Word: andean
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Peru--The leaders of Peru, Colombia and Bolivia conferred in this desert city yesterday, guarded by thousands of police and soldiers, on a common strategy against the multibillion-dollar cocaine trade in their Andean nations...
Bennett's plan is part of a broader Andean initiative that would expand economic and military aid not only to Peru -- source of more than half of the world's coca -- but also to Bolivia and Colombia. That initiative, in turn, is part of an overall antidrug plan that calls for stiffer penalties against casual users, such as loss of a driver's license or of federal student loans. Already the plan is raising questions in Congress and even parts of the Administration. As the battle against drugs escalates, so will the complicating side effects, particularly in U.S. foreign policy...
...first complication is cost. Bennett proposes to increase antidrug expenditures about $1 billion, with $100 million to $270 million going into a superfund to finance the Andean initiative. Bush last week embraced Bennett's plan in broad outline, calling it "balanced, decisive, effective and achievable." The President was vague about where he would get the money, though he spoke of "reallocation of resources," meaning shifting funds from other programs...
Even if Bush does find the money, critics in and outside of the Administration wonder whether the Andean initiative will accomplish much. Peru will find it difficult to wean or bully its farmers from the cocaine trade unless economic growth opens markets for alternative products. But Peru's gross domestic product shrank 28% in the first quarter of 1989, and inflation has been running at 25% a month. In Bolivia officials contend that they need & $300 million to $500 million a year to develop legitimate alternatives for coca-farming peasants. That is considerably more than Bennett proposes to spend...
...Pentagon, the Andean initiative raises inevitable whispers about another endless war in the jungle against elusive guerrillas. Bennett aides reply that the American soldiers will not go out on raids or act as field commanders in the manner of U.S. military advisers in Viet Nam. Says an official: "Viet Nam showed us that we can't do in a country what a country doesn't want to do for itself. That doesn't mean we can't help democracies that are young and fragile to solve a problem...