BOLIVIA MAY EASE COCA-GROWING LIMITS

Leader Is Pressured By His Political Rivals

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia -- Bolivia's government is preparing to ease its
unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw
material from which cocaine is made.

The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of the
United States' only success in curbing drug production in South America's
Andean region. U.S. officials fear that any increase in legal production of
coca plants would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United
States has given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counter-narcotics and
development aid since 1993.

However, embattled Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada promised as
a campaigner to review the coca eradication policy, and his leading
opponents are pro-coca.

Government negotiators and coca growers came to a tentative agreement on
coca growing last week in Cochabamba, even as violent demonstrations
nationwide killed more than two dozen people and destroyed several
government buildings.

The proposed coca deal, which Sanchez de Lozada is reviewing, would allow
roughly 15,000 farmers in Bolivia's tropical Chapare region to grow a catu
of coca -- about a fifth of an acre -- during a 6-month period equal to two
harvests, said Bolivian antidrug czar Ernesto Justiniano.

During the 6-month period, a study would be undertaken to determine how much
demand there is for legal uses of coca.

Many Bolivians chew coca legally as a stimulant, appetite suppressant or to
cope with exertion at high altitudes. Bolivia currently allows about 30,000
acres of legal coca in the Yungas region outside La Paz to meet this need.

Coca farmers argue that there is an underserved market for legal uses of
coca.

Justiniano contends that if farmers agree to grow limited quantities of
legal coca, they'd be less likely to grow coca for illegal sale.
"Eradication is not an end it itself but a tactic in the fight against drug
trafficking," he said.

The United States insists that no more coca growing can be justified.

"A pause in eradication is a pause in development," U.S. Ambassador David
Greenlee has warned repeatedly in the Bolivian news media, reminding
Bolivians that U.S. aid remains tied to "zero coca" in the Chapare region
east of Cochabamba, where most coca is grown and clandestine cocaine
laboratories are found.

Justiniano estimated that 15,000 farmers in Chapare would participate if
coca growing were permitted.

Bolivia is the only South American success story in the U.S.-led war on
drugs. Since 1998, it has eradicated more than 148,000 acres of coca,
reducing illicit cocaine production from 234 tons a year to less than 8 tons
annually.

Effective eradication has cost traditional political parties dearly as
voters resentful of a strong U.S. presence flocked to radical, pro-coca
parties.

The leading coca-growing proponent, Evo Morales, fell 43,000 votes short of
winning the popular vote against Sanchez de Lozada in last year's
presidential elections. Morales and his allies now control about a third of
Bolivia's congress.