The U.S.-funded, multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia has resulted in the eradication of large swaths of cocaine crops, but Colombian cocaine trafficking appears largely unaffected, the Christian Science Monitor reported Sept. 27.

U.S. drug czar John Walters says of the battle against Colombian cocaine traffickers, "There is absolutely no question we are winning." Walters points to the downfall of '80s-era cocaine traffickers like Pablo Escobar and the "astounding" success of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to rebuild the nation's police, military, judiciary, and political institutions.

Walters adds: "It could not have been done without our assistance," namely $4.7 billion in U.S. funds delivered under the anti-drug Plan Colombia. Run through the second-largest U.S. Embassy in the world, the Colombian anti-drug effort in 2005 resulted in the destruction of a record 419,000 acres of coca. The same year, 225 tons of cocaine were seized, up from 125 tons in 2002, and about 2,000 drug labs were destroyed, up from 317 in 2002.

"We are squeezing them. We are forcing them to change their drug-trafficking routes and their methods," said Walters.

Meanwhile, Colombia's murder rate and kidnappings have fallen, and foreign tourism and investment have returned. "Plan Colombia has manifestly helped the government restore some measure of authority in a country that was on the verge of being a failed state six years ago," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

But Uribe himself has admitted that Plan Colombia should be yielding better results. Coca cultivation actually rose 8 percent in Colombia last year, and cocaine production soared to 776 metric tons -- enough to supply 80 percent of the world market for the drug. Cultivation techniques and crop yields have improved, experts say, and farmers have switched to planting smaller, more isolated plots to dodge anti-drug spraying campaigns. A coca crop that was once confined to three Colombian provinces is now grown in 23.

In the U.S., cocaine prices and purity have not been notably affected by the interdiction campaign, and use of and addiction to the drug are about the same today as they were in 2000.