Aid package fails to meet its goal
The nearly $5-billion U.S. aid package known as Plan Colombia failed to meet its goal of halving illegal narcotics production in the Andean nation, a U.S. congressional report said.
The General Accounting Office report noted that the mostly military assistance helped Colombia markedly improve security, with kidnapping and homicide rates falling and the armed forces greatly diminishing the leftist rebel threat.
Its release comes as U.S. officials make it clear that aid for Colombia will be trimmed because of the U.S. financial crisis.
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