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Fiscal Year 2000 International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Budget Congressional Presentation Released by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, April 1999

The Bahamas

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Preclude use of Bahamian territory and territorial waters for the movement of cocaine or other illicit drugs;
• Enhance Bahamian ability to conduct increasingly sophisticated drug trafficking investigations to apprehend members of large trafficking organizations, to conduct effective maritime interdiction operations, and to conduct financial investigations to trace, seize and forfeit the proceeds of crime;
• Swiftly prosecute apprehended drug traffickers, money launderers and perpetrators of other types of international crime; and
• Assist the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to develop means to control drug--related corruption of public officials.

Justification

The International Narcotics Control (INC) program, funded and managed by INL, will continue to assist the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) and the Bahamian court system, and will resume assistance to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF). The INC program funds provide support for the Bahamian bases from which the U.S. and Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas (GCOB) carry out combined drug law enforcement operations. Increasingly, the Bahamas program has focused on training and equipping special units of the RBPF to conduct sophisticated drug trafficking and money laundering investigations. In addition, the INC program will assist the RBDF in developing a maritime interdiction capability. It will also assist the GCOB in developing the means to control drug-related corruption of public officials. The program will continue expansion of its judicial enhancement activities beyond the courts to include prosecutorial functions of the Attorney General's Office and training and exchanges for prosecutorial personnel.

The success of increasingly sophisticated local law enforcement and combined U.S.-Bahamas interdiction efforts had dramatically reduced the amount of cocaine seized in The Bahamas during the early-mid 1990's. Yet, during 1997 and 1998 seizures rose substantially, indicating that increased enforcement pressure on other transit routes has pushed cocaine trafficking back into The Bahamas. Marijuana trafficking through The Bahamas is also increasing, and the GCOB continues as a significant money laundering location.

Excellent drug interdiction cooperation between the U.S. and The Bahamas has permitted establishment of a significant interdiction and investigation infrastructure involving U.S. aircraft, ships and personnel. Operation Bahamas and Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), a combined effort by The Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands police and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to intercept loads of cocaine and conduct investigations, employs U.S. Coast Guard and Army helicopters assigned to joint interdiction bases in Nassau, George Town, Great Inagua, and elsewhere. The recent upsurge in cocaine trafficking through The Bahamas underscores the necessity of maintaining a strong OPBAT structure and improving the maritime end-game, which will require development of Bahamian maritime interdiction capabilities.

The overall objective of the narcotics assistance program is to strengthen Bahamian agencies engaged in counternarcotics activities, particularly the RBPF, RBDF and the GCOB judicial system. The program provides support for OPBAT bases, a Joint Information Coordination Center (JICC), training and materiel for Bahamian narcotics enforcement and security personnel, improvements in the judicial system, and public awareness and education efforts.

Through the Narcotics Law Enforcement Project, minimal support will continue for OPBAT bases that are operated by both Bahamian and U.S. personnel. This support will include base operating costs such as electricity, equipment repair and maintenance, air conditioning, runway resurfacing, and other support costs. We will encourage the GCOB to assume increased responsibility in OPBAT, and we will provide training and materiel assistance to the RBDF, in order to improve its maritime interdiction capability.

The program will fund training and equipment for the Drug Enforcement Unit of the RBPF, the principal drug law enforcement and investigation force. Continued support to the JICC will focus on improving its capability and usefulness to GCOB counterdrug efforts. Other RBPF elements will also receive assistance, including the Canine Squad, the Internal Security Division, and the Corruption and Investigation Unit, which is responsible for asset-forfeiture investigations. The program will also assist the GCOB in implementing its new anti-money laundering regime by building Bahamian money laundering regulatory, investigative and prosecutorial capabilities. A new anti-corruption initiative will assist the GCOB to develop effective internal controls and to investigate and prosecute corrupt security and justice officials.

The Judicial Reform Project has helped the GCOB to modernize the Bahamian judicial system. It includes assistance to the Attorney General's office as well as to the courts. Activities include training for members of the judiciary, prosecutors, and staff, police and other officers of the court, and complete computer automation of court documents, including an automated court reporter training program. Increased future funding will continue expansion of the program in the magistrate courts and the prosecutor's office. A key project element has been introducing Bahamian judges, prosecutors and court administrators to U.S. prosecution and court administration techniques. The success of the project to date has been due in part to the willingness of the GCOB to change laws, regulations and practices in support of court modernization.

Program Development and Support funds will provide for salaries, benefits and allowances of permanently assigned U.S. and foreign national personnel, short-term temporary duty (TDY) personnel, and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Increased effectiveness of the combined counternarcotics operations of the U.S., The Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos Islands (OPBAT) in interdicting and deterring drug trafficking through the area;
• Improved capabilities of the Bahamian law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations leading to prosecution of drug offenders and money launderers and forfeiture of their assets;
• Increased efficiency and effectiveness of criminal justice institutions in bringing drug violators, including money launderers, swiftly to justice; and
• Increased Bahamian capability to prevent drug-related public corruption and to investigate and prosecute corrupt security and justice officials.

The Bahamas Budget Chart

Bolivia

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Promote strong, cohesive democratic government institutions capable of stopping narcotics production and trafficking in Bolivia;
• Eliminate the production and export of coca and cocaine products from Bolivia through the eradication of illicit coca, increased interdiction, and greater effectiveness in the prosecution and conviction of narcotics crimes;
• Establish and encourage sustained economic growth to reduce the effects of the drug trade on the Bolivian economy; and
• Strengthen and improve the efficiency of the Bolivian criminal justice system.

Justification

Bolivia trails Peru and Colombia in the total amount of coca under cultivation, but produces coca plants with a higher percentage of cocaine alkaloid than Colombia, and produces more refined cocaine hydrochloride (HCL) than Peru. Bolivia produces over a quarter of the world's coca leaf, and about 30 percent of its cocaine supply, with approximately 38,000 hectares of coca under cultivation in 1998. The illegal coca/cocaine industry in Bolivia is generally under the control of host country groups. Bolivians smuggle essential chemicals from neighboring countries or divert them from licensed importers, transport them to Bolivia's principal coca growing area--the Chapare--where coca leaf is processed into cocaine base, and smuggle base to the Santa Cruz region for further refinement into HCL. Some HCL is, however, being processed in the Chapare.

The goal of the counternarcotics program in Bolivia is to make the licit options offered by general and alternative development more attractive by pursuing an aggressive law enforcement and interdiction program, and an equally vigorous coca eradication effort. Justice sector reform is also a key component in our goal of democratic institution building. Bolivia achieved measurable success in 1998: cocaine product and chemical seizures and arrests increased from 1997 totals; the Government of Bolivia (GOB) eradicated a record 11,621 hectares resulting in an unprecedented net decrease of 17 percent in illicit cultivation; and the cultivation of legitimate crops in the coca-growing Chapare region expanded nine percent from 1997 to 105,000 hectares--more than three times the cultivation of coca.

The Bolivian government's five-year plan, which includes as a key objective the total elimination of illicit coca, is well underway. Aggressive actions taken in 1998 to eradicate coca and efforts to stem the tide of precursor chemicals from entering the country are evidence that the GOB is committed to sustained action.

The $40.0 million of regular INC funds for the FY 1999 Bolivia program budget will be supplemented by $14.0 million in emergency supplemental monies provided this year by Congress. This funding will be used to augment alternative development programs ($5.0 million) and to support Bolivian air, riverine and eradication operations ($9.0 million).

FY 2000 Programs. The proposed FY 2000 budget will support host country efforts to eliminate coca cultivation and processing by 2002, and will support law enforcement operations and chemical control efforts, enhance investigations and prosecutions of major drug traffickers, and improve intelligence gathering and dissemination. The budget request will also support ongoing efforts to strengthen the Bolivian judicial system. It will aid expanded economic growth in the Chapare region and elsewhere by helping Bolivia meet its international financial obligations and stabilize its economy as a necessary condition for sustained growth. As one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere with a 1998 per capita GNP of about $1,000, Bolivia is unable to support any of the present counternarcotics or alternative development programs on its own.

There are two dozen counternarcotics programs in Bolivia for which INL provides funding and support. They can be grouped into four distinct areas: Narcotics Law Enforcement and Eradication; Alternative Development and Economic Incentives; Rule of Law and Administration of Justice; and Program Development and Support.

The Narcotics Law Enforcement and Eradication Operations Projects support civilian police units, which conduct counternarcotics law enforcement and coca eradication operations, and the military units that support them. It also assists the Office of the Vice-Minister of Government (formerly the Secretary of Social Defense) to assume greater responsibility for planning, coordinating and funding the GOB's counternarcotics efforts. Police units receiving USG support include the Special Force for the Fight Against Narcotics Trafficking (FELCN), with its uniformed interdiction force, the Rural Mobile Police Patrol Units (UMOPAR), the urban narcotics police, the Special Prosecutors of Controlled Substances that are assigned to the units, other investigative and intelligence gathering units, canine units, and two schools--the International Anti-Narcotics Training Center (Garras Del Valor) and the International Waterways Law Enforcement Training School.

