction, and alternative development has dramatically reduced coca cultivation in both of these countries." Deal said that alternative development programs work by encouraging farmers to grow legal crops rather than continuing to cultivate coca.

But to make alternative development work, Deal said, farmers need credible alternatives, and local governments and organizations must apply pressure and provide incentives for the entire community to stay out of illicit drug crop production.

Deal reported that in Colombia, despite big challenges, the turnout of farmers who are voluntarily agreeing to become involved in alternative development programs and eradicate coca has been "quite promising." An opium poppy eradication program in Colombia has already eliminated 675 hectares of poppy and produced 600 hectares of productive, legal crops benefiting 770 families in the highlands of Tolima, Huila, and Cauca, Deal said.

Deal said that in Peru's coca-producing valleys, more than 27,000 hectares of legal crops such as coffee, cacao, palm heart, and pineapple have generated about 10,000 full-time jobs, while in Bolivia's Chapare region, where more than 44,000 hectares of coca once grew, there are now more than 114,000 hectares of legal crops and pastureland.

Deal said that the ARI should be viewed as "the national program in each of the affected countries, responding to their priorities and problems," adding: "They are the ones that are going to have to make this work. Our role is one of facilitating the process, and we will be working along with them over the next several years in this effort."

The two officials testified in the face of skepticism from several subcommittee members about whether the administration's efforts in the Andean region are succeeding. For instance, Subcommittee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat of Vermont) said that "however well intentioned, the Andean Counterdrug Initiative will not appreciably reduce the flow of drugs to the region, whether this year or in the future." Ranking subcommittee member Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) said while the ARI addresses spill-over of the drug trade from Colombia to neighboring countries, "much more must be done to promote regional consultations, coordination of law enforcement activities, and intelligence and expertise sharing."

The hearing was held the day after the House Appropriations Committee approved $676 million for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, which was $55 million below what the administration had requested. The measure was part of the $15,200 million bill that the Committee approved for U.S. foreign aid in fiscal year 2002.