Pubdate: Tue, 22 Apr 2003
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Missy Ryan, Reuters
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Peru

FARMERS IN PERU URGE END TO ANTI-COCA EFFORT

LIMA -- Thousands of Peruvian coca leaf farmers marched into Lima yesterday
demanding the government halt plans to eradicate their cash crop, the raw
ingredient of cocaine, and free their jailed leader. 

Men, women and children, who have traveled for over a week on foot from
jungle areas where coca leaf is a staple crop, marched with flags and
banners from the outskirts of Peru's sprawling capital toward the
presidential palace.

''[We want] President Alejandro Toledo to listen to our demands and make
good on his promises,'' Marisela Guillen, secretary general of the
Agricultural Producers' Association of the Apurimac-Ene River Valleys, said.

''We don't want to be abandoned [by the government] or to be maligned . . .
. We are against drug trafficking. We just want to survive,'' she said.

Most coca farmers insist that they are not involved in the drug trade and
that their crops are grown for traditional Andean uses. Coca is used in tea,
chewed to ward off hunger and fatigue and used in traditional Indian
religious ceremonies.

Peruvian drug czar Nils Ericsson called for a meeting with farmers' leaders
last evening. But Guillen said they would only hold talks with Toledo, the
president who they complain panders to US demands to eradicate coca.
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