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Aid cutbacks leave bitter taste in war on cocaine

As part of the US strategy to win over coca growers, almost 20 percent of annual assistance is devoted to nonmilitary social programs and development projects. Managing this "soft side" of diplomacy is USAID, whose mission in Colombia is its biggest in the hemisphere. But under the agency's new five-year US$350 million plan for development projects, Caqueta and four other Amazonian states where coca production is rising won't receive a penny. "It makes no sense for residents of a historical guerrilla stronghold to be subjected to a strategy of all stick and no carrot - combats, mass arrests, searches and fumigation, but no aid," said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington-based Center for International Policy.

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