BOGOTA, Colombia -- After several years of trying to wean farmers from the drug trade in the southern province of Caqueta, the U.S. government is winding down its payments for alternative development programs in the region.
The pullout comes amid a flurry of criticism of U.S.-backed efforts to eliminate illegal drug production in Colombia, and just before the U.S. Congress is expected to vote to continue aid for counter-drug programs in this nation of 41 million people.
Colombia remains the largest supplier of cocaine to the U.S. market, and recent reports have suggested that production is increasing despite about $4 billion in U.S. aid for the military, crop eradication and economic development programs since 2000.
The Caqueta development programs are a small part -- $9 million in U.S. money went to the province in five years -- of this annual aid package, but the region carries symbolic weight as one of Colombia's poorest and most notoriously guerrilla-ridden provinces.
For decades, the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC, have dominated the area, which has 410,000 people and is a little more than half the size of Florida. They have used it as a training ground for new recruits and a launching pad for attacks.
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Given its background, Caqueta became a laboratory for the counter-narcotics program known as Plan Colombia, designed to dry up coca, the raw material for cocaine, and replace it with viable alternatives. The overall plan included billions in U.S. aid for military training, intelligence equipment and hardware such as helicopter gunships as well as money for economic projects and infrastructure.
At first, the plan seemed to be working in Caqueta. Under President Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian military launched an unprecedented offensive of 17,000 troops that pushed the guerrillas from their traditional strongholds in Caqueta and elsewhere, and disrupted the coca economy.
Colombian police data show a drop in coca farming in the province from 59,000 acres in 1999 to 12,000 last year. U.S. and Colombian economic programs followed, including $5.6 million from the Agency for International Development, $3.9 million of which went to a project for rubber trees that benefited 579 families.
But now both parts of the effort seem to be in retreat. According to politicians from the area and analysts of the military, the Colombian army is quietly withdrawing some troops from the province.
Meanwhile, the United States has stopped paying for economic development programs in the Caqueta region.
Caqueta politicians are dismayed by the U.S. government's decision. They say the programs helped undercut the coca economy during the military offensive, but still need time to take root.
"When the coca left, the economy went into crisis," said Luis Fernando Armario, a longtime congressman for Caqueta. "Now is when we need the economic help."
