Colombia's Low-Tech Coca Assault

"The strategy doesn't work; fumigating doesn't eradicate," El Tiempo, the country's largest newspaper, said recently in an editorial. "Instead of clamoring for help on a program that seems more inappropriate every day, the government should take advantage of this moment to redirect and rethink its anti-drug collaboration with the United States. Fumigation should be suspended and only used in extraordinary cases."

In interviews, government officials say one of the chief benefits of manual eradication is that it destroys the entire coca bush, root and all. By contrast, farmers whose crops are sprayed often quickly cut them back to the root in order to regrow the bush. Farmers also cover coca leaves with substances that limit the effectiveness of the herbicide spray, glyphosate.

Santos, the defense minister, said it is possible that in coming years 75 percent of the coca removed will be eradicated manually.

Officials also said that with Colombia planning to spend more to build a state presence in lawless regions, it makes sense to eradicate on the ground, instead of from the air. "When you're in a plane, it's 140 knots and you're gone," said Col. José Ángel Mendoza, who commands police operations here in Caqueta state. "When you're on land, you're with the people."

Vice President Santos, though, said the idea is to develop a strategy in which coca farmers are eradicating in exchange for assistance cultivating legal crops. Without such alternatives, said John Walsh, senior associate for drug policy at the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America, the gains achieved by manual eradication will be reversed with new plantings.

The involvement of coca farmers in eradication may not yield fast results, he said, but "it should mean more durable results and, just as importantly, could foster a positive relationship between communities and different levels of government."

The development of the new strategy comes as Democrats in the U.S. Congress, concerned about human rights in Colombia as well as the effectiveness of aerial fumigation, have cut aid to the country by 10 percent. The spraying program would be hit hard by a House plan to slash military funding to Colombia by $150 million, though the Senate may restore some of the funds when it votes this month.

Walters, the U.S. drug policy chief, said cutting aerial spraying would be shortsighted. He said the strategy has weakened the rebels, while helping to push thousands of paramilitary fighters into a government demobilization program. A classified study released by the White House said that profits from drug-related activities collected by the largest rebel group here -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- fell by a third between 2003 and 2005 and are now $60 million to $115 million a year.

For now, the Colombians are funding the manual eradication, though officials said they want the Bush administration to show greater flexibility with anti-drug funds.

It has not been easy, or cheap, particularly in lives lost. About 40 policemen and eradicators have been killed in the past year -- a fact that weighed heavily on the team working the coca fields in El Mirador.

"This is a guerrilla zone, so the danger is always there," said Anselmo Calderon, 39, one of the men who's been uprooting coca in El Mirador. "It's no secret the guerrillas sustain themselves with this, so we can become a military target."

The job takes time. Calderon and dozens of other men were assigned to clean one plot after another over eight consecutive weeks. Their work is dependent on a police unit, which ensures that muddy trails aren't mined or that booby traps haven't been planted deep under the coca bushes that are to be uprooted.

On a recent day, success was measured by the horizon, said one police officer, José Luis Merchan. He pointed out the other hilltops, all of them scraped clean of coca plants.

"What were coca fields have been turned into cattle pasture," he said. "But it gets harder all the time. People put the plots higher, in more mountainous areas, harder for the police."