Colombia-Poppy War
4-27-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
PIEDRA MARCADA, Colombia (AP) _ A new drug war, against heroin, is making the emerald mountains of southern Colombia's Eastern Cordillera as dangerous as they are beautiful.
Since last week, leftist rebels _ who provide security for some narcotics production _ shot down a police helicopter, killing a senior officer, and got into a firefight with government troops that left 14 dead.
The violence threatens settlers and could deepen U.S. involvement in a conflict in which casualties are mounting.
In a hunt for rebel forces this week, hundreds of government soldiers, armed with machine guns and assault rifles and with ammo belts coiled across their shoulders, swept through the mountain range blanketed by forests and with lush pastures sweeping up its flanks.
Colombia, long the world's main supplier of cocaine, is swiftly taking a share of the heroin market. Parts of Colombia, especially the Eastern Cordillera, are dotted with brilliant fields of red, violet, white and yellow poppy flowers.
With U.S. assistance, the Colombian government recently launched a campaign to wipe out in two years all of Colombia's poppy, from which heroin is produced; coca, the main ingredient of cocaine; and marijuana.
Standing on a mountain overlooking a dirt road government troops had just patrolled, one poppy grower explained this week that he sees his product as a salvation for him, not as something evil.
Government troops had noticed the crop, but were too intent on pursuing the rebels at the moment to bother with destroying it.
As the grower spoke, family members sliced the poppies' onion-shaped bulbs and removed a milky substance. It will be sold to buyers who arrive on weekends and refine it into heroin. The poppies' brilliant violet flowers were partially hidden amid a crop of corn.
"If you grow poppies, after three months you've got money in your pocket," explained the grower, wearing a straw cowboy hat, trousers tucked into black rubber boots and only a T-shirt against the chill mountain air. "With our other crops, it takes two years to turn a profit."
Like many of his neighbors, the rancher, with little opportunity to eke out more than a subsistence income, took up growing poppies after people from outside the region drove through the area two years ago and urged them to do so.
Since then, a relative affluence has hit this remote region, 130 miles southwest of Bogota, the capital. Some homes, instead of being built with rough-hewn, poorly fitted planks, are now of cinder block with shiny corrugated metal roofs. The local shop in Piedra Marcada, a hamlet with a single road travelled mostly by people on horseback instead of cars, now offers chilled German beer.
To help the Colombian government crush the budding industry, the United States supplies planes and helicopters to spray herbicide onto the illegal crops, trains the pilots, and even provides the herbicide itself.
And Washington's involvement may be on the verge of escalating.
Senior Colombian officials reportedly have asked the United States for armored helicopters for the eradication operation.
The request was made to U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Charles Wilhelm, in Colombia to help train security forces, when he attended the funeral last week for Maj. Jose Ramirez, the senior officer whose helicopter was shot down April 18, newspapers have reported.
The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment, although U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette said earlier that Washington is prepared to provide more assistance _ which he did not specify _ to the eradication campaign.
Fighting stemming from the eradication campaign is also occurring in other regions of Colombia. On Tuesday, some 200 rebels attacked an anti-narcotics police base in the jungles of southeastern Colombia, killing one person and wounding five in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the anti-narcotics aircraft. On Monday, an anti-narcotics plane flying over the region was riddled by gunfire, but landed safely.
Pilots of the herbicide-spraying aircraft in the Eastern Cordillera have rebelled since Ramirez was killed, refusing to fly unless more protection is offered for their low-flying, slow-moving aircraft, a pilot said in an interview. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Cali drug cartel is reportedly offering a $200,000 bounty to rebels for each anti-narcotics aircraft shot down. Thirteen anti-narcotics aircraft have been hit by gunfire this year.
"We either have to get Apache assault helicopters from the United States, or, before we begin spraying, have our ground troops go through the area and then shoot it up with our helicopters," the pilot said. "If we don't have proper security, we simply won't fly."