The Bolivian military provides transport and logistics support to the police via air, land and river. The Red Devils Task Force (RDTF), under the Air Operations Support subproject, consists of Bolivian Air Force units operating UH-1H helicopters used in eradication and enforcement operations, and C-130 aircraft used to transport police, heavy equipment, and pre-stage fuel in areas not reachable by road, or made impassable through much of the year by heavy rains. The Blue Devil Task Force (BDTF), a Bolivia naval unit, was granted law enforcement authority in 1997, and is responsible for maintaining a military/counternarcotics law enforcement presence on all rivers and waterways to deny narcotraffickers the use of such means of transportation, and to make arrests and seizures. The Army Green Devil Task Force (GDTF) provides ground mobility support to the police for transport of personnel, fuel and commodities.

Although substantial progress has been made in law enforcement activities in terms of arrests and drug seizures, a great deal remains to be done. We will continue to assist FELCN develop an operational-level planning capability by using USG personnel in an advisory and training capacity, as well as improve its command and control over UMOPAR and the three special armed forces task force units under its supervision. INL will also assist them in establishing communications and coordination with other national-level counternarcotics agencies in the region.

Even with the significant eradication and interdiction results in 1998, a great deal remains to be accomplished in the third year of the Bolivian five-year plan. New coca is still being planted, and over 38,000 hectares of mature coca is still under cultivation. Providing additional training and equipment, especially critical communications equipment, to the UMOPAR and Ecological Police forces having to face violent ambushes and attacks from coca growers is paramount.

We also need to continue replacement of a rapidly aging vehicle fleet, the normal wear and tear of which is accelerated by their use in extremely difficult terrain. As the road system in Bolivia continues to improve, we will increasingly rely on less costly surface transportation to support counternarcotics units. However, even some of the newly constructed roads become impassable during the rainy season, requiring air transport to reach areas where eradication and law enforcement operations are being conducted. Only the C-130 aircraft can transport the helicopter fuel blivets necessary for long-range operations in remote areas. Additionally, the computers used by police and military units must be standardized and upgraded for improved intelligence gathering/sharing and case preparation.

Support for the waterways law enforcement program will continue in light of the GOB's recent decision (December 1997) to provide law enforcement authority to the BDTF. The BDTF has the capacity to conduct its own training, maintain standards of performance and carry out its mission with minimal USG advisory assistance. Permanent U.S. Coast Guard advisor support in Trinidad has been eliminated, as has the senior advisor position in La Paz.

The success of the counternarcotics strategy depends, to a large extent, on the ability of the GOB to convince the Bolivia public to accept the cultivation of coca and its processing into cocaine as a problem for Bolivia and not only for the U.S. Our support for Drug Awareness and Prevention Programs is, therefore, essential.

The Directorate of Controlled Substances, a civilian regulatory agency charged with monitoring non-governmental importation of controlled chemicals, has been successful in levying fines due to successful investigations of legal importers of controlled chemicals who were found to have diverted or re-sold the products to narcotics traffickers. INL program support has been dropped since revenues are sufficient to cover operating costs.

The Alternative Development and Economic Incentives Project seeks to promote counternarcotics-related development opportunities in the Chapare coca-growing area and elsewhere in Bolivia. The USAID-managed program directly supports efforts to replace coca farming with licit crops, thereby providing permanent gainful employment to a significant number of Bolivians.

We have encouraged bilateral and multilateral institutions to increase assistance, not only in the coca-growing region, but also in sectors such as road construction and rural electrification. This will enable U.S. efforts to focus more narrowly on agricultural production, agribusiness and marketing, thereby improving their success and cost effectiveness. However, some other donors have not warmed to the concept of conditions-based assistance, i.e., linking assistance to coca eradication.

CONCADE, the 1999 successor alternative development project to CORDEP, will continue developing sustainable markets for licit products and providing technical advice, planting materiel and other assistance to farmers willing to abandon coca crops. An additional area of focus will be the Yungas, where all the "legal" coca is grown, but where approximately 3,000 hectares of illicit coca must be eradicated and replaced with licit crops. The Black Sigatoka banana disease continues to devastate traditional banana production, forcing as many as 3,000 families into alternative crops such as hearts of palm.

Balance of Payment (BOP) assistance supports macroeconomic development by providing funds to the GOB to help it pay external debt. Local currency generated through this assistance permits the GOB to support coca eradication efforts and joint development activities. This program was used to enable the GOB to provide direct compensation to farmers for voluntary eradication of coca. Under the Bolivian five-year plan, direct compensation was discontinued at the end of 1997, and replaced with community-based alternative development-style projects linked to specified levels of eradication.

The Rule of Law/Administration of Justice Project supports structural judicial reform in Bolivia. In FY 2000, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP), the remaining portion of a four-part reform package designed to make the Bolivian justice system more efficient, transparent, and accountable, should be implemented. Program funds will assist GOB ministries and elements of the legal system with this process. Resources are also focused on reducing opportunities for corruption in the judiciary and other public ministries.

Program Development and Support funds provide for salaries, benefits and allowances of permanently assigned U.S. and foreign national personnel, short-term TDY personnel, and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. This includes operations in La Paz and field offices in Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Chimore and Trinidad.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Significant net reduction of coca under cultivation, towards the goal of eradication of all illicit coca, and the creation of viable, licit employment and income-earning alternatives for coca growers;
• Substantial decrease in size of illegal coca sub-economy and exports;
• Arrest and prosecution of major drug traffickers with increased number of cases completed within legally prescribed periods in criminal courts;
• Increase seizures of cocaine and other illicit coca derivatives, precursor materials, and assets of the coca trade; and
• Increase the local population's awareness of the dangers of drug abuse and trafficking to Bolivia's economy and society.

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¹This does not include an additional $14 million of FY 1999 Emergency Supplemental funding.

Bolivia Budget Chart

Brazil

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Assist Brazil's efforts to improve the institutional capabilities of the Federal Police to disrupt the activities of major trafficking organizations, interdict illegal drugs and control precursor chemicals;
• Support programs to enhance the ability of the criminal justice system to arrest, investigate, prosecute, convict and sentence drug traffickers, and to dismantle international criminal organizations;
• Work to improve the effectiveness of Brazilian organizations that seek to reduce drug abuse and decrease the domestic demand for drugs; and
• Encourage Brazil to pass and implement laws to bring the government into compliance with the 1988 UN Convention.

Justification

The Brazilian government stepped up its counternarcotics posture and activities in 1998. Federal Police authorities conducted coordinated operations with their counterparts in Peru, Colombia and other neighboring countries, in an effort to identify and interdict traffickers operating along the "air bridge" between the three countries and elsewhere in the Amazon basin. U.S. counternarcotics assistance played a valuable role in this effort, augmenting limited Brazilian resources and experience with equipment, support with personnel-associated costs, and information sharing and analysis.

Several pieces of key legislation became law in 1998. These include the shootdown legislation and the money-laundering bill. At the national policy level, and as a clear sign of Brazil's heightened concern over the negative role narcotics plays in the country's life, President Cardoso formed a new national anti-drug secretariat that will report to him through his military household. This new secretariat, modeled after the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, will oversee and coordinate the currently disparate counternarcotics activities of various federal law enforcement and drug awareness agencies. Brazilian military officials are continuing to expand their cooperation with U.S. counterparts in counternarcotics matters and have increased their border cooperation with neighboring countries through the establishment of agreements of understanding and cooperation to control illegal overflights and cross-border narcotics trafficking.

The Narcotics Law Enforcement Project focuses on the Brazilian Federal Police's (BPF) need to strengthen their intelligence and investigative capabilities, and improvement of the police counternarcotics infrastructure. Federal police operations in the Amazon region are stretched extremely thin, and despite significantly increased levels of GOB funding for these operations, the BPF require a wide range of additional support. With a major upsurge in narcotics smuggling along the southern route from Bolivia and Paraguay to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and from those cities on to the U.S., BPF needs also are significant and growing in that area, particularly for investigative equipment such as tape recorders, video camcorders and digital still cameras.

Brazil has a large chemicals-manufacturing industry that helps supply precursors to cocaine laboratories in neighboring countries. A government program requires registration of all significant chemical shipments, but verification and enforcement are deficient largely due to a lack of adequate resources. Additional INL support will be provided to assist Brazilian efforts to step-up counternarcotics security at all the country's major ports through the monitoring of chemical shipments.

PROERD, the Drug Awareness and Demand Reduction Project, is a school-based education program that is modeled on the U.S. D.A.R.E. concept. This program, which is now self-sustaining and run by the state military police in Sao Paulo, has expanded into 14 additional states and the Federal district. Funds requested will be used to provide train-the-trainer instruction for the development of program monitors and to purchase material for classrooms. In conjunction with the Federal Drug Council, INL assistance will be made available to provide grants for other demand reduction projects. Initiatives under this grant program have included training of drug prevention educators and treatment technicians, creation of municipal drug councils, and publication of materials to heighten public awareness of the dangers of drug use. These drug awareness projects continue to be one of the principle tools available to the embassy to favorably influence Brazilian public opinion, and to build political will in support of narcotics control initiatives.

