From: [C upi] at [clari.net] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.protests,clari.news.alcohol+drugs,clari.world.americas.south.misc
Subject: Colombia coca growers' protest heats up
Keywords: international, US government, non-usa government, demonstrations,
        nonviolent demonstrations, agriculture, legal, illegal drugs
Organization: Copyright 1996 by United Press International
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 14:21:15 PDT
                                         
        BOGOTA, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Tensions escalated Friday in southern  
Colombia, where some 200,000 coca-leaf growers have rejected government 
orders to plant less lucrative crops. 
        Food was running low in the protesters' encampments, and a government  
official said the Samper administration will not bend to demands by 
farmers to stop eradicating their crops. 
        The protests, which have paralyzed the Amazonian provinces of  
Putumayo, Guaviare and Caqueta, began after farmers growing coca leaves 
-- the source of cocaine -- objected to a government program to change 
their crops and spray coca plantations with herbicides. 
        ``We cannot bend to pressures, and the most advisable thing for these  
farmers to do is to return to their homes and leave the demands in the 
hands of the negotiating teams,'' said Interior Minister Horacio Serpa. 
        Serpa charged that ``obscure interests are behind the protest,'' an  
apparent reference to drug traffickers, who stand to lose one of their 
main coca-leaf production centers under the government plan. 
        The plan also aims to eliminate poppy plantations, which provide the  
raw material of heroin. 
        However, protesting farmers said Friday they will not return to  
planting other, less profitable crops, and said a government plan that 
provides loans for crop-substitution has failed. 
        Farmers in the Putumayo province said that traditional crops of corn,  
yuca, potatoes and bananas bring ``insignificant prices'' on 
agricultural markets. 
        ``Meanwhile, they will buy a sack of cocaine leaves ready for  
processing at an excellent price,'' said one 20-year-old Putumayo 
farmer. 
        The situation at the protesters' camps in several small provincial  
towns appeared to be growing difficult, with food and drinking water 
growing short. 
        The provincial governments in the region ordered stores closed last  
week in an attempt to prevent looting and violence, and protest 
organizers said they are struggling to feed the thousands of families 
which crowded into the towns. 
        In the Putumayo city of Puerto Asis, a truck carrying food was  
attacked Friday by farmers armed with sticks and machetes. 
        The protesters seized the truck's shipment and distributed it among  
protesters' families, according to police reports.