According to official figures, since 2000 the US has spent about $6bn (£3.8bn) fighting drug production in Colombia and training its army to battle rebel groups. The centrepiece of Plan Colombia has been the aerial spraying of coca plants, which yield the raw material for cocaine - which then helps finance the rebels. Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer. Yet the US plan has proved highly controversial. Policymakers argue it is in the national interest to fight cocaine at its source and to stabilise Colombia. Critics agree - but say the current plan is ineffective, targets desperate farmers and has worsened an existing humanitarian crisis.
Under the plan, the US has given Alvaro Uribe's government more than $600m each year, heavily slanted towards military aid. It has supplied helicopters, advisers, trainers and intelligence to the Colombian army to help it modernise and operate more effectively against both the coca farmers and rebels. Congress initially specified that the aid should only be used against drug lords but US had previously indicated that some of it should be spent on counter-terrorism efforts. The Colombian armed forces had regained control of many areas formerly held by rebels and made inroads into their financing.
The number of fighters in rebel group Farc might have fallen but the goal of reducing the cultivation and distribution of illegal narcotics by 50% in six years had not been met. Opium poppy cultivation and heroin production have fallen by half. But coca cultivation and cocaine production levels is on the increase. It is said farmers had found ways to defy aerial and manual eradication programmes, by planting smaller patches or moving to new ground.
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