Program Development and Support funds will provide for salaries, benefits, and allowances of permanently-assigned full-time U.S. personnel and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and public diplomacy.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Increased GOB political and financial commitment to counter illegal narcotics, especially through continued participation in joint law enforcement activities and increased asset forfeiture fund (FUNCAB) contributions to international efforts;
• Federal police investigations resulting in arrest and prosecution of drug traffickers, dismantling of major cartel operations, and interdiction of cocaine shipments; and
• Increased funding from CONFEN for project proposals submitted by local demand reduction organizations and greater public awareness of the dangers of drug abuse.

Brazil Budget Chart

Colombia

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Eliminate the cultivation of opium poppy, coca leaf and marijuana;
• Strengthen host nation capabilities to disrupt and dismantle major drug trafficking organizations and prevent their resurgence; and
• Destroy the cocaine and heroin processing industries and stop the diversion of licit chemicals into illicit channels.

Justification

The U.S. provides assistance in support of Colombia's efforts to counter the drug trafficking threat to its security, political system and economy; to counter the threat such activities present to the security, health and well-being of U.S. citizens; and to disrupt the narcotics trafficking infrastructure.

The primary focus of the USG-funded counternarcotics program is support for the Colombian National Police (CNP) Directorate of Anti-Narcotics (DANTI). Overall activities funded by the INL budget include the aerial eradication program, investigations aimed at disrupting trafficker organizations, and interdiction of precursor chemicals and shipments of finished cocaine HCL.

Counternarcotics assistance is provided for DANTI and other CNP elements, the National Narcotics Directorate (DNE), the National Plan for Alternative Development (PLANTE), elements of the military involved in counternarcotics, and other Colombian government entities, such as the Civil Aviation Administration. INL assistance supports the world's largest aerial eradication program, which targets both coca and opium poppy. It also provides operational funds to dismantle narcotics trafficking organizations by strengthening those institutions responsible for investigation of crimes, evidence gathering, arrest, prosecution, asset seizure, and other law enforcement actions. Other project activities include improving coordination of CNP and military counternarcotics actions, completing infrastructure support programs, supporting alternative development, improving the security of Colombia's ports, and sustaining public awareness and education projects.

The primary USG counternarcotics goal in Colombia is to help the Government of Colombia (GOC) to destroy all illicit cultivation and the infrastructure which supports production of illicit drugs. In order to obtain this goal, assistance concentrates on discouraging cultivators or would-be cultivators, and on increasing the GOC's institutional capabilities in this area. The aerial eradication program is our most powerful tool to accomplish this goal, and we intend to continue our full support. Results thus far have been mixed due to the inability to reach all of the growing areas. In the next two years, we intend to work with the CNP to expand the operating zone to all of Colombia's cultivation areas and produce a net decrease in the crop size. Simultaneously, we will support the CNP's recently inaugurated intensive opium poppy eradication campaign, which aims to destroy the entire crop within two years. We will also provide limited support to Colombia's alternative development efforts in the opium poppy region, thereby reinforcing the eradication efforts by providing viable alternatives for small farmers currently dependent on poppy cultivation.

INL also provides support for CNP operations aimed at the destruction of emerging narcotics trafficking syndicates through the arrest and prosecution of syndicate leaders and the confiscation of their assets, and to discourage money-laundering activity. INL assistance also sustains GOC drug awareness and education programs that seek to dissuade Colombians from engaging in narcotics activities.

The $30 million of regular INC funds for the FY 1999 Colombia program budget will be supplemented by $173.6 million in emergency supplemental monies provided this year by Congress. This funding will be used to meet critical Colombian needs for helicopters, base security improvements, prison security, interdiction aircraft for the Colombian Air Force and other support for the CNP and other elements of the Colombian government involved in counternarcotics activities, as directed by Congress. Multi-year funding was provided for many of the items designated in the emergency supplemental, so the overall out year support impact should be minimal for the first few years. When this supplemental funding runs out, however, an increase in the regular INC budget will be required for the continuing operational costs of the aircraft and other equipment provided to Colombia under this supplemental.

FY 2000 Program. The Narcotics Law Enforcement Project for FY 2000 requests commodity, training and operational support for CNP units tasked with interdiction and eradication operations. The funding request represents recognition of the central role of Colombia in narcotics trafficking and U.S. resolve to combat it as close to the source as possible. The DANTI will remain the principal GOC recipient of U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Colombia. Although operating below its full complement of 3,000 personnel due to cuts in host government funding, the DANTI should have the capacity to carry out the full range of counternarcotics activities. The project will provide support for the CNP air wing, including aircraft parts and maintenance, aviation fuel and lubricants, herbicide and other aviation-related support costs. Approximately 100 Colombian civilians are employed by the CNP to augment uniformed CNP aviation personnel. These include 12 T-65 pilots, other pilots and rotary- and fixed-wing maintenance and logistics technicians all funded by INL. Additionally, the NAS provides funding for a variety of DANTI operating costs, including such items as maintenance and fuel for INL-supplied and CNP-owned vehicles, office supplies and equipment, maintenance of communications and other equipment, utility costs, minor facilities maintenance and repair, etc.

Training and institution building is a major focus of the FY 2000 program with the projected phase out of U.S. contractor aviation support personnel. As of 1998, NAS obligated the CNP to assume responsibility for budgeting, accounting, planning and training for the long-term and has prepared a draft letter of agreement for the CNP to assume total control and operation of the eradication program. INL-funded training programs are ongoing for CNP pilots, aircrews and maintenance personnel, and operational intelligence and professional development training for other CNP personnel.

The Armed Forces Counternarcotics Support Project will be directed to those activities that support the CNP's counternarcotics efforts or conduct independent counternarcotics operations. The Colombian Air Force (FAC) has previously been provided with C-130 aircraft by the USGG to support counternarcotics requirements of all GOC agencies. These aircraft require spare parts and engine overhaul services. Additional C-26 utility aircraft were delivered in FY 1997 under 506(a) drawdown authority, and require training, spare parts, maintenance and ground support equipment. The FAC, employing existing resources, carries out counternarcotics air interdiction missions in cooperation with USG (DOD) detection, monitoring and tracking activities. The Colombian navy (including marines and coast guard) has a variety of counternarcotics missions, including control of inland waterways to impede transportation of illicit drugs, precursor chemicals, and other drug-related contraband. Equipment, training, and technical assistance will be provided to Colombian riverine and coast guard harbor patrol programs.

Areas where aerial spray operations for crop eradication are carried out, particularly the major coca growing areas of Guaviare and Caqueta, are also characterized by significant armed insurgent groups in active conflict with the GOC. Presence of elements of any of the Colombian armed forces to enhance security in the spray zones in invariably desirable, and often indispensable, to safe and efficient conduct of spray activities. Proposed funding will deliver spare parts, supplies, equipment and training for elements of the Colombian armed forces engaged in counternarcotics activities.

The Policy Issues and Drug Awareness Project includes support for the GOC's counternarcotics policy board, the National Narcotics Directorate (DNE). The DNE is responsible for development of national policies on drug-related issues, including illicit crop eradication. They have specific operational responsibility for custody and distribution of assets seized in conjunction with drug trafficking offenses. The DNE carries out a variety of demand reduction activities and represents the GOC in various international drug control fora, including OAS/CICAD and UNDCP. INL support will fund surveys, conferences, and media products to promote general awareness of the problems created for Colombia by illicit drug production, traffic and abuse. This project will also fund the purchase of commodities or services needed to support anti-narcotics programs in the offices of the Attorney General and the Prosecutor General, and in the Ministry of Justice and the Courts.

The Alternative Development Project would be a NAS-funded, USAID- administered alternative development pilot program in NAS/USAID-selected opium growing regions. The proposed project will work in conjunction with PLANTE, the GOC's alternative development program and aims to achieve a fully sustainable array of counternarcotics activities that would complement the peace process.

Program Development and Support funds will provide for salaries, benefits and allowances of permanently-assigned U.S. and foreign national personnel, short-term TDY assistance, and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Reduced flow of illegal narcotics from Colombia to the U.S.;
• Sharp reduction and eventual elimination of illicit crop cultivation and Colombian self-sufficiency in managing eradication programs targeted at all illicit cultivation;
• Effective institutions capable of carrying out the full range of law enforcement activities necessary to prevent narcotics traffickers from using Colombia as their center of activity;
• Destruction of emerging narcotics trafficking organizations (e.g., arrest, prosecution, incarceration of key traffickers);
• Strengthened Colombian institutions capable of combating corruption and intimidation and expediting proceedings/trials against drug traffickers; and
• Seizure of major trafficker's assets and disruption of money laundering activities.

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¹This does not include an additional $173.16 million of FY 1999 Emergency Supplemental funding.

