Bolivian Growers Want to Reverse Coca-Eradication Program

Washington Wants New Bolivian President Carlos Mesa to Push For
Continued Eradication of Coca Crops, but Traditional Growers Are
Demanding More Legal Acreage

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Coca grower Jacobo Aliago gives Bolivia's new
president six months. Max.

"The government gives us lots of problems, licenses, controls," he
said as he packed green leaves into a 50-pound bag. "They treat us
like narco-traffickers. What do we want from President [Carlos] Mesa?
We want our coca."

Aliago and thousands of other coca growers joined miners, students,
teachers and peasants to topple Bolivia's former president this month.
And now, emboldened by their clout, the coca growers are looking to
roll back a government eradication program they claim was dictated by
Washington.

U.S. authorities have expressed concern that as coca production in
Colombia shrinks under a withering U.S.-financed fumigation campaign,
farmers in other traditional growing areas such as Bolivia and Peru
will expand their acreage of the bush from which cocaine is derived.

Alternative Projects

Washington spends $49 million a year in Bolivia for law enforcement
anti-narcotics programs, such as interdiction and eradication. Another
$40 million is spent on alternative development projects, which
encourage growers to replace coca with banana, pineapple, black pepper
and other legal products.

"We think on the balance that our policy, together with Bolivian
policies in controlling drugs . . . have been positive things for
Bolivia," U.S. Ambassador David Greenlee said in an interview. 'It's
easy to be manipulated by those who say, 'This [counter-narcotic
policy] is a problem.' We don't think it is."

South America's poorest country, Bolivia eradicated up to 90 percent
of the plants in recent years and had an estimated 60,000 acres left
as of 2002. U.N. reports show that from 1998 to 2002, the nation's
cocaine export potential dropped from 150 to 60 metric tons.
Washington estimates that 45 metric tons are shipped each year, most
of it to Europe.

But efforts to eradicate more coca bushes have run into stiff
opposition from growers who argue that they only sell leaves in the
local -- and legal -- market. Bolivia's indigenous majority has chewed
coca leaves for centuries as a cure for altitude sickness and a
pick-me-up during a long day's work.

The law here allows nearly 30,000 acres of coca, although a U.S. study
in 2000 said Bolivia needs only half that for its legal market.

Bolivia's increasingly powerful coca growers' lobby -- now the No. 2
party in Congress -- advocates doubling the allowed acreage and
legalizing leaf exports, particularly to northern Argentina, where
indigenous people also chew the leaves.

The demands leave Mesa, Bolivia's vice president until weeks of
violent protests forced President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to resign
on Oct. 17, seeking the difficult balance between a strong domestic
constituency and Washington.

The consequences of failing to heed the coca growers could not be
clearer: the sort of strikes, street blockades and violent protests
that brought down Sanchez de Lozada's government. The growers and the
leftist coalition that forced his predecessor from power have
officially granted Mesa 90 days -- six months if early signs are
promising -- to meet their demands for change.

"We want to see answers," said Alicia Pairuman, a 30-year-old grower
from the Yungas region who treks twice a month to La Paz's coca leaf
market. "We want to see more legal sales of a good product. If Mesa
acts badly, well, then we don't want to know any more about him."

Coca farmers and the unions that back them believe that more legal
production would help drive down the price of leaves and put the
squeeze on drug trafficking, an argument that Washington rejects.

So far, Mesa has not offered any strong indications on how he plans to
proceed.

"We have long-standing state policies and those policies remain in
force for now," Interior Minister Alfonso Ferrufino said last week at
a public address attended by Greenlee. "We want to begin discussions
to study tackling the drugs trade in depth, but this does not imply a
pause [in the eradication]."

Labor Intensive

Critics argue that the alternative development program has flopped,
largely because there is no profitable market for the labor-intensive
legal products such as bananas and pepper.

"They have 18 years of projects, spent a ton of money and can show no
concrete results," said Kathryn Ledebur, who studies the issue for
the Andean Information Network.

Greenlee admits Mesa is in a tight spot.

"President Mesa has to respond to that pressure, but he also has to
stick to the state policy of Bolivia," the ambassador said. "He is
in a difficult position. At the same time, Bolivia has to comply with
international obligations. We think there is a way for him to honor
Bolivian commitments and deal with these pressures."

U.S. officials believe that more coca growers want to eradicate their
bushes and turn to legal crops but are being menaced by coca growers'
union figures who lose their power base if farmers drop the trade.

"People . . . are tired of getting on the streets. If they produce
legitimate products, maybe they don't earn as much as with cocaine,
but its enough to live on and its legal," an embassy official said.

While it is obvious that the coca growers' lobby is growing more
forceful, it is less clear to what extent it was responsible for the
protests that brought down Sanchez de Lozada. He called the street
demonstrations a "narco-coup."

Neighboring Foe

Although many coca growers joined in the blockades that helped
paralyze the capital, the central issue driving the protests was the
former president's controversial plan to export natural gas through
neighboring Chile, this country's arch-foe since it seized all of
Bolivia's coastline in a 19th century war.

Evo Morales, a prominent opposition leader and congressman who
represents coca growers, never went to La Paz during the weeks of
social unrest.

"The president of Bolivia knows the history of this movement better
than anybody," said congressman Dionicio Nunez, who represents
the legal growers in the Yungas region.

"The coca zones have difficulty complying with the [U.S.] embassy's
goals. Mesa knows this has to be a priority, but the government never
listens."