Colombia's coca fumigation riles Andean neighbors

By Patrick Markey

SAN MIGUEL, Colombia, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Six times in four years Colombian anti-narcotics pilots fumigated Gilberto's farm, but that has not stopped him growing coca leaves that end up as cocaine on U.S. and European streets.

Hidden in rural Putumayo near Ecuador's frontier, he toils in a makeshift lab turning coca into paste ready for sale to feed his family and ignoring the U.S.-funded campaign that has put President Alvaro Uribe at odds with his Andean neighbors.

"We are using what the fumigation left us," Gilberto said, sluicing coca leaves in a plastic barrel. "We have to work with a little coca, what else can we do?"

Fumigation has been a pillar of U.S. aid to Colombia since 2000, but spraying is now testing ties between Washington ally Uribe and leftists in Ecuador and Venezuela, who see eradication as U.S. interference and spillover from Colombia's conflict.

Putumayo shows the complexity Colombia faces.

Washington credits the campaign with destroying illicit crops and reducing violence. But some analysts and local officials say years of spraying has failed to stamp out coca or offer farmers enough alternatives to wean them off the profitable leaf.

A remote region once dominated by guerrillas, Putumayo was the heart of the multimillion dollar Plan Colombia program to crush rebels and destroy the province's coca, estimated at more than 148,260 acres (60,000 hectares) six years ago.

Gone are the coca bushes that once lined Putumayo's highway, an unpaved road winding through the jungly province, where increased troop presence has also forced back the FARC rebels who use the drug trade for revenues.

Putumayo officials and farmers acknowledge fumigation has destroyed coca, but say it also hits legal crops, drives illicit plants into remoter areas and forces residents from their plots, sometimes across the frontier.

"It's a short cut. The alternative is what they call nation-building, it's a hard sell because it costs a lot and you don't see results immediately," said Adam Isacson, Colombia expert at Washington's Center for International Policy.

NEW CROPS, BORDER JITTERS

After nearly a year without spraying in Putumayo, Colombia restarted fumigation there in December, when 29,650 acres (12,000 hectares) of coca surfaced in the area. That fueled tensions with Ecuador, which complained herbicides were damaging crops.

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, threatened legal action and tightened border security. His ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who wants to forge a socialist alliance in the region, blasted the White House drugs war as an "imperialist" threat.

"More than any government, Correa tries to get Colombia to answer," said Ivan Morales, a community leader in Ecuador's Sucumbios province separated by Putumayo by a river.

On the frontier, Colombian municipalities say they need more alternatives beyond fumigation as coca growers are replanting and keeping coca alive by pruning crops to protect them from spraying. They lose one harvest out of four or five.

"It doesn't finish off the coca," San Miguel municipal agriculture chief Rodrigo Luna said.

Farmer Hermogenes Munoz filed for compensation in San Miguel late last year to claim for damaged cattle pastures after he said aircraft dumped herbicides on his farm.

Grass withered on part of his land while coca went mostly untouched in a neighboring plot. Fresh coca leaves were sprouting back in thick clutches just two months after they were pruned to protect them from spraying.

"Look at that beautiful coca over there," he said, standing on yellowed grass yards (metres) from the bright green plants.

A U.S. government official said spraying is effective in killing off 90 percent of coca and pilot errors and damage are minimal. Yet the latest U.S. figures show Colombia had 355,832 acres (144,000 hectares) in 2005, the same as in 2002. Officials say that is because they now search more areas with better detection.

"If we hadn't fumigated Colombia could have 250,000 hectares (617,760 acres) of coca," said Vice President Francisco Santos. "Nothing competes with coca. It is so profitable and we must see that as a reality we face."

Since 2001, Washington has given $70 million for social aid to Putumayo, such as a palm processing plant offering farmers an option to help reduce coca crops. Around 153,205 acres (62,000 hectares) of legal farmland have been developed in Colombia with U.S. aid.

But giving up coca is tough when a 2.5 acres (a hectare) of good leaf can yield three or four times the minimum salary a month, local officials say.

"It was good business. I got my husband to grow coca because it was about educating my children," said Maria Victoria Rodriguez, who joined a U.S.-backed program after giving up coca eight years ago.