Colombia Budget Chart

Ecuador

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Develop institutional capabilities to interdict illegal drugs and controlled chemicals, prosecute traffickers, seize drug assets and reduce money laundering;
• Improve intelligence collection, processing and dissemination against major trafficking organizations; and
• Promote public awareness and education on the dangers of drug abuse.

Justification

Ecuador has long been described as merely a transit country for illegal drugs passing through enroute to the U.S. and other consumer markets overseas. The reality is that Ecuador is inextricably linked to--and part of--the trafficking chain in the region. Ecuador is an important center for the collection and distribution of illicit drugs to consumer markets worldwide, the provider of chemicals to producer countries, a money laundering center, and from time to time, a safe haven and headquarters for cartel members from Peru and Colombia. Although illicit drugs are not cultivated in Ecuador, they are increasingly processed there. Narcotics kingpins appear to be trafficking approximately 30-50 metric tons of cocaine per year through loosely monitored ports and road networks.

FY 2000 Programs. The Government of Ecuador (GOE) has a strong anti-drug law which criminalizes trafficking in drugs, chemicals and narco-assets; centralizes drug enforcement in the narcotics police; provides a counternarcotics role for the military; and establishes a ministerial-level drug council to oversee the GOE's efforts. In FY 2000, the U.S. will continue to encourage the GOE to place greater emphasis on Narcotics Law Enforcement. Support will be given via the Prosecutor General's office to the national police, military and the National Drug Council.

The National Police Project will focus on enhancing counterdrug law enforcement capabilities, especially in the areas of intelligence collection/analysis and interdiction of drugs and essential chemicals. Specific projects include strengthening airport enforcement with canine units, fixed and mobile roadblocks, aerial reconnaissance and drug eradication missions, support for the anti-narcotics intelligence center, and assistance for financial investigation units of the police and the Superintendency of Banks.

The National Drug Council (CONSEP) Project will emphasize ministerial-level drug coordination efforts. CONSEP serves as a data bank for financial reports on suspicious transactions submitted by banks. They control and monitor precursor and essential chemicals moving through Ecuador, are involved in expanding drug prevention training on a national basis, and coordinate the counternarcotics efforts of the military and police.

A new Counternarcotics Military Support Project is planned for FY 2000 that would complement U.S. Military Group (MILGP) airbridge efforts (e.g., infrastructure support for A-37s), and assist the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the construction of a jungle road checkpoint and a barracks at Baeza. In addition, funds are required for related military counternarcotics training and miscellaneous operational support.

Program Development and Support funds will provide salaries, benefits and allowances of U.S. and foreign national personnel, short-term TDY assistance, and other administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Increased investigations of narcotics trafficking and money laundering groups, implementation of a controlled chemical control program, higher conviction rates and more prosecutors trained in the drug law;
• Dismantling of Ecuadorian narcotics trafficking groups resulting from police training in intelligence programs; and
• Increased media attention to the message of community-based drug abuse prevention programs and increased public awareness of the dangers of drug abuse.

Ecuador Budget Chart

Guatemala

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Improve counternarcotics and law enforcement capabilities, as well as the judiciary and anti-drug legislation, which are key to a successful law enforcement program;
• Interdict illicit drugs and essential drug producing chemicals transiting through the country; and
• Eliminate the production of opium poppy production through eradication programs.

Justification

There are six ongoing narcotics-related threats in Guatemala: cocaine transshipment through the country, opium poppy and marijuana cultivation, corruption of government officials, diversion of precursor chemicals, money laundering and growing domestic drug abuse. The Government of Guatemala (GOG) and the U.S. cooperate on a variety of counternarcotics and law enforcement activities, including narcotics interdiction, crop eradication and demand reduction. There is also cooperation and contact on stolen cars and money laundering legislation issues. We are investigating methods of providing assistance in Guatemala's attack on organized crime problem, which has become a national issue. Guatemala remains a major link for alien smugglers en route to the U.S. In addition, Guatemala serves as a regional support center for other INL programs in the region.

Guatemalan authorities increased cocaine seizures to 9.2 metric tons in 1998 from 5.84 metric tons in 1997. These seizures represent limited maritime and overland interdiction, given the large quantities of containerized cargo and the still inadequate inspection capabilities at all ports of entry to Guatemala. As a result of the San Jose Summit initiatives, INL support for interdiction efforts will include training, operational support and maintenance of equipment for the Guatemalan anti-drug police.

Marijuana production in the vast Peten region of northeastern Guatemala, bordering on Belize and Mexico, continues at slightly lower levels than 1997 thanks to Guatemalan eradication efforts. Host country authorities reacted to the slight increase in cultivation of opium poppy, which remained less than 200 hectares, by increasing eradication more than 30 percent. The narcotics control police units carry out manual eradication, air-mobile interdiction (formerly part of Operation Cadence), port control, narcotics investigations, riverine operations and road interdiction and inspection.

FY 2000 Program. The INL program for FY 2000 reflects a shift to a regional focus in interdiction and program support activities. This will assist Guatemala and its neighbors with common problems and stimulate the regional orientation necessary to respond to the considerable resources and ingenuity of narcotics traffickers. The Narcotics Law Enforcement Project will help the GOG organize, train and equip the Department of Anti-Drug Operations (DOAN) for interdiction and eradication responsibilities. Training will also focus on identification and seizure of illegal drugs. Funds will support the development of the DOAN staff through increases in professional training, including leadership and anti-narcotics intelligence analyst training. The GOG will provide ongoing training and support to units engaged in riverine/coastal patrols, air-mobile support and land interdiction. The project will also help the GOG improve the headquarters section, expand the activities of narcotics prosecutors and the new narcotics investigation squad, continue operations of the JICC and chemical control office, and complete the establishment and training of the port security project on the Pacific coast.

Re-establishment of Guatemalan aerial interdiction capabilities remains part of the Eradication and Interdiction Project, which supports the objective of deterring transshipment of cocaine and continuing eradication of opium poppy and marijuana. INL's aerial cocaine interdiction, reconnaissance and eradication program of the early and mid-1990's successfully reduced the opium crop to negligible levels and forced traffickers to land elsewhere. The redeployment of these assets outside Guatemala, in response to the President's source country focus, was followed by a documented increase in aerial trafficking events in 1997 and 1998. In response, we are assisting the GOG in establishing aerial interdiction and eradication capabilities. Training is ongoing in connection with the Central Skies program regional deployments.

Guatemala has no practical way to monitor the opium poppy grown in the rugged western highlands. Establishment of an aerial counternarcotics capability, modeled after the successful INL air programs in Peru and Bolivia, will correct interdiction and eradication weaknesses and provide a host nation capability to deter aerial traffickers and continue to keep gradually increasing poppy production at a negligible level.

The Public Awareness Project focuses on publications and presentations to inform Guatemalan citizens of the social and cultural damage inflicted by drug trafficking and drug abuse. Seminars and education programs will be developed to build public awareness and educate public teachers on the dangers of illegal drugs. It also provides targeted assistance to the legal system to promote effective use of the drug law through training and equipment.

The Drug Prosecutor Assistance Project provides funding for the special narcotics prosecutors unit of the Attorney General's office (Public Ministry) to expand the number of prosecutors, increase professional training, develop computerized case management, and increase drug convictions. This project supplies equipment and training in coordination with USAID judicial reform efforts.

Program Development and Support funds will provide salaries, benefits and allowances of U.S. and foreign national personnel, short-term TDY assistance, and other administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. NAS Guatemala provides regional support to non-NAS countries in the region.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Increased institutional capability within the DOAN for illicit drug interdiction, opium poppy eradication and prosecution of traffickers;
• Adoption of measures, legislative or regulatory, to strengthen the judicial system, leading to an increase in effective prosecution of criminal cases under the new penal code; and
• Enhanced degree of drug awareness, demand reduction, and counter-narcotics expertise developed among prosecutors, public health, media and educational institutions.

Guatemala Budget Chart

Jamaica

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Assist the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) in developing laws and regulations required to control international organized crime, especially drug trafficking;
• Improve the ability of the GOJ to conduct sophisticated drug law enforcement operations, including drug interdiction, marijuana eradication, money laundering and asset forfeiture investigations;
• Deny use of Jamaican territory for the illegal diversion of precursor and essential chemicals;
• Improve the GOJ's ability to fulfill the terms of our bilateral mutual legal assistance and extradition treaties.

Justification

INL assistance for the GOJ helps the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF), the Jamaican court system and other GOJ agencies carry out effective drug law enforcement operations, prosecutions of arrested drug violators, and drug awareness programs. The counterdrug assistance program also assists the GOJ in improving its criminal justice capabilities, as a follow-on to USAID's recently completed Administration of Justice program.

Jamaica, favorably situated for cocaine trafficking from South America to the U.S., is also a traditional source of marijuana for U.S. markets. Jamaica's airstrips, ports and offshore waters offer many opportunities for traffickers. Growing cocaine seizures reflect increased use of Jamaica's well-established marijuana networks to also ship cocaine. Money laundering and illegal diversion of precursor and essential chemicals are also increasing in the Caribbean region, including Jamaica.