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
PIEDRA MARCADA, Colombia (AP) _ A new drug war, against heroin, is making the emerald mountains of southern Colombia's Eastern Cordillera as dangerous as they are beautiful.
Since last week, leftist rebels _ who provide security for some narcotics production _ shot down a police helicopter, killing a senior officer, and got into a firefight with government troops that left 14 dead.
The violence threatens settlers and could deepen U.S. involvement in a conflict in which casualties are mounting.
In a hunt for rebel forces this week, hundreds of government soldiers, armed with machine guns and assault rifles and with ammo belts coiled across their shoulders, swept through the mountain range blanketed by forests and with lush pastures sweeping up its flanks.
Colombia, long the world's main supplier of cocaine, is swiftly taking a share of the heroin market. Parts of Colombia, especially the Eastern Cordillera, are dotted with brilliant fields of red, violet, white and yellow poppy flowers.
With U.S. assistance, the Colombian government recently launched a campaign to wipe out in two years all of Colombia's poppy, from which heroin is produced; coca, the main ingredient of cocaine; and marijuana.
Standing on a mountain overlooking a dirt road government troops had just patrolled, one poppy grower explained this week that he sees his product as a salvation for him, not as something evil.
Government troops had noticed the crop, but were too intent on pursuing the rebels at the moment to bother with destroying it.
As the grower spoke, family members sliced the poppies' onion-shaped bulbs and removed a milky substance. It will be sold to buyers who arrive on weekends and refine it into heroin. The poppies' brilliant violet flowers were partially hidden amid a crop of corn.
"If you grow poppies, after three months you've got money in your pocket," explained the grower, wearing a straw cowboy hat, trousers tucked into black rubber boots and only a T-shirt against the chill mountain air. "With our other crops, it takes two years to turn a profit."
Like many of his neighbors, the rancher, with little opportunity to eke out more than a subsistence income, took up growing poppies after people from outside the region drove through the area two years ago and urged them to do so.
Since then, a relative affluence has hit this remote region, 130 miles southwest of Bogota, the capital. Some homes, instead of being built with rough-hewn, poorly fitted planks, are now of cinder block with shiny corrugated metal roofs. The local shop in Piedra Marcada, a hamlet with a single road travelled mostly by people on horseback instead of cars, now offers chilled German beer.
To help the Colombian government crush the budding industry, the United States supplies planes and helicopters to spray herbicide onto the illegal crops, trains the pilots, and even provides the herbicide itself.
And Washington's involvement may be on the verge of escalating.
Senior Colombian officials reportedly have asked the United States for armored helicopters for the eradication operation.
The request was made to U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Charles Wilhelm, in Colombia to help train security forces, when he attended the funeral last week for Maj. Jose Ramirez, the senior officer whose helicopter was shot down April 18, newspapers have reported.
The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment, although U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette said earlier that Washington is prepared to provide more assistance _ which he did not specify _ to the eradication campaign.
Fighting stemming from the eradication campaign is also occurring in other regions of Colombia. On Tuesday, some 200 rebels attacked an anti-narcotics police base in the jungles of southeastern Colombia, killing one person and wounding five in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the anti-narcotics aircraft. On Monday, an anti-narcotics plane flying over the region was riddled by gunfire, but landed safely.
Pilots of the herbicide-spraying aircraft in the Eastern Cordillera have rebelled since Ramirez was killed, refusing to fly unless more protection is offered for their low-flying, slow-moving aircraft, a pilot said in an interview. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Cali drug cartel is reportedly offering a $200,000 bounty to rebels for each anti-narcotics aircraft shot down. Thirteen anti-narcotics aircraft have been hit by gunfire this year.
"We either have to get Apache assault helicopters from the United States, or, before we begin spraying, have our ground troops go through the area and then shoot it up with our helicopters," the pilot said. "If we don't have proper security, we simply won't fly."
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