BOLIVIA'S KNOT: NO TO COCAINE, YES TO COCA

Government Says Most of the Crop Being Used Legally

Farmers Hope They Have a Friend in President, Who Was Once a Grower

SHINAHOTA, Bolivia -- Vitalia Merida grows as much coca as Bolivian
law allows -- four-tenths of an acre, or a "cato," as the measure is
known here.

And that's the problem. Because she obeys the legal limit, she's
stuck in dire poverty. The average yield from her field, hidden far
back from a direct road, brings in $70 to $100 a month.

Now Merida and many fellow coca farmers are looking for relief from
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who once grew coca not far from
Merida's little plot and remains the leader of the coca growers union
in the Chapare, the tropical region that's the center of the fight to
rein in Bolivia's production of the main ingredient in cocaine.

"We're still planting the cato, but we want to grow more," Merida
said. "We believe President Morales is conscious of what we need and
will help us." Morales has called for expanding the permitted area
devoted to the leaf's cultivation from 30,000 to 50,000 acres and for
finding new legal uses for it, including turning it into toothpaste and tea.

The proposals worry U.S. officials, who have been pressing for
Bolivia to eradicate more, not less, of its coca crop.

"Our belief is that if we could eradicate all coca, we could
eradicate all cocaine, because it is the basic ingredient for
cocaine," said Christy McCampbell, the State Department's deputy
assistant secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

On Monday, the State Department certified Bolivia as doing enough to
fight narcotics to keep $34 million in U.S. anti-drug aid, though
McCampbell called Bolivian cooperation "uneven." She acknowledged
that Bolivia appears to be on track to meeting its commitment to
eradicate about 13,800 acres of coca this year.

The big unanswered question is whether an increase in coca
cultivation will mean more cocaine production.

Morales' administration has insisted that most coca leaf produced in
the country is used legally, while opposition politicians accuse the
government of turning Bolivia into a budding narco-state.

"With the United States, there are problems because there's been an
alarming growth in the production of coca and cocaine," said Samuel
Doria Medina, the head of the opposition National Unity party.

Morales' anti-drug chief, Felipe Caceres, himself a former coca
grower in the Chapare, said the government has made aggressive moves
against cocaine manufacturing, seizing facilities and chemicals used
to produce the drug. Bolivia's anti-narcotics police find more than a
dozen such factories every day, he said.

Col. Edward Barrientos, the commander of the anti-drug police in the
Chapare, said his forces have seized about 1.2 tons of cocaine paste
so far this year and will likely confiscate more than the 1.5 tons
seized last year. They found only about 20 pounds of crystallized
cocaine this year, suggesting that the paste is being processed
elsewhere. Caceres said the government is also moving against illegal
coca growers, eradicating coca found in prohibited areas such as
national parks. Residents in the Chapare such as Merida are hoping
for better days. With the government's decision in 2004 to allow coca
production in the area, even at reduced rates, calm reigns in the
region, and coca is grown and sold openly. Merida hopes that soon
she'll be able to plant even more of it. "There are no soldiers who
show up at 3 or 4 in the morning with tear gas to take away your
crops," she said one afternoon as she rested in the shade of a tree.
"We have Evo now, and he's protecting us."