BOLIVIA NEARS ERADICATING COMMERCIAL COCA PRODUCTION

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia

This Andean mountain nation in South America is about to accomplish
the unthinkable: eradicating commercial coca production in a country
that once was a major narcotics supplier to the United States.

Bolivian troops have uprooted the last 1,500 acres of coca plants in
Bolivia's southern Chapare region and are launching an offensive in
the north to effectively rid the nation by the end of 2002 of the
plant from which cocaine is manufactured, government officials said.

The program's success is the result of an enormous effort, backed by
the United States, over just a few years. But it has imposed a high
social cost on farmers deprived of livelihoods, a problem that could
pose dangers as the United States becomes more deeply involved in a
much larger cocoa eradication drive in Colombia.

``The accomplishments are so significant that they go beyond Bolivia.
They made Bolivia the one success story in getting out of the
narcotrafficking business,'' said Manuel Rocha, the U.S. ambassador to
Bolivia.

In three years, Bolivia has wiped out more than 94,000 acres of coca
plants in the Chapare, the country's southern, prime coca region.
President Hugo Banzer declared the Chapare coca-free on Feb. 21 during
an international anti-narcotics conference in Santa Cruz. He said that
within months efforts would begin in the Yungas, a high-altitude
region northeast of the capital La Paz, to eradicate some 4,200 acres.
That would leave about 4,900 acres intact for indigenous populations,
who for centuries have grown the plant for medicinal uses.

Bolivia has been able to carry out its eradication program because of
a firm political decision to change the image of the country as a drug
state. Banzer, a former dictator in the 1970s, named the effort Plan
Dignity and wrapped it in nationalism. The United States has
contributed about $350 million to anti-drug efforts in Bolivia since
1993, most of it since 1997 when Plan Dignity began.

But the Banzer government also has had an easier job than its
neighbors have. It has not had to shoot its way onto farms or spray
crop-killing chemicals from helicopters while trying to avoid sniper
fire. Instead, troops have been able to march onto lands worked by
poor peasant farmers and uproot the coca.

Next door in Peru, former President Alberto Fujimori concentrated on
interdiction efforts instead of confronting the growers. Experts fear
coca is on the rebound there. In Colombia, leftist guerrillas waging a
decades-long civil war control a large swath of the coca regions. They
are widely believed to allow drug organizations to operate in their
territory in exchange for a cut of the illicit earnings to fund their
war machine.

Of course, any drug-war victory can be fleeting. After years of
apparent success in Peru, the top leadership of the country -- now in
exile or sought by Interpol -- stands accused of at least a passive
role in drug trafficking. Peruvian farmers have said they never
stopped growing coca and are replanting to tap rising prices.

Bolivia's success will get close scrutiny in Washington, where the
Clinton administration last year committed the United States to a $1.6
billion long-term military aid program called Plan Colombia. It
provides Blackhawk helicopters and other sophisticated military
hardware for aerial spraying to eradicate coca. It also provides
financial assistance for Colombia's Andean neighbors who may face
refugee problems and the temptation to produce more coca leaves to
take advantage of higher prices.

Coca leaves are made into a paste and, with chemicals, transformed
into a base that can be sold as a block or further refined into a
white powder. The Andean countries last year produced between 740 and
850 metric tons, mostly in Colombia. The United States received about
270-300 tons of that, Europe about 140 tons and Latin America 40-80
tons.

President Bush has yet to announce a stance on Plan Colombia. But the
harsh economic and human rights consequences of Bolivia's coca
eradication may give some congressmen pause in the debate over U.S.
anti-drug policy.

When the Plan Dignity eradication effort started in 1997, Bolivia, a
country of 8 million about the size of Texas and California combined,
had an estimated potential to produce enough coca to make 200 metric
tons of cocaine. Late last year that was down to 70 tons.

``The fact that eradication is doable has been established,'' Vice
President Jorge Quiroga said in an interview.

But now Bolivia worries that the Bush administration and Congress will
spend money on coca producers like Colombia at the expense of economic
development projects in countries that have halted coca production.
The United States has given at least $37 million in alternative
development funding over the past three years, a level Quiroga and
others want to see maintained or increased to offset social costs of
coca eradication.