Pubdate: Wed, 14 Sep 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Jack Chang

UNEASY PEACE IN COCA CROP REGION

Bolivia's Candidates Take On Issue As Deal For Limited Cultivation Is Set To
Expire Oct. 1

From his quiet corner of Bolivia's Chapare region, Egberto Chipana recalled
the day three years ago when government soldiers invaded the radio station
he manages because it was championing the cause of farmers who grow coca,
the plant whose leaves are the raw material for cocaine.

On that Tuesday, with battles raging between growers and troops, the
soldiers seized the station's transmitter, and its directors were threatened
with prosecution for instigating unrest. Growers responded by blocking roads
and staging protests, demanding that the station be reopened.

``The government eventually returned everything,'' Chipana said on a recent
sweltering afternoon. Drying coca leaves covered the earth outside the
station building. ``The outcry was too great, and the government couldn't
ignore it.''

The Chapare, a tropical region of mountain and plain in central Bolivia, has
been a battleground for the past decade between coca growers and government
troops.

Sometimes the face-off has had deadly results, but an uneasy peace now
prevails, thanks to a one-year truce signed by growers and the
administration of since-ousted President Carlos Mesa that allows limited
cultivation of coca.

But with the agreement officially set to end Oct. 1 and Bolivians scheduled
to elect a new president in December, these could be the last days of peace,
some Chapare residents fear.

``If the government doesn't respect our right to determine our own
livelihood, we will organize and we will fight,'' said Gabina Contreras, a
54-year-old mother of 11 from the growers' collective Sindicato Esteban
Arce, named for a Bolivian independence hero. ``Coca is like father and
mother to us. We can't live without coca.''

Despite the truce, U.S. and Bolivian officials say this Andean nation's laws
forbid the cultivation of coca and allege that coca grown in the Chapare is
ending up as cocaine elsewhere in the Americas.

According to the U.S. State Department, Bolivia is the world's third-largest
producer of cocaine. The United States has poured more than $150 million in
military and social aid into the country annually over the past four years,
in part to fight coca cultivation.

Although eradication of coca in excess of that permitted by the truce
continues, the days of widespread military action against coca growers is
halted for now, said Luz Mendoza of the country's Ministry of Social
Defense.

So far this year, the government has destroyed about 16 square miles of coca
nationwide, almost all of it in the Chapare, government figures show. In
comparison, it eradicated about 46 square miles during all of 2002, nearly
half of the 110 square miles believed under cultivation.

``We have a temporary situation there now,'' she said. ``People who are
directly involved in the planting of coca are still disobeying laws, and
we're not going to ignore that.''

Kathryn Ledebur, director of the human rights group the Andean Information
Network, sees the coca issue heating up as the election approaches.

Presidential candidates Evo Morales, himself a coca grower, and former
President Jorge Quiroga, who oversaw the country's coca eradication effort
in 2001 and 2002, were running neck-and-neck in a recent poll.

Morales has said in interviews that he plans to promote the growth of coca
for industrial uses other than cocaine production. As one of the country's
main coca-producing areas, the Chapare is also the heart of Morales'
political support.

Quiroga has been a longtime champion of coca eradication and the development
of programs that promote the cultivation of crops such as bananas and
oranges in its place.

``Both of the key players in this election built their platforms on the coca
issue,'' Ledebur said.

Growers argue that they cultivate and use coca for traditional purposes such
as tea making and chewing to stave off hunger while working.

Selling the crop in government-approved markets, a family working the
maximum area of coca crop permitted by the truce can earn between $60 and
$80 a month, Ledebur estimated.

Where the coca goes after the markets, however, is a question growers don't
have answers for.

``We are just following the legal procedures,'' Chipana said. ``Maybe some
of the coca is going to drug production, but that's out of our control.''

Jorge Azad, the country's vice minister of alternative development, said he
believes that much of it is going to drug production. The amount of coca
coming out of the Chapare far exceeds what's needed for traditional use, a
fact that demands government action, he said.

``The eradication campaign will continue,'' Azad said. ``I don't know if it
will widen after the elections or what will happen, but it will continue.'' 
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