Extradition, which takes place under a 1991 treaty between the U.S. and Jamaica, has slowed due in part to Jamaica's addition of a level of appeal to the extradition process. Currently, some 18 cases are pending, after the GOJ and USG worked together to remove inactive cases from the list of pending extradition requests. In 1994, Jamaica passed asset seizure and forfeiture legislation. In July 1995, the USG and the GOJ exchanged instruments of ratification of our mutual legal assistance treaty and in late December 1995, the GOJ ratified the 1988 UN Convention. We continue to encourage GOJ passage of precursor and essential chemical control laws to complete its ability to implement the provisions of the Convention. We are also encouraging the GOJ to further amend its 1996 anti-money laundering law to bring it into conformity with international standards.

The JCF Narcotics Unit, the major Jamaican counterdrug law enforcement group, continues to undergo reorganization in response to corruption problems involving the disappearance of seized drugs from police and forensic laboratory storage facilities. The U.S. has provided extensive training and equipment to the JCF Narcotics Unit, the Contraband Enforcement Team, and the Port Security Corps, including an innovative program of integrity training for customs personnel. Jamaica's JICC, established with INL funding, is an important component of the GOJ's anti-narcotics data collection and analysis effort. Additional JICC support will update its equipment and provide further analysis training.

FY 2000 Program. All aspects of the counterdrug program are focused on Jamaican implementation of the 1988 UN Convention. The requested funding level for FY 2000 will permit the GOJ to undertake the intensity of drug and money laundering law enforcement and judicial activities necessary to pave the way for development of legitimate agriculture and commerce in this struggling economy.

The Narcotics Law Enforcement Project supports marijuana eradication and drug interdiction activities. The project provides fuel for all types of law enforcement operations and salaries for marijuana cutters. It also provides training and equipment for Jamaica's several anti-drug agencies (JDF, JCF, the Contraband Enforcement Team, and the Port Security Corps). Increasingly, the U.S. will support combined USG-GOJ efforts to target, investigate, prosecute, convict and appropriately sentence major Jamaican drug traffickers.

The Anti-Money Laundering Project will continue to support GOJ efforts to further amend its 1996 anti-money laundering law to meet accepted international standards. The project will also support the development of GOJ financial investigative and prosecutorial capability by providing technical assistance, training and computer equipment.

The Judicial Reform Project is designed to assist the GOJ first in adopting comprehensive drug control legislation and then in adjudicating drug violators. This project will continue to work via offers of assistance in preparing draft legislation and applying public diplomacy to support parliamentary passage. It will also improve the courts' ability to apply the laws, including the asset forfeiture laws passed in 1994, and legislation still in process.

Currently, the police frequently arrest drug traffickers, but seldom does one get a speedy trial or appropriate sentence. The fault lies in a legal system of full court dockets and trials that do not always take place as scheduled due to the absence of witnesses, arresting officers, and appropriate records. Even if a conviction results, sentencing is erratic. The judicial reform project will provide further training to judicial personnel. It will also continue to improve the security of judges, juries and witnesses. A new anti-corruption initiative will deal specifically with assisting the GOJ to strengthen its internal controls and to develop the means to investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials.

The INL program provides limited funds for demand reduction activities, the majority of which are supported by the GOJ, NGOs, and other donors. However, because the Jamaican public is poorly informed about drug abuse and its consequences, we will work with the GOJ to increase awareness through provision of expert speakers and advice, provided directly and via regional programs.

Program Development and Support funds will provide for salaries and benefits of locally-hired support personnel and partial support for the Miami regional narcotics affairs officer's oversight of the program.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Enhanced capability of the GOJ to enact and implement the full range of strong drug control measures;
• Reduction of harvestable marijuana cultivation and increased cocaine seizures;
• Increased number of major drug traffickers and money launderers arrested, convicted and given severe sentences; and
• Increased GOJ capability to prevent drug-related corruption and to investigate and prosecute corrupt security and justice officials.

Jamaica Budget Chart

Mexico

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Prevent use of Mexican territory and territorial waters by international drug trafficking organizations to move cocaine, other illicit drugs, and precursor chemicals to the U.S.;
• Dismantle drug mafias and disrupt trafficking;
• Promote administration of justice and legal reform;
• Reduce and ultimately eliminate illicit drug crop production and methamphetamine trafficking;
• Control money laundering, including the vigorous seizure and forfeiture of trafficker assets; and
• Reduce demand for illicit drugs as well as promote community mobilization against drug trafficking and abuse in Mexico.

Justification

The porous 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border and daunting volume of legitimate cross-border traffic provides near-limitless opportunities for smuggling of illicit drugs, weapons and proceeds of crime, and for escape by fugitives. Mexico is the principal transit route for cocaine entering the U.S., as well as a major source country for heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. Mexican criminal groups facilitate the movement of hundreds of metric tons of cocaine from South America, as much as 50-70 percent of the total movement to the U.S., and are increasingly involved in its sale and distribution in the U.S. Mexican traffickers use their vast wealth to corrupt public officials, law enforcement and military personnel, as well as inject their influence into the political sector. The absence of a strong money laundering control regime before 1996, combined with the expanding financial strength of Mexican-based trafficking organizations, caused Mexico to become one of the most important money laundering centers in this hemisphere, particularly for the initial placement of U.S. dollars in the international economy.

Mexican President Zedillo has made strong relations with the U.S. the cornerstone of his foreign policy. While the Government of Mexico (GOM) declined INC funding in FYs 1993-1995, the economic crisis in Mexico, compounded by a perceived worsening of the drug situation, led to the resumption of funding to support bilateral counternarcotics programs and activities, although well below the levels of the early 1990s. The U.S. is convinced of President Zedillo's commitment to reduce corruption and fight narcotrafficking, and his government has also taken many important intermediate steps forward. The goals are far from being reached, however, and many daunting obstacles remain.

The INL program, which draws heavily on the support of other USG agencies, particularly the Department of Justice, has been concentrating on specific areas where we can have the greatest positive impact, such as supporting the development of specialized law enforcement units, institutional development and modernizing and strengthening training programs.

FY 2000 Programs. Early in his administration, President Zedillo declared that narcotrafficking groups, aided by corrupt officials, pose the greatest threat to national security. Although he has initiated a massive reform and anti-corruption effort, extensive technical assistance and training is needed for this effort to succeed. In order to increase the professionalism and efficiency of GOM criminal and financial investigative units, as well as the public prosecutors office (Ministerios Publicos), the Special Prosecutor's Office Project will sponsor formal training for personnel assigned to these offices. INL has funded or facilitated a broad array of training and technical assistance, ranging from highly technical investigative techniques to new approaches to administration and personnel system management.

INL assistance is directed primarily to the Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR), the national legal training academy (INACIPE), the counternarcotics planning center (CENDRO) and the Mexican Federal Judicial Police (MFJP), the Hacienda, and the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Health (FEADS). We have also offered technical assistance to the Mexican National Public Safety Commission, which is developing national standards for the police. The USG is fully supporting the further expansion and equipping of special investigative units dictated by legislation. Over the past two fiscal years, INL has worked closely with other U.S. agencies in supporting the establishment of specialized PGR investigative units and the financial investigations unit at Hacienda; it funded training as well as the procurement of computers and vehicles for the new units.

Technical projects currently underway with the PGR are the expansion of both their radio communications network to enable secure radio communications, and an information management network for the creation of an automated uniform statistical system for drug control. These and other technical developments will enhance the PGR's capability to analyze the current narcotrafficking situation and improve the effectiveness of counternarcotics operations.

Because of Mexico's size, remoteness of many of the trafficking and illegal growing areas, and the GOM's relative inability to project power into rural areas of the country, most of the counternarcotics law enforcement efforts depend on air mobility. The air/land interdiction operations are based on a mobile-basing concept, which allows police fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to conduct operations against major trafficking groups or sites from more secure locations. The PGR's Division of Air Services provides aviation support for the entire PGR, not just drug law enforcement. It supplies pilots, aircrews, and support personnel for more than 160 aircraft, including 27 USG-owned UH-1H helicopters along with spare parts, some maintenance unit kits, and training for pilots and mechanics from the USG, which support the NBRF and the eradication campaign. Guadalajara is the primary maintenance depot for the fleet although a separate maintenance depot has been established in Mexico City for UH-1H helicopters.

The Aviation Support Subproject once funded the maintenance for the entire PGR air fleet, including the USG-owned aircraft (reaching $19 million by 1992), but under the GOM's policy of "Mexicanization", INL assistance has been focused on communications upgrades, specialized field support equipment, test equipment, training, etc. It is also seeking to enhance training and maintenance capabilities, encourage safe operation of the aircraft, and sound management practices. A potential problem, which may require INL assistance, is the maintenance of the sensor systems aboard the Mexican Citation tracker aircraft. These systems can only be repaired by cleared U.S. personnel; repairs are coordinated by the U.S. Customs Service through its own service contractors, and the embassy Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS).

