Pubdate: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2002 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: Kevin G. Hall, Mercury News Rio De Janeiro Bureau Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) BOLIVIAN VOTE PUTS DENT IN US CLOUT Candidate Could Hurt Anti-Cocaine Efforts RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The unexpectedly strong showing of radical Indian agitator Evo Morales in Bolivian elections promises to deal a serious blow to the Andean nation's successful U.S.-backed efforts to halt cocaine production. Morales, an Aymara Indian, campaigned on an anti-United States platform and the promise to reverse Bolivia's efforts to eradicate coca, the plant from which cocaine is made. Preliminary returns from Sunday's presidential election, announced Monday, showed Morales battling for third place in the presidential race, with about 17 percent of the vote. Because the presidential voting determines the award of Senate seats under Bolivian law, that strong finish will give his Movement to Socialism party as many as six seats in Bolivia's 27-member Senate. That in turn will put him in strong position to thwart new legislation to punish those who grow the coca bush. Support for Morales surged following comments from the U.S. ambassador effectively warning voters away from Morales. Morales trailed leaders Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and Manfred Reyes Villa by less than five percentage points and declared his strong showing ``a moral victory.'' Interviewed in the capital of La Paz days before the election, Bolivian anti-drug czar Oswaldo Antezana told Knight Ridder that Morales ``could undo everything we have done.'' Bolivia has eradicated more than 90,000 acres of coca cultivation since 1998 and taken more than 230 tons of cocaine out of the global illicit drug market. Even if traditional parties joined to outvote Morales on future drug legislation, they would do so at their own peril. Morales' strong showing among Indian and mixed-race Bolivians, who are the majority in the nation of 8.3 million, ensures politicians may think twice before espousing new open-market reforms or penalizing the transport and possession of coca leaves as the United States advocates. Morales, 42, showed how unpopular the coca eradication policies are among the poor, who are a majority of the electorate and who have not felt any benefit from U.S.-backed economic reforms. Morales adroitly reminded citizens in South America's poorest economy that the United States failed to reward anti-coca efforts with open markets for textiles and farm products. Just a week before Sunday's vote, Morales was stuck in the 10-percent range in opinion polls. But U.S. Ambassador V. Manuel Rocha gave him a huge boost with ill-timed comments last Wednesday. ``As a representative of the United States, I want to remind the Bolivian electorate that if you elect those who want Bolivia to become a major cocaine exporter again, this will endanger the future of U.S. assistance to Bolivia,'' Rocha said in a widely condemned speech. Bolivians of all political stripes decried as unacceptable U.S. threats in the middle of a Bolivian election campaign. The comments apparently pushed undecided voters into the camp of Morales, who dubbed Rocha his ``campaign chief.'' The U.S. Embassy in Bolivia had no comment Monday. Bolivia once led the world in coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking. In 1998, it launched Plan Dignity, which has resulted in the eradication of at least 85 percent of the coca, which is used by the nation's Indians for medicinal purposes. Most of the eradicated coca was grown in the Chapare, a New Jersey-sized tropical region that is the hotbed of support for Morales and was home to much of Bolivia's drug trafficking. Coca is not native to the Chapare, and the coca bush grown there is too bitter for teas or chewing. Most is geared specifically to the illegal drug trade. The United States and Europe have spent millions on helping Chapare farmers grow alternative crops, but results have been mixed. Morales will also be influential in a planned special session of Congress designed to amend Bolivia's constitution. Native Bolivians want an article amended to explicitly grant them greater participation in government and clearer land rights. Partly at stake in the upcoming battle is whether the state or Indians should be the owners of the gold, silver and natural gas deposits beneath Bolivian soil. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom