BOLIVIAN FARMERS THREATEN NEW ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP)--Bolivian peasants and farmers have threatened a new
wave of protests against the government of President Jorge Quiroga, saying
it hasn't followed up on promises of aid and development.

Quiroga, who took office Aug. 7 after Hugo Banzer resigned the presidency
to fight cancer, inherits the intense social conflict that marked Banzer's
last years in office.

Indigenous, impoverished peasants and farmers angry at eradication of coca
have given Quiroga time to attend to their demands, which range from
granting them more land to ceasing coca eradication.

But peasant leaders like Nivardo Rivera say Quiroga has done little to make
them believe his government will be any different than that of Banzer. On
Tuesday, Rivera announced that peasants in Bolivia's valleys and high
plains will begin road blockades Oct. 1.

Congressman Evo Morales, representative of the coca farmers, also warned
that some 35,000 families from the Chapare region, once one of the world's
biggest producers of coca, plan to begin protests to prevent the government
from eradicating more of their crop, the base ingredient of cocaine.

Under its U.S.-backed Dignity Plan, Bolivia wiped out 106,000 acres of coca
in the Chapare.

The government has failed to meet many promises in the Chapare, said
Morales, citing both an agreement to share the administration of some $80
million being put toward alternative development projects and a pledge to
not build new military bases there, which he claims the armed forces are
currently doing.

Bolivia's new president is also facing angry members of the influential
Farming Chamber of the Orient, a group of business owners in eastern
Bolivia that last week threatened to launch road blockades and protests if
the government doesn't grant its wish for private banks to refinance its
debts, which reach nearly $300 million.