The Mexican national eradication campaign consumes a large percentage of the PGR's operating budget (to support aerial eradication) and up to 25 percent of the Mexican military personnel during peak growing seasons. This effort had begun to show results in reducing net production in the early 1990s, but declined in 1994, in part because of growing budgetary difficulties. President Zedillo pledged a renewed eradication effort, which resulted in significant net reductions in production of opium gum and marijuana. While the USG is not being called upon for the costly aviation maintenance support it once funded, we will provide technical assistance, for example, to assist PGR technicians make effective use of an INL-provided tracking system and photographic equipment.

The Money Laundering Working Group serves as a forum to exchange ideas and reach agreements on a range of issues from training, to information exchange, to joint investigations. The recent implementation by the Mexican finance ministry (Hacienda) of new money laundering regulations was a result of stepped-up cooperation between the two governments. Mexican seizures of narcotraffickers' cash and assets have also reached record levels. The embassy and the U.S. Treasury are working with the Hacienda to establish a computer system for its Financial Investigations Unit (FIU). This system will enhance Mexico's ability to track suspicious and large currency transactions, facilitate investigations, and ultimately improve the ability of the two governments to work together to combat international money laundering.

Mexico has emerged as a major transshipment point for precursor and essential chemicals, both to the Andean source countries and directly to the U.S. (e.g., ephedrine/pseudoephedrine used in methamphetamine production). The GOM has begun seizing these chemicals but recognizes that comprehensive chemical control legislation and more extensive training are still needed, particularly hands-on training for agents in the safe handling and ecologically-sound disposal of seized chemicals. INL continues to work with the Interagency Working Group on Chemical Diversion toward reducing the illicit diversion of chemicals and improving chemical control cooperation. Mexico has taken important steps toward establishing needed control measures through a proposed comprehensive chemical control law. It is also working to identify specific subject areas and personnel for chemical-oriented training that will be provided by the U.S.

INL funding provides ongoing assistance to the GOM's interdiction program, known as the Northern Border Response Force (NBRF). The NBRF complements the U.S. task forces established as part of the Department of Justice's Southwest Border Initiative. The NBRF began as a cooperative U.S.-Mexican air interdiction program aimed at stopping cocaine shipments from South America into Mexico, but has since expanded to include ground and maritime components. While the GOM has assumed most of the program's support costs, INL will continue to provide periodic assistance, particularly with specialized equipment and pilot activities to further enhance the GOM's interdiction capabilities, in addition to logistical, communications, computer and other support for the investigation of transnational criminal organizations. INL is also providing equipment and field support for the new Organized Crime Unit.

Another aspect of the eradication effort which has long been overlooked in Mexico is the impact that illicit cultivation has on rural communities. Law enforcement efforts were often aimed at small growers rather than drug kingpins who coordinated the production activities. We are working with Mexico to develop a strategy and programs to provide sustainable development for peasant farmers and assist the GOM with mounting law enforcement operations that loosen the grip held over these communities by drug traffickers. A sustainable development pilot project seeks to work with indigenous communities in drug-growing areas, to strengthen their resistance to pressure from narcotraffickers to grow and harvest opium poppy and to identify economic alternatives. INL plans to provide funds to the GOM or private sector groups to develop small-scale Community Pilot Projects in impoverished areas where drug crop cultivation is a serious problem. These projects will reinforce both counternarcotics and development goals by providing agricultural assistance, road building, community development projects and long-term technical assistance to municipalities. If successful, they may serve as the basis for international financial institution and other donor assistance.

Mexico has had an enviably low drug abuse rate over the years, but the most recent epidemiological survey, funded in part by INL, demonstrated that drug use is on the rise, particularly in border areas, high trafficking areas and tourist resort areas. Mexico has extensive experience and expertise in demand reduction and awareness activities, but presently lacks the resources to expand its campaign and broaden its drug use survey nationwide. To counter increasing demand for and abuse of illicit drugs, INL has funded a modest public information project to educate at-risk segments of the Mexico City metropolitan population with the help of three NGOs. We will continue to channel support to the GOM in this important area of demand reduction/epidemiology, and promote bilateral exchanges of information and training.

Program Development and Support will fund salaries, benefits and allowances of two permanently-assigned U.S. direct-hire officers, four U.S. contract personnel, foreign national personnel, short-term TDY assistance, and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Increase in number, and importance, of traffickers arrested, including key members of organized criminal groups (leadership, financial experts, transportation experts, etc.);
• Increase in drug seizures, including ground, air or maritime vehicles/vessels/aircraft, and arrest of the transport and support crews;
• Meaningful reforms implemented in the Mexican justice system and increase in efficiency and effectiveness of criminal justice institutions in bringing drug violators, including money launderers, swiftly to justice;
• Passage and implementation of new legislation to permit seizure of trafficker assets, control the diversion of precursor/essential chemicals used in manufacturing illicit drugs, and increase in seizures of diverted precursor/essential chemicals;
• Decrease in flow of essential chemicals into and through Mexico, especially ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and methqualanone, as well as prohibited pharmaceuticals, such as flunitrazepam (Rohypnol);
• Sustain decline in net production of heroin and marijuana and development of viable alternatives to illicit crop cultivation or trafficking;
• Establishment of an ongoing drug use surveillance system in Mexico; and
• Increase in the Mexican population's awareness of the dangers of drug abuse and drug trafficking to the nation's economy and society.

Mexico Budget Chart

Peru

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Build host nation capabilities in order to foster institutionalization of Peruvian policy-making and coordination, and to "Peruvianize" all aspects of counternarcotics law enforcement;
• Reduce and ultimately eliminate the cultivation of coca and interdict trafficking of cocaine and cocaine base from Peru; and
• Support economic reforms that eliminate the illicit coca cultivation economy.

Justification

In 1998, Peru's total coca cultivation decreased by 26 percent to 51,000 hectares. Coca cultivation has declined steadily, from 115,300 hectares in 1995 to the current estimate of 51,000 hectares. The coca reductions are the result of a continuing trend of coca field abandonment and low coca leaf prices brought on by the USG-supported Peruvian Air Force "air bridge denial" program. This program has made it much more difficult for narcotics traffickers to export large quantities of cocaine base to Colombia by air from Peru's coca growing regions. Traffickers faced transportation difficulties as a result, which led to a surplus of cocaine base at the farmgate that was priced lower than the cost of production. In addition, the Government of Peru (GOP) has embarked on an INL-supported manual coca eradication program which contributed to nearly half of the total coca hectarage reduced in 1998. These law enforcement efforts are complemented by an aggressive INL-funded effort to establish an alternative development program for coca farmers in key coca growing areas to ensure that these farmers remain out of coca cultivation. Despite these reductions, Peru continues to have the largest estimated potential coca production in the world.

The principal goal of the U.S. counternarcotics strategy in Peru is to reduce, and ultimately to eliminate, production of refined coca products. This goal is consistent with the President's National Drug Control Strategy, and can be attained by helping the GOP develop an institutional capability to carry out an integrated counternarcotics program including law enforcement, coca reduction, alternative development, public awareness and demand reduction.

The counternarcotics program provides commodities, services, and technical assistance to Peruvian government agencies engaged in developing or implementing counternarcotics-related programs, including enforcement programs to disrupt coca cultivation, wholesale purchase, industrial-scale processing, and export of refined coca products. The program also includes judicial reform projects to improve Peruvian judicial process and training, and economic assistance programs aimed at both economic restructuring and sustainable development in coca cultivation areas. All specific projects are aimed at institutionalizing all aspects of the Peruvian counternarcotics effort.

Specific program initiatives include: training and equipping counter-narcotics law enforcement air, riverine and ground units; developing local municipalities; strengthening the judicial system; supporting microenterprises and local economies, as well as infrastructure and agricultural activities in coca-growing areas; supporting broad-based economic growth to establish a stable market economy; developing a commerce control infrastructure at major ports and inland waterways; establishing mobile air operations at forward locations for law enforcement operations against major Peruvian traffickers; controlling precursor chemicals at ports of entry and in the interior; developing actionable law enforcement intelligence; supporting Peruvian air force and navy efforts to intercept trafficking aircraft and control trafficking by water; and supporting government demand reduction efforts nationally and locally.

The $45.0 million of regular INC funds for the FY 1999 Peru program budget will be supplemented by $31.9 million in emergency supplemental monies provided this year by Congress. This funding will be used to augment alternative development programs ($5.0 million), to support Peruvian air, riverine and eradication operations ($6.0 million), and implement an A-37 modification program to include podded radar ($20.9 million).

FY 2000 Programs. Involuntary eradication of coca seedbeds and mature coca is the focus of the Coca Eradication Support Project. This project provides important political and social messages that coca for sale to traffickers is illegal and economically risky, since harvested coca leaf is subject to seizure. This boosts the appeal of alternative development for coca farmers. In 1998, the GOP manually eradicated more than 7,825 hectares of coca. The FY 2000 budget requests funds to support 260 full-time Peruvian coca reduction workers affiliated with the Peruvian Coca Reduction Agency (CORAH), to sustain systematic destruction of coca in areas of high concentration, such as national parks.

