U.S. WAR ON DRUGS STIRS ANTI-AMERICAN SENTIMENTS IN BOLIVIA

Coca is everywhere in Bolivia.

In some places, it's used legally in tea or as something to chew on. In
others, it's illegally turned into cocaine for equally illegal export
around the world.

The Bolivian government, under pressure from the United States, has been
trying to cut back the production of the abundant leaf that is used to make
cocaine.

But any changes to the coca business affect the lifestyles of some of the
poorest people in one of South America's poorest countries.

Bolivians in general, and coca farmers in particular -- legitimate and
otherwise -- are upset about the effort, and put a good deal of the blame
squarely on America's back.

"There are substantial demonstrations because of the government's anti-coca
program, and there are anti-American sentiments among the coca growers,"
said Bret Gustafson, a doctoral candidate at Harvard who lived in Bolivia
for five years. "I look like a typical American, and people think you're
associated with the embassy."

Walter Poirier, a 23-year-old Lowell man, came to the beautiful but
troubled country last year as a Peace Corps volunteer.

He has been missing since Feb. 22, lost in a country rich in mountains,
rain forests, deserts, and an anti-American popular feeling.

David Elsaesser, a former Peace Corps volunteer, witnessed the conflict
first hand. After his two-year stay in Paraguay from 1997 to 1999,
Elsaesser and a group of other Peace Corps veterans drove through South
America. When they reached Bolivia, the group got lost and ended up at a
military base, where a young soldier threateningly reached for his gun and
vulgarly told them to turn around.

It wasn't Elsaesser's only experience with hostility to foreigners. In La
Paz, Bolivia's capital city, he said he saw even clearer signs of xenophobia.

"In Bolivia, at a certain hour before lunch, everything stopped.

The traffic stopped and everyone stopped and listened to this one radio
station," Elsaesser said. "I look so foreign in La Paz, Bolivia, and the
station is saying, 'Viva Bolivia' and 'May all foreigners die."

Beauty Amid Danger

Despite the underlying dangers and its depressing poverty, people who have
been to Bolivia rave about its natural beauty.

The western edge of the country is backed by the Andes Mountains, where
peaks rise above 15,000 feet. La Paz, a city of more than 700,000, is in
the middle of the mountains.

At 12,000 feet, it is the highest capital city in the world.

The city is the hub of the country and the home of huge markets that offer
cheap clothes and jewelry for tourists.

There is also a smaller market that sells ingredients for witches' brews.

Michelle Fliegauf, an adventure travel consultant for a San Francisco-based
company, has been to the country several times and enjoyed it. She has not
had the run-ins that Elsaesser has, and said La Paz is a wonderful city to
visit.

"La Paz has these hills, and you go to these local markets with fresh
fruits and lots of color," Fliegauf said. "There's beautiful clothing there."

Away from the city, Bolivia quickly becomes very rural and very poor.
According to the State Department, the per capita income nationwide was
just $1,036 in 1998. Move eastward, and the mountains give way to arid
plains in the south and part of the Amazon River watershed in the north.

The country is generally regarded as one of the most beautiful in South
America. Despite his uneasy moments in Bolivia, Elsaesser said he often
commends it to friends.

"I spent at least a month in Bolivia; it's gorgeous," he said. "I always
tell people if you're hard up for cash and want to see a variety of terrain
and cultures, go to Bolivia."

In much of the country, coca is a mainstay crop. Despite efforts by the
American and Bolivian governments to lower the figure, Bolivia produces
one-third of the world's cocaine, according to the State Department. The
intervention by the government, with much prodding from the U.S., is
generating unrest in the farmlands.

However unpopular the move for the Bolivian government, the agreement to
cut back on coca production has been economically beneficial. The United
States has forgiven more than $370 million of the country's debt in the
last 10 years, partly as an incentive to reduce cocaine production.

Independence And Unrest

Bolivia's government has been in near-constant upheaval since the country
won its independence from Spain in 1825. Most of the rest of the 1800s was
marked by coups, and during the first part of the 20th century, business
interests ran the country.

The government remained in flux until the late 1980s, and experts felt a
handful of peaceful presidential elections had indicated the beginnings of
stability. Now, however, the government's anti-coca stance has led to
unrest in the country's farmlands, and an intolerance for Americans.

Chris Rush, a New York-based international investigative consultant, said
he tells clients to blend in as much as possible when visiting Bolivia and
to keep in contact with American officials while there.

"I think Americans who travel in Bolivia who dress down and do not call
attention to themselves and blend in have very few issues," Rush said. "You
need to take a common-sense approach.

Check in with the embassy, stay in touch with family and friends, plan your
trip and stay with your plan."

That simple advice may not be so simple to take. In a country of nearly 8
million, Americans tend to stick out, and locals watch them, said Harvard's
Gustafson.

In the Zongo Valley, one of the country's most popular tourist areas,
villages are small and tightly knit. It is unlikely that Poirier, whose
work in Bolivia focused on ecotourism, could have come in or left without
someone noticing.

"It's small, quiet, and everyone knows everyone," Gustafson said. "When you
have a gringo showing up in a place like that, everyone knows who they are."

The Zongo Valley is a weekend playground for La Paz residents, who tackle
the 30-mile trek (which can take as long as two hours) to gaze at lush
valleys and climb mountains that top out over 15,000 feet. Adventure
tourism companies in America tout trips to the ice caves that dot the
higher elevations.

"It's the kind of place where people go for the weekend," Gustafson said.
"It's still pretty high up, that's why there's a lot of tourist movement in
there. It's not the kind of place where you would expect a tourist to
disappear.

"Poirier did disappear, seemingly into thin air. The Peace Corps started
its own investigation in March, and since then a half-dozen FBI
investigators have gone to the country, trying to pick up the scent.

There have been few developments so far, and the FBI returned back to the
United States last week.

Gustafson said any one of a number of things could have happened.

Poirier could have run into trouble on one of the cliff-hugging roads
between La Paz and the valley, he could have been lost in a mudslide, or he
could have run into trouble along the trade routes that run from the
far-flung fields of the countryside to La Paz.

"There are probably not more than a couple of thousand people there (in
Zongo Valley). It's two hours from La Paz, and usually they are a
combination of weekend getaways and a truck stops on a longer trip,"
Gustafson said. "Almost anything could have happened.

Who knows?"