POLICE BREAK UP BOLIVIAN PROTEST OVER COCA FARMING

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (AP)--Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets
to disperse scores of protesters Friday in the fifth straight day of
demonstrations against a coca eradication program.

Protesters since Monday have shut down the main highway linking this key
central city to Santa Cruz, 200 miles to the east, by heaping boulders and
logs along the roadway.

That action continued Friday as thousands turned out to oppose a
U.S.-sponsored, government plan to destroy illegal coca crops - the base
ingredient used to make cocaine .

Helmeted police chased demonstrators through the streets, firing tear gas
into crowds gathered behind barricades of garbage cans and burning tires.

Doctor Eduardo Arnez said he treated three young men for shotgun wounds. He
claimed that police fired the weapons.

Evo Morales, a Bolivian congressman and leader of the country's coca
farmers, has led the protests, which began intermittently after talks
between the government and his group collapsed in December.

In addition, organizers say thousands of Bolivians angered by the
government's decision to sign a hemispheric free trade agreement have also
taken to the streets.

Since the latest round of protests erupted Monday, the independent Permanent
Assembly of Human Rights for Bolivia says security forces have shot and
killed five protesters. The government hasn't confirmed the number of
casualties.