An affiliated organization of CORAH, called CADA (Coca Survey and Verification), provides a means to verify the extent of coca reduction within communities which is a critical condition of continued alternative development funding. The CORAH civil construction unit, which is a subset of the main project, provides Peruvian counternarcotics law enforcement and military agencies with construction and facility improvement capabilities in outlying areas.

Coca reduction is occurring as a result of widespread coca field abandonment attributable to the Peruvian air interdiction effort, and a program to involuntarily eradicate coca seedbeds and mature coca through the use of CORAH laborers. Under a bilateral agreement signed in 1997, the USG's Alternative Development Support Project has agreed to provide approximately $25 million per year for five years to implement a community-based program to develop alternative sources of legal income and employment in exchange for coca reduction by local communities. For FY 1999, the USG, through INL, pledged additional funding of $8 million at a multilateral Peruvian donor's conference in Brussels to expand the scope of the GOP alternative development effort. Now covering six key coca-growing regions of Peru, the INL-funded, USAID-directed programs provide key social and economic infrastructure, such as roads, potable water, health clinics, schools and other assistance. The FY 2000 program will continue these projects, and move into new areas to ensure that coca reduction gains remain permanent.

In addition to INL funding, CONTRADROGAS, the GOP counterdrug agency, has contributed Peruvian monies to this effort and has been successful in enlisting UNDCP, bilateral donors and local non-governmental organizations to participate in alternative development efforts. At the November 1998 donors' conference, other donors pledged over $126 million in new funds for Peru's narcotics-related alternative development effort.

In coordination with this effort is a joint Alternative Crop Research and Extension Project between INL, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the drug office of the Organization of American States (OAS/CICAD). This project will continue to perform field research into coffee and cacao diseases, with a focus on finding ways to increase production yields in alternative development areas, and developing international markets. The U.S. private sector has responded favorably to these efforts, and has offered expert marketing and scientific assistance.

Counternarcotics Law Enforcement efforts are structured around a mobile-basing concept which permits police using helicopters to conduct operations against major trafficking facilities from a variety of secure locations, using the Ucayali town of Pucallpa as the rear area logistical and maintenance depot. Under the 1996 CONTRADROGAS decree, the Anti-Drug Directorate (DINANDRO) of the PNP has taken on increased responsibilities for counternarcotics law enforcement, including illegal trafficking in essential chemicals and counter-narcotics riverine operations. Headquartered in Lima, it has operating units in several key narcotics trafficking areas, training bases at Mazamari and Santa Lucia, a joint riverine training school in Iquitos, and investigators in major urban areas. The narcotics field support subproject provides essentially all costs except salaries for training, equipping, and operating DINANDRO units and personnel, including units which are deployed on the rivers, units investigating trafficking, financial crimes, and chemicals trafficking and a major violators unit.

The Counternarcotics Aviation Support Project covers operating and maintenance costs for the National Police Aviation Division (DIVPA), which provides general aviation support for the entire PNP. It provides pilots, aircrews, and support personnel for approximately 17 Department of State-owned UH-1H helicopters and 11-14 Peruvian Mi-17 helicopters, which support coca eradication and law enforcement actions in the field. The aviation support funds the counternarcotics operations of the State-owned helicopters, providing fuel, maintenance, hangars and warehousing, aircraft rental when needed, and operational support for DIPA personnel. The FY 2000 plan continues to support the successful counternarcotics operations of the DIPA Mi-17 helicopters by ensuring that sufficient training is provided to institutionalize pilot and maintenance functions.

The successful Peruvian Air Force (FAP) program to intercept narcotics trafficking aircraft has forced traffickers to begin using other means to transport cocaine and cocaine base, such as via the extensive river system. The Armed Forces Counternarcotics Support project provides limited INL assistance for the FAP and Navy to support the DINANDRO mission via training, and logistical support for counternarcotics operations in outlying areas. Support costs include training for pilots and mechanics, facility improvements, spare parts for aircraft and boats, and resources required to support police riverine operations for commerce control on inland waterways and container shipping ports.

The Narcotics Intelligence Project will continue to provide support for a national narcotics intelligence center to collect, analyze and disseminate information on major narcotics traffickers and their operations. This project has been instrumental in identifying and tracking major narcotics traffickers for Peruvian and other Latin American law enforcement agencies.

The chemicals needed to make cocaine are not produced in quantity in Peru, and have few legitimate uses in the rural coca growing areas where most coca processing takes place. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is responsible for licensing and regulating the importation, sale, and use of these chemicals, while DINANDRO is responsible for investigating diversion or illegal trafficking of controlled chemicals. The Chemical Control Project will provide support to enhance the ability of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to carry out its duties, and fund training and operational support for other agencies involved in chemicals control.

The Peruvian Customs Service cooperates with DEA, including intelligence sharing. The Customs Narcotics Interdiction Project provides limited logistic support for the Customs Service, e.g., vehicles, investigative and communications equipment, training, and operational support.

The Narcotics Prosecutions Project supports a unit of GOP prosecutors that have been granted special national jurisdiction to accompany police and military narcotics law enforcement operations to interrogate suspects and witnesses, take charge of evidence, supervise destruction of illegal facilities such as laboratories or airstrips, and prepare cases to be carried to trial. This project will continue support for the national narcotics prosecutors, provide training to personnel of the judicial branch that handles these cases, and provide selected jurisdictions with adequate resources to handle heavy narcotics caseloads. In addition, the FY 2000 funds cover the provision of vehicles, office equipment, communications and office rehabilitation to expand the scope and effectiveness of the narcotics prosecutors.

The Counternarcotics Policy and Institutional Development Project provides support to the CONTRADROGAS institution charged with coordinating and directing the overall counternarcotics efforts of the Government of Peru. In FY 2000, this project will support the further development of national drug control policies, make contact with multilateral and bilateral donors, and enhance communication and coordination between the various GOP counternarcotics agencies.

Drug Awareness and Demand Reduction Project activities will focus on providing the Peruvian public with information about the harmful personal and societal effects of cocaine production and abuse, conducting surveys on drug abuse to identify groups requiring assistance, and supporting educational fora for Peruvian prevention and treatment professionals. This project will continue to provide assistance to drug awareness institutions, and the Ministry of Education, to support drug awareness, abuse prevention and treatment programs.

Program Development and Support funds will fund salaries, benefits and allowances of permanently-assigned U.S. personnel, foreign national personnel, short-term TDY assistance, and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Reduction in the amount of coca cultivated in Peru;
• Immobilize cocaine production and transportation organizations; Reforms in the Peruvian justice system;
• Development of viable alternatives to the illegal coca economy, including implementation of comprehensive macroeconomic policy reforms and projects in and outside of coca-growing areas; and
• Increase in the local population's awareness of the dangers of drug abuse and drug trafficking to Peru's economy and society.

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¹This does not include an additional $31.94 million of FT 1999 Emergency Supplemental funding.

Peru Budget Chart

Venezuela

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Improve the Government of Venezuela's (GOV) institutional capabilities to interdict drug shipments transiting Venezuela, restrict money laundering, control the diversion of precursor chemicals, and implement judicial reform;
• Institutionalize the GOV'S ability to identify and destroy illicit coca and poppy cultivation, primarily in the Sierra de Perija region near the Colombian border; and
• comprehensive and integrated framework for Venezuelan law enforcement and military organizations.

Justification

Venezuela continues to be a major drug transit country. Large-scale drug shipments originate in Colombia and are hidden in commercial cargo leaving major Venezuelan ports destined for the U.S. and Europe. Venezuela is a transit country for chemical precursors, which are either exported legally to Colombia and other source countries, diverted for use in cocaine labs, or smuggled out of Venezuela for this purpose. The GOV has acknowledged that its financial institutions and other sectors of the economy are vulnerable to laundering of drug profits. In 1998, the GOV enforced new currency transaction reporting regulations and began to investigate suspicious financial transactions. The Venezuelan military continued an aggressive eradication campaign against small-scale opium cultivation along the northern border with Colombia.

FY 2000 Programs. Under the heading Law Enforcement, the Interdiction Project will provide assistance for Venezuelan police agencies, including the National Guard sector of the Venezuelan military, to strengthen their capability to interdict illicit drug shipments, and prevent the diversion of precursor/essential chemicals. The vast majority of drugs entering Venezuela from source countries travel on one major land traffic route, normally from Colombia. The project will assist Venezuela in enhancing control on the border and establish a mobile road interdiction program to operate at key choke points. The implementation of new GOV administrative controls on chemical and essential precursors is planned and will include enhanced police ability to investigate diversion at border inspection points.

The Venezuelan military has taken effective action to control the cultivation of opium poppy on Venezuela's border with Colombia in the Sierra de Perija region. The Crop Eradication Project will continue to provide technical assistance to these military operations, including aerial reconnaissance and spraying, in an effort to control opium poppy cultivation and prevent Venezuela from becoming a source country for heroin. In 1998, GOV efforts helped maintain poppy cultivation below 200 hectares.

