ANCIENT VALLEY A LAST HAVEN FOR BOLIVIA COCA GROWERS

ASUNTA, Bolivia (Reuters) - Connoisseurs of coca, chewed by Indians since
the Inca Empire, say the most succulent of the green leaves grow in
Bolivia's Yungas Valley.

Too succulent, perhaps, for their own good.

"The government and Washington want to bury us," said Dionisio Nunez, a
cellphone-carrying Indian farmer and legislator in one of the last places on
Earth where the leaf, also used to make cocaine, is still legally grown and
sold.

The Yungas is kind of a Napa Valley of coca where 500 years ago "sacred
leaves" were packed on llamas to supply Inca emperors across the Andes and
where even now picture-postcard coca terraces grow as far as the eye can
see.

This area will likely be the new battleground in the U.S-backed war to
eradicate cocaine in Bolivia, a battle that has sparked violent protests by
Indians elsewhere in the country which is the world's third-largest cocaine
producer after Colombia and Peru.

While U.S.-trained soldiers have eradicated much of Bolivia's coca crops,
30,000 acres in Yungas are reserved by the government for farmers to grow
coca for its traditional uses -- to ward off hunger, pay respect to Andean
gods or cure illnesses.

But a production boom in recent years has fed suspicions that farmers are
illegally exceeding the quota and that growing amounts of leaves are being
made into cocaine.

Yungas is the biggest source of illegal coca in Bolivia but Indian pride in
coca's traditional home area, where farmers still use stone roads built in
Inca times to travel to markets, will make eradication explosive.

"Limiting the expansion of illegal plantings in the Yungas are the principal
challenges faced by the new administration," said the latest U.S. Embassy
report on Bolivian narcotics after President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada took
office in August 2002.

In the Yungas 10 hours drive from La Paz, coca's sweet fragrance hangs over
Asunta village. Leaves dry on the main street. An Indian mother distracted a
crying child by stuffing a couple of leaves in his mouth. He chewed,
obediently.

Nunez sat in the heat and wondered how long the coca boom would last,
accusing the U.S. Embassy of planning to eradicate this haven. The U.S.
Embassy says it has no such plans.

SPY RUMORS

Some villagers listened as he recounted rumors of military plans to raid the
sleepy hamlet and of government agents infiltrating the region. His eyes
glanced up as he spoke of U.S spy satellites filming his lowly village from
afar.

Satellites have indeed spied. They showed a 25 percent rise last year in
Yungas crops to 47,000 acres.

"I don't think there's much 'traditional' coca anymore," said Julio Veles, a
former farmer born here 70 years ago.

Locals said a 17-year-old girl died of a cocaine overdose this month,
something unheard of a few years ago. Rumors of "foreign" dealers abound.

"It's clear there's more coca being grown in Yungas than meets demand for
traditional use," said one Western diplomat.

Indian growers deny this, saying coca is just more popular, with demand for
coca toothpaste, cookies and liqueurs.

Under danger of losing U.S. aid, governments since the 1990s eradicated
thousands of acres in Bolivia by hacking down or uprooting plants. This
occurred mostly in Chapare region where, unlike Yungas, all coca is illegal.
Washington hailed Bolivia's success in the anti-drug war.

But the effort in Chapare is now in trouble. The government has faced
resistance from farmers and dozens of people have died in protests in the
last few years. Potent homemade mines killed two soldiers in June.

"When there's a crackdown in Chapare, then you see a lot of activity in
Yungas -- there's many signs of drug-trafficking," said Col. Luis Caballero,
head of the U.S.-trained anti-narcotic special forces.

Realizing that eradication like in Chapare -- a far flatter area easier to
control -- was not feasible, the government has said it will not forcibly
eradicate coca in Yungas but simply police the zone, such as at road
checkpoints.

In Asunta, Nunez prepares for battle. He says police invent stories of
finding cocaine labs to justify intervention. But not all farmers believe
him and some traditional coca federations refused to recognize Nunez's
authority.

"If the government comes here, we'll make it very difficult for them," Nunez
said. "This has always been in history a center of Indian resistance."