Pubdate: Wed, 19 Feb 2003
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2003 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Kevin G. Hall, Knight Ridder

BOLIVIA MAY END WAR ON COCA

Challenged President Considers Letting Farmers Grow Cocaine Precursor

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's government may be preparing to abandon its 
unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw 
material from which cocaine is made.

The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of 
Washington's only success in curbing drug production in South America's 
Andean region. U.S. officials fear any increase in legal coca production 
would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United States has 
given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counternarcotics and development 
aid since 1993.

Still, embattled Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada promised as a 
campaigner to review the coca-eradication policy, and his leading opponents 
are pro-coca.

Government negotiators and coca growers came to a tentative agreement on 
coca growing last week in Cochabamba, even as violent demonstrations 
nationwide killed more than two dozen and destroyed a number of government 
buildings.

The proposed coca deal, which Sanchez de Lozada is reviewing, would allow 
roughly 15,000 Bolivian farmers in Bolivia's tropical Chapare region to 
grow a "catu" of coca -- about a fifth of an acre -- during a six-month 
period equal to two harvests, said Bolivian antidrug czar Ernesto 
Justiniano. During the six-month period, a study would be undertaken to 
determine how much demand there is for legal uses of coca.

Many Bolivians chew coca legally as a stimulant, as an appetite suppressant 
or to cope with exertion at high altitudes. Bolivia currently allows about 
30,000 acres of legal coca in the Yungas region outside La Paz to meet this 
need.

Coca farmers argue that there is an underserved market for legal uses of 
coca. Antidrug czar Justiniano contends that if farmers agree to grow 
limited quantities of legal coca, they'll be less likely to grow coca for 
illegal sale. "Eradication is not an end in itself but a tactic in the 
fight against drug trafficking," he said.

The United States insists that no more coca growing can be justified.

"A pause in eradication is a pause in development," U.S. Ambassador David 
Greenlee has warned repeatedly in the Bolivian media. He reminds Bolivians 
that U.S. aid remains tied to "zero coca" in the tropical Chapare region 
east of Cochabamba where most coca is grown and clandestine cocaine 
laboratories are found.

Justiniano estimated that 15,000 farmers in the Chapare would participate 
if coca growing were permitted.

Bolivia is the only South American success story in the U.S.-led war on 
drugs. Since 1998, Bolivia has eradicated more than 148,000 acres of coca, 
reducing illicit cocaine production from 234 tons a year to less than 8 
tons annually.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom