Weekly Report - 8 February 2007

The Bush administration describes its Andean anti-drug strategy as a "three-legged stool" of eradication, military assistance, and alternative development. The stool now looks very lopsided. The increasing financial demands of the Iraq war prompted the Bush administration to slash its assistance to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in its 2007/08 budget proposal, and eliminate altogether its assistance to Venezuela. Only Colombia escaped the cuts, ensuring that military aid remains by far the longest leg of the stool.