[Mb-civic] US anti-drug campaign 'failing' BBC

[Michael Butler]

 US anti-drug campaign 'failing'
 US drugs tsar John Walters has admitted that Washington's anti-narcotics
policy in Latin America has so far failed.

 Mr Walters said in Mexico that billions of dollars of investment over many
years have failed to dent the flow of Latin American cocaine onto US
streets.

 "We have not yet seen in all these efforts what we're hoping for on the
supply side, which is a reduction in availability," he said in Mexico City.

 But he predicted positive results would be seen within a year.

 Mr Walters was speaking just after he had visited Colombia, where US-backed
efforts to wipe out drug-smuggling gangs and eradicate coca crops have
turned the country into the world's third-largest recipient of US military
aid.

 However, in an interview with the Associated Press news agency, he defended
the Plan Colombia aid package and insisted that it should continue.

 "We have a history in the United States of not following through on
programmers like this," he said.

 Production shift 

 While praising Mexico's efforts to combat the drugs trade, Mr Walters also
said that there had been no notable disruption in the supply of drugs to the
US.

 Anti-narcotics raids had been successful in removing a number of important
cartel leaders but had not led to any shortage.

 However, Mr Walters said he hoped that there would be a decline in the
amount of cocaine available in the United States over the next 12 months.

 Correspondents point out that whenever the US has been able to cut coca
production anywhere in Latin America, the shortfall has been made up by
increases elsewhere in the region.

 Production has notably risen in Peru, the world's next biggest producer of
cocaine after Colombia.

 Story from BBC NEWS:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3540686.stm

 Published: 2004/08/06 14:28:26 GMT

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