BOLIVIA MOVING TO EASE U.S.-AIDED COCA ERADICATION

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's government is preparing to relax 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
Washington's only success in curbing drug production in South America's
Andean region. U.S. officials fear that any increase in legal coca
production 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 vowed 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 and destroyed a number of government
buildings.

The proposed coca deal, which Sanchez de Lozada is reviewing, would allow
roughly 15,000 Bolivian farmers in Bolivia's tropical Chapare region to grow
a ''catu'' of coca -- about a fifth of an acre -- during a six-month period
equal to two harvests, said Bolivian antidrug czar Ernesto Justiniano.
During the six-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. Antidrug czar Justiniano contends that if farmers agree to grow
limited quantities of legal coca, they would 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 media, reminding Bolivians
that the 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 the 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 eight
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.

Interviewed at his home in Cochabamba, Morales said he believes the U.S.
goal for ''zero coca'' in Bolivia is now dead.

He predicted that by the time coca-growing negotiations with the government
are done, ''we will end up with two or three catus of coca'' per farmer.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials in Washington, beset by a
heavy snowfall, could not be reached for comment.

The issue became more urgent after last week's violent demonstrations and
rioting in protests aimed at Sanchez de Lozada. Opponents want the president
to resign after just seven months in office. His Cabinet resigned Tuesday
and he desperately seeks international aid to stave off collapse and silence
detractors.