BOLIVIA ERADICATES COCA LEAF FIELDS

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) Bolivia eradicated a record 28,660 acres of coca
fields, or nearly a quarter of the crop fueling the country's cocaine
processing industry, the country's president said Monday.

President Hugo Banzer made the announcement in the Chapare, a lush tropical
region in the heart of the country where 80 percent of the country's coca
leaf is cultivated. Nearly all of it is processed into cocaine.

"This is an important step in taking Bolivia out of the cocaine trafficking
circle," said Banzer.

When he was sworn in August 1997, Banzer vowed Bolivia would no longer
produce cocaine when he left office in 2002.

The eradication was carried out with the support of police and army troops
over the opposition of coca leaf farmers. The government's initial goal,
part of an agreement with the U.S. government, was 18,530 acres.

Last year, the government eradicated 14,800 acres of coca.

In Washington, Bob Weiner, spokesman for Clinton's drug policy director
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, said the announcement by the Bolivian president
"shows that the Andean region is making substantial progress in reducing
drug production."

McCaffrey is pleased with the efforts in Bolivia as well as those made by
Peru over the past few years to curb cocaine production, Weiner said.

The intensified efforts by the Bolivian government and its forces to
destroy coca plants led to several confrontations and 13 deaths in the
Chapare, located 550 miles east of La Paz.

Human rights groups have also complained of abuses by anti-drug forces.

At least 200,000 Bolivians depend directly or indirectly on coca leaf
cultivation in this country of 8 million.

The Bolivian government paid farmers $2,500 per 2.5 acres of old coca
plants destroyed voluntarily. New coca fields were considered illegal, and
were destroyed without compensation and often with the use of force.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski