September 29, 2007 - chron.com
Bolivia coca growers find president willing to help Farmers want to expand acres devoted to crop, despite drug link
SHINAHOTA, BOLIVIA — Vitalia Merida grows as much coca as Bolivian law allows her to — four-tenths of an acre, or a "cato," as the measure is known here.
And that's the problem. Because she obeys the legal limit, she's stuck in dire poverty. The average yield from her field, hidden far back from a direct road, brings in just $70 to $100 a month.
Now Merida and many fellow coca farmers are looking for relief from Bolivian President Evo Morales, who once grew coca not far from Merida's little plot and remains the leader of the coca growers union in the Chapare, the tropical region that's the center of the fight to rein in Bolivia's production of the main ingredient in cocaine.
"We're still planting the cato, but we want to grow more," Merida said. "We believe President Morales is conscious of what we need and will help us."
Morales has called for expanding the permitted area devoted to the leaf's cultivation from 30,000 to 50,000 acres and finding new legal uses for it — including turning it into toothpaste and tea.
U.S. pushes eradication The proposals worry U.S. officials, who've been pressing for Bolivia to eradicate more, not less, of its coca crop.
"Our belief is that if we could eradicate all coca, we could eradicate all cocaine, because it is the basic ingredient for cocaine," said Christy McCampbell, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
Two weeks ago, the State Department certified Bolivia as doing enough to fight narcotics to keep $34 million in U.S. anti-drug aid, though McCampbell called Bolivian cooperation "uneven." She acknowledged that Bolivia appears to be on track to meeting its commitment to eradicate about 13,800 acres of coca this year.
The question is whether an increase in coca cultivation will mean more cocaine production.
Legal use of the leaf Morales' administration has insisted that most coca leaf produced in the country is used legally, while opposition politicians accuse the government of turning Bolivia into a budding narco-state.
"With the United States, there are problems because there's been an alarming growth in the production of coca and cocaine," said Samuel Doria Medina, the head of the opposition National Unity party.
Morales' anti-drug chief, Felipe Caceres, a former coca farmer in the Chapare, said the government has made aggressive moves against cocaine manufacturing, seizing facilities and chemicals used to produce the drug.
Cocaine paste seized Col. Edward Barrientos, the commander of the anti-drug police in the Chapare, said his forces have seized about 1.2 tons of cocaine paste so far this year and will likely confiscate more than the 1.5 tons seized last year. They found only about 20 pounds of crystallized cocaine this year, suggesting that the paste is being processed elsewhere.
Chapare residents such as Merida are hoping for better days.
With the government's decision in 2004 to allow coca production, even at reduced rates, calm reigns in the Chapare, and coca is grown and sold openly. Merida hopes that she'll be able to plant even more of it.
"There are no soldiers who show up at 3 or 4 in the morning with tear gas to take away your crops," she said. "We have Evo now, and he's protecting us."
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