Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Author: Andres Oppenheimer, Knight Ridder Newspapers U.S. FOE IN BOLIVIA'S ELECTION RUNOFF MIAMI - Coca growers' leader Evo Morales made a stunning leap to second place yesterday in the final count of Bolivia's June 30 presidential elections, ensuring that he will have the political clout to threaten U.S.-financed anti-drug programs in one of the world's biggest coca-producing countries. Morales, a hard-line socialist who has vowed to fight capitalism and close down U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration offices in Bolivia if elected, won about 21 percent of the vote, and ended up less than 2 percent behind former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada. Under Bolivian law, Congress will have to choose between the top two vote- getters by Aug. 4. While most political analysts agree that Sanchez de Losada, a wealthy businessman, will become president, they also agree that Morales' rise from the fringes of Bolivia's political system to the leadership of the second-largest bloc in Parliament will alter Bolivia's politics. His position will also deal a serious setback to the U.S. war on drugs, analysts say. "The U.S. anti-drug policy in Bolivia is doomed," said Eduardo Gamarra, the Bolivian-born director of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center. "I don't see how Sanchez de Losada could possibly continue with the policy of forced eradication of coca plants without Morales bringing the country to a halt." Morales, the 42-year-old leader of the Movement to Socialism, has led often-violent protests by Bolivia's coca growers against U.S.-backed eradication programs. A descendant of Quechua and Aymara Indians, he was supported by large numbers of Bolivia's indigenous people, who, despite making up about 70 percent of Bolivia's population, had little representation in the country's political class. During the presidential campaign, he said he would close down the DEA office in Bolivia, alleged that the U.S. Embassy was trying to kill him and asserted that capitalism is humanity's worst enemy. "In Latin America, we must build many Cubas to liberate ourselves from North American imperialism," Morales was quoted by the Colombian daily El Tiempo last weekend. "In Cuba there is democracy, the people have voted. Likewise, these kind of movements will take root here." After the election, Morales joked that he owed part of his good showing in the polls to U.S. Ambassador Manuel Rocha, who three days before the vote said that U.S. aid to Bolivia could be threatened if the country elected "those who want Bolivia to once again become a major cocaine exporter." The comment was criticized by Bolivian politicians as interference in the country's electoral process. Anger over the economic impact of coca eradication on indigenous farmers has spread across the Andean region. In Peru, the government has partially suspended a U.S.-financed coca- eradication program that had been hailed as one of the biggest success stories in the U.S. war on drugs. A Miami Herald report last week revealed that the Peruvian government quietly halted U.S.-financed coca eradication and alternative-crop development programs in the Alto Huallaga and Apurimac valleys after angry coca farmers threatened to lay siege to major cities. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth