BOLIVIA DECLARES VICTORY IN WAR AGAINST COCAINE

Declaring a victory in the drug war, the Bolivian government says a
U.S.-financed campaign has wiped out coca farming in the Chapare
region, once a major world producer of coca.

But farmers who were persuaded to give up coca in favor of legal crops
say the victory may be short-lived if they don't receive financial
aid. They called on the United States to help by buying more of their
bananas, oranges, and pineapples.

"You all have to open up your markets," said 30-year-old Beningo
Cossio, a coca farmer turned honey producer, referring to the United
States. "Our products are only being sold locally and that's not enough."

Since taking office in 1997 and pledging to rid Bolivia from the list
of drug-producing countries by 2002, President Hugo Banzer has moved
aggressively to wipe out illegal coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine.

As part of the effort, more than 106,000 acres of coca farms have been
uprooted in the Chapare region in the last three years. The last 50
acres were destroyed this week.

For farmers accustomed to the lucrative profits of coca, the switch to
legal crops has meant a blow to their livelihood. The coca leaves sell
for nearly $5 a pound, while crops such as pineapple - one of the
alternative development crops now being grow in Chapare - sell for 10
cents a pound.

"This is simply not enough to pay the rent or eat," said Maria Justina
Beltran, balancing a sleeping baby on her belly and holding a coca
plant in her hand.

"Families here are lucky to make $50 a month," said Elizabeth Copa,
adding that that has made many farmers leery of the alternative crop
projects. "I think people would embrace these projects more if there
were more markets available."

Herbert Muller, an economist and a former Bolivian government
minister, said the eradication program has resulted in an annual loss
to the economy of South America's poorest nation of $300 million.

He said the economic hardships being felt by the farmers could
potentially undermine the accomplishments of the effort.

"Without more development, the risk is that within two or three years
... Bolivia will again be on the cocaine circuit," he said.

U.S. officials concede more needs to be done to help the farmers. But
they also point out that Bolivia has been the recipient of billions of
dollars in U.S. aid in recent decades.

One U.S. lawmaker attending an international conference this week on
coca eradication said he thought Bolivia's eradication effort had been
grounded in a sense of moral responsibility, but he argued other
countries have no moral obligation to financially compensate Bolivians
farmers who have given up growing an illegal substance.

"The product they were growing here was killing kids (in Bolivia),
killing kids in Europe, and in America. It had to be shut down
regardless," said Mark Souder, a Republican Congressman from Indiana.

Members of the U.S. Congress are tentatively scheduled this year to
decide whether to loosen up the U.S. market for Bolivian imports such
as Andean textiles and the Chapare's alternative crops.

At protests outside the international conference in Santa Cruz, more
than 7,000 coca farmers marched in the broiling sun, chewing defiantly
on their coca leaves and shouting against coca eradication.

They held up stuffed dolls on wooden stakes resembling the president
and the interior minister, one with the chest emblazoned with the
American flag.

"When the government talks about the application of the dignity plan,
it is talking about war against the Quechuas and Aymaras," said Evo
Morales, referring to the Indian tribes who use coca in religious
ceremonies. "It's a war prepared by the Bolivian government and
supported by the government of the United States."