Pubdate: Sun, 23 Feb 2003
Source: Ventura County Star (CA)
Copyright: 2003, The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact:  http://www.staronline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

BOLIVIA CONSIDERS CULTIVATING COCAINE

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The president of Bolivia is considering a plan to
resume cultivation of the raw ingredient in cocaine in a remote jungle basin
- -- a move the U.S. government fears would undermine what is viewed as its
most successful anti-drug program in South America. 

President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is studying a proposal to allow
cultivation of coca in the Chapare region of central Bolivia to help calm
unrest among growers who have blockaded major highways and put their support
behind his political rival. 

"We've begun serious dialogues with coca growers with the aim of combatting
drug trafficking and maintaining social tranquility," Ernesto Justiniano,
the vice minister of social defense, said in an interview with The
Associated Press on Friday. 

Justiniano said the program would hurt drug traffickers by giving the
government more control over what is now a clandestine industry in the
jungle lowlands. 

U.S. officials staunchly oppose the proposal to allow each grower in the
area to plant one-fifth of an acre of coca, saying it would undermine the
$1.3 billion effort to eradicate coca plantations from the region over the
last six years. 

"Our policy is very clear and it remains clear," said an official at the
U.S. embassy. "Any proposal that would legitimize or legalize any coca in
the Chapare -- which is illegal -- would be a violation of Bolivian law and
a violation of international treaties to which Bolivia is a signatory." 

U.S. officials have said the proposal could trigger a halt in aid from the
United States and international lending agencies such as the International
Monetary Fund to South America's poorest nation. 

It could also be used to exclude Bolivia from inclusion in a proposed
hemispheric free-trade zone backed by Washington. 

Bolivia's government plans to conduct a six-month study to determine the
size of the nation's limited legal coca market, which is now restricted to
some 30,000 acres to supply indigenous people who chew the leaves, which act
as a stimulant and can stave off hunger. 

American officials fear that enlarging the area allowed for legal
cultivation would return Bolivia to the ranks of major cocaine producers. 

All coca production in the Chapare -- a jungle basin the size of New Jersey
that supplied half of all cocaine in the world five years ago -- is illegal.
The leaf has been eradicated by U.S.-trained soldiers.
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