BOLIVIA PLEDGES TO ERADICATE COCA LEAF PLANTATIONS

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Bolivia brushed aside threats of strikes and
blockades by coca leaf producers and pledged Monday to continue destroying
the plantations used to make cocaine.

Nearly 10,000 peasants gathered over the weekend in El Chapare in the heart
of Bolivia's coca-growing country and set a 30-day deadline for the
government to stop the destruction of their crops.

Peasant leader Evo Morales warned the peasants would blockade roads, seize
villages, go on hunger strikes and organize massive marches on La Paz if the
government does not stop targeting their coca crops.

Interior Minister Guillermo Fortun said drug traffickers are behind the
peasant leaders' threats and the soldiers and police won't stop eradicating
the coca crops.

"We aim at reaching the year 2002, when the mandate of President (Hugo)
Banzer expires, having destroyed almost all the plantations," Fortun said.

Fortun said hundreds of coca growers who staged violent protests in
Cochabamba, Bolivia's third-largest city, in March had "all their expenses
paid by the traffickers" -- an accusation denied by the peasant leaders.

The coca leaf destruction program started in August 1997 as part of efforts
to take Bolivia out of the cocaine making and trafficking circuit. The
United States government has supported the plan.

Bolivia is the world's third-largest cocaine producer after Colombia and
Peru. Its production averages 70 tons a year, down from 250 tons before the
eradication program. Last year, the government sent thousands of soldiers
and police to El Chapare to destroy plantations, triggering clashes with
peasants that killed at least 12 people in the region 770 kilometers (480
miles) east of La Paz.

The government said it succeeded in destroying 44,400 acres out of 71,510
acres targeted for eradication. Fortun admitted that the eradication plan
hurts nearly 200,000 peasants who make a living out of coca growing.

But he said they are increasingly accepting a government-sponsored program
to develop alternative crops, such as coffee and bananas.

Peasant leaders complain that the government has failed to create markets
for their new crops.