Venezuela is a target for laundering proceeds of illegal drug sales in the U.S. This was confirmed by U.S. Treasury's Operation Casablanca that resulted in the seizure of drug proceeds linked to Venezuela. GOV authorities have demonstrated their intention to combat money laundering through actions taken to close casinos and introduce currency transaction reporting. The Money Laundering Project will work with the Superintendency of Banking (SUDEBAN) to improve host country ability to detect and investigate money laundering occurring in Venezuela's financial institutions. In addition, the project will assist the law enforcement and judicial systems to pursue prosecution of money laundering cases. Requested funds will be used for training of banking officials, purchase of computers, and technical assistance, which will enhance SUDEBAN's ability to collect information on money laundering and improve money laundering investigations.

The Drug Policy and Demand Reduction Project supports the national anti-drug commission, known as CNA. On the national level, CNA is responsible for promoting better coordination among GOV law enforcement entities combating drugs, drafting and promoting anti-drug legislation, and coordinating the national demand reduction efforts. The embassy has a long-standing relationship with CNA, which is a central element of our strategy to maintain Venezuela's commitment to combating drug-related crime. The FY 2000 request will assist CNA programs to host training seminars, participate in multilateral anti-drug conferences, provide assistance for the JICC, and fund specific projects on demand reduction that meet USG goals and objectives.

Program Development and Support funds will provide for salaries, benefits and allowances of permanently-assigned U.S. personnel, U.S. contract personnel, Foreign Service Nationals and other general administrative and operating expenses for program planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Increased monitoring operations and seizures on Venezuela's highways, ports and waterways;
• Implementation of legislation to control certain precursor chemicals;
• Criminalization of money laundering as a stand-alone crime and inclusion of conspiracy provisions in anti-drug law amendments;
• Identification of illicit drug cultivation and increased eradication of coca and opium poppy in the Sierra de Perija region near the Colombian border;
• Public opinion results indicative of increased awareness in Venezuela of the dangers of drug trafficking and drug abuse; and
• Increased media attention to the government's efforts to implement its National Drug Control Plan.

Venezuela Budget Chart

Latin America Regional Cooperation

Budget Summary (dollars in millions)

Objectives

• Adopt and implement strong narcotics control legislation, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of judicial institutions to bring drug offenders to justice, including forfeiture of drug trafficker assets, and develop bilateral and multilateral mutual legal assistance cooperation;
• Expand maritime enforcement capabilities throughout the region by entering into cooperation agreements supported by training, materiel and combined operations;
• Strengthen host nation police/drug branch capabilities to enable better institutional response to threats of drug trafficking and drug-related crime, including interdiction of shipments of drugs and precursor materials, and control of money laundering in the region;
• Assist host nations to develop effective means to control drug-related corruption of public officials;
• Eradicate illegal drug cultivation by providing commodities and technical support; and
• Develop government and NGO institutional and resource bases to reduce drug abuse in the region.

Justification

As drug control efforts in several Latin American program countries have become more effective, traffickers have sought new routes in the Caribbean, Central America and southern South America, and have developed new methods of transportation through major transit points. These areas are of increasing importance for the transshipment of cocaine, and to a lesser extent, opium and marijuana. Governments in most of these countries lack resources, strong law enforcement and judicial institutions, and adequately trained personnel to meet the challenges. Many of the countries covered in this account are also known money laundering centers or are emerging as such.

Latin America Regional funds support programs in countries where the drug threat warrants increased assistance due to increasing exploitation by traffickers and money launderers to finance and transship their illegal products. Latin America Regional funds will also be used to support nations whose abilities to counter drug trafficking and other criminal activities were adversely affected by the damage caused by Hurricanes Georges and Mitch. Regional assistance is used to improve host government capabilities in all aspects of drug control, including development of law enforcement and judicial institutions engaged in drug control and training. To assist in meeting the challenges of attacking the drug problem at the source, equipment and supplies will be provided to help develop programs to detect illicit cultivations for eradication, reduce drug trafficking, destroy drug processing and storage facilities, and assist in drug investigations, arrests and prosecutions. Additionally, this program will provide public information/ awareness materials to educate the public about the dangers of drug consumption and trafficking.

The $11.0 million of regular INC funds for the FY 1999 Latin America Regional program budget will be supplemented by $13.5 million in emergency supplemental monies provided this year by Congress. This funding will be used to procure observation aircraft to be operated by other USG agencies.

FY 2000 Programs. The Latin America Regional program will seek to strengthen these countries' abilities to more effectively address the ever-changing conduct of drug producers and traffickers. Funding is required to improve law enforcement cooperation and support for enhanced interdiction capabilities. Regional narcotics affairs offices in Miami, Panama and Guatemala will help manage multi-country programs in their areas of responsibility. As a follow-up to the Presidential summits in San Jose and Barbados in May 1997, funding will continue to support interdiction efforts throughout Central America and the Caribbean, including training, support and maintenance of equipment. C-26 aviation and maritime patrol vessel support in the form of spare parts, fuel and operational support will be provided in Barbados and maritime vessel support in Trinidad and Tobago. A new anti-corruption initiative will provide training and technical assistance to recipient nations to help them strengthen internal controls and to investigate and prosecute corrupt security and justice officials.

Caribbean. In response to increased drug trafficking, especially maritime trafficking, and money laundering in the Caribbean, an enhanced effort is needed to strengthen countries' law enforcement and judicial institutions by providing increasingly sophisticated training and equipment. By such mechanisms as maritime cooperation agreements and combined operations, the program seeks to encourage more vigorous regional counterdrug cooperation. Increased training, support and maintenance of equipment, as a follow-up to the Barbados Summit initiatives, will improve law enforcement cooperation. In particular, program funds will support the U.S. Coast Guard's Caribbean Support Tender, which will circumnavigate the Caribbean providing training, ship repair and maintenance services. INL funds will supply the necessary spare parts and training. We will sustain our support for the Regional Security System of the small, independent states of the Eastern Caribbean, to continue its development as a viable and operational counterdrug partner.

The Latin America Regional program supports Caribbean counternarcotics programs in the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Guianas and other countries. The Department of State and U.S. law enforcement agencies actively encourage and support many Caribbean nations that cooperate in joint drug interdiction operations. The program will expand countries' drug investigative capabilities by providing existing JICCs with upgraded equipment and advanced training. New JICCs will be established where appropriate. Judicial systems will be strengthened via provision of training and court automation equipment. We will provide training to develop local community action partnerships for drug abuse prevention and to improve the effectiveness of drug treatment professionals. The budgets for Jamaica and the Bahamas appear as separate requests.

Central America. A full range of activities to assist Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras disrupt trafficking and strengthen indigenous law enforcement infrastructures will continue in FY 2000. Special attention will be given to countries affected by Hurricane Mitch, to help affected nations rebuild law enforcement capabilities and strengthen internal control functions in the post-Mitch environment. In addition to ongoing training, law enforcement assistance programs include equipment, maintenance and repair of vehicles, radio networks, and other equipment. Increased interdiction efforts and law enforcement cooperation, as a follow-up to the San Jose Summit initiatives, will be required during FY 2000. Port security assistance will be provided to countries that actively export or transship products through port facilities. We also propose to provide training, equipment, and supplies to countries with significant maritime transit.

Judicial reform programs will provide training to bring judges and prosecutors up to date on narcotics law. In Panama, our counternarcotics program includes a significant level of support for the establishment of money laundering controls, including detection, investigation and prosecution of financial crimes. The budgets for Guatemala and Mexico appear as separate requests.

South America. Drug trafficking in the Southern Cone countries of South America continues to increase, as law enforcement agencies in the region uncover evidence of drug-related money laundering and drug transportation, linked to Colombian and Mexican organizations. Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina are also used as transit points for cocaine originating in Bolivia. These governments are taking steps to implement legislation designed to provide the necessary legal tools to fight drug trafficking and money laundering. The FY 2000 plan includes support to Argentina to strengthen its capacity to disrupt trafficking and tighten port controls. In Paraguay and Chile, programs will assist the police to investigate and prosecute traffickers and train those in charge of enforcing new counternarcotics laws and money laundering legislation. In Uruguay, equipment and training will be provided to develop the enforcement capabilities of the narcotics police force, and provide the necessary tools to implement recent counternarcotics legislation.

Effectiveness Measurements

• Adoption of effective anti-drug, anti-money laundering and anti- corruption statutes;
• Increased numbers of full six-part maritime agreements, especially with Central American countries;
• Decrease in illegal drug production;
• Increased capabilities of regional counterdrug law enforcement agencies, as demonstrated by larger quantities of drugs interdicted and seized or drug trafficking deterred and traffickers arrested;
• Increased prosecutions of major drug traffickers and money launderers, including forfeiture of the proceeds of crime, and disruption of trafficker networks;
• Increased host nation capacity to prevent drug-related public corruption, and to investigate and prosecute corrupt security and justice officials; and
• A decrease in drug abuse and an increase in intolerance of drug trafficking in the region.

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¹This does not include an additional $13.5 million of FY 1999 Emergency Supplemental funding.

Latin American Regional Cooperation budget chart

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