ORURO, Bolivia - After finishing third in the presidential election on Sunday, Evo Morales was cornered by supporters at a simple meeting hall in this gritty city perched 12,000 feet in the Andes. Miners with gnarled hands and weathered faces, tough truck drivers and poor indigenous women wearing traditional bowler hats - they would not let him go. Instead, they hugged and kissed him, all the while beseeching him never to back down. It is the kind of attention any politician would crave. But Mr. Morales is not just any politician: he is a coca-chewing Aymara Indian who would nationalize Bolivia's industries, stop payment on its foreign debt and halt American-backed efforts to end coca growing that he says have deepened the poverty of his supporters. Short of reaching those goals, he hints at the possibility of violent revolt. [continues 1184 words]
LA PAZ: A Bolivian Indian presidential candidate under fire from Washington for battling a crackdown on drug trafficking said on Thursday he would give the outgoing US ambassador a present - a coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine. "I congratulate the US people on their holiday," Evo Morales told La Razon newspaper in an interview published on the US Independence Day. "I will send him a little coca leaf as a gift," Morales said, referring to US Ambassador Manuel Rocha. Morales, who has led bloody protests against unpopular efforts to halt cultivation of the leaf also chewed by many people in this country to stave off altitude sickness and hunger, is running third in still incomplete official tallies from Sunday's election. - Reuters [end]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The election to pick this Andean nation's next president has devolved into a morass of accusations and conspiracy theories, with an American diplomat and a former coca farmer at the center of the controversy. Did U.S. Ambassador Manuel Rocha shape the outcome of the election by publicly attacking a leftist candidate who is critical of U.S. foreign policy. Three of the top four vote-getters in Sunday's election seem to think so. After six days of vote counting, nearly complete official returns Friday left the race a virtual three-way tie. Bolivia's Congress will meet Aug. 6 to choose the next president from the top two vote-getters. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, the center-right candidate who served as president from 1993 to 1997, appeared likely to win, despite having garnered just 22.5% of the vote as of Friday evening. [continues 578 words]
The level of popular support in Bolivia for a presidential candidate who opposes American efforts to eradicate the coca crop from which cocaine is produced has startled political analysts and angered Washington. Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian activist, had been dismissed as an outsider, but he is is in third place, just behind Manfred Reyes Villa, a former mayor, and Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a former president and owner of the country's biggest mine, who leads with nearly 25 per cent of the vote. Congress will have to pick the new President, to be inaugurated next month, if none of the 11 candidates wins more than 50 per cent of the ballots cast last Sunday. [continues 237 words]
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. [continues 547 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia, July 1 - Bolivian voters, frustrated with economic turbulence and grinding poverty, supported an unusually diverse array of politicians in presidential balloting on Sunday, shaking up traditional politics in the country's most important election in 20 years of democracy. Exit surveys early today gave Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a former president and pro-market reformer, a razor-thin edge over Manfred Reyes Villa, a populist former mayor of the country's third-largest city, Cochabamba. But voters also gave unexpected support to the leftist leader of the coca farmers, Evo Morales, who favors nationalizing private companies and often criticizes the United States government for its involvement in Bolivian affairs. [continues 562 words]
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 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 party -- called Movement to Socialism -- as many as six seats in Bolivia's 27-member senate. That in turn will put him in a strong position to thwart new legislation to punish those who grow the coca bush. [continues 549 words]
La Paz, BOLIVIA -- A populist former army captain narrowly led Bolivia's presidential election on Sunday, according to exit polls, while a candidate whose defense of coca production drew a warning from the United States was positioned to be a potential kingmaker. Since the leader in the exit polls, Manfred Reyes, was not headed to the 50 percent needed to win outright, several other top contenders had a chance to become president by forging alliances among newly elected legislators before Congress meets by August 3 to elect Bolivia's new leader. [continues 479 words]
Chimore, Bolivia - Bolivia's remarkable victories in the war against drugs may be at risk in presidential elections today. The South American nation, which once led the world in cultivating the plant from which cocaine is made, has eradicated 85 to 95 percent of its coca plants in the last four years. But political turmoil threatens to undermine the controversial anti-coca efforts. Opinion polls suggest that no candidate is likely to win a majority of today's vote. If that's the case, the Bolivian Congress would have to pick a president, and a weak coalition government likely would result. [continues 466 words]
Vote To Elect A President And Congress Comes Amid Protests And Stark Poverty HUATAJATA, Bolivia -- In this town on the edge of Lake Titicaca, presidential candidate Felipe Quispe, an Aymara Indian, talks openly of starting a war against the government. Fifty miles away, on the outskirts of La Paz, the capital, thousands of peasants are marching to demand that Bolivia's Constitution be thrown out and rewritten. The presidential candidates of the major parties are dancing around an unspoken truth: Bolivia is broke, and there is little money to pay for all the new jobs, hospitals and schools that the contenders in today's elections are promising to bring to this desperately poor country. [continues 1009 words]
CHIMORE, Bolivia -- Bolivia's remarkable victories in the drug war might be at risk in presidential elections today. Bolivia, which once led the world in cultivating the plant from which cocaine is made, has eradicated 85 to 95 percent of its coca production in the past four years. But political turmoil threatens to undermine the controversial anti-coca efforts. Opinion polls suggest that no candidate is likely to win a majority of the vote. If that's the case, Congress will have to pick a president, and a weak coalition government probably would result. That would be a severe blow to Washington's war on drugs. Political turmoil in Peru has allowed the cocaine trade there to rebound, and despite millions in U.S. military aid, coca king Colombia has failed to defeat the Marxist rebels, who control drug zones there. [continues 229 words]
EL ALTO, Bolivia - Bolivians will elect a new president on Sunday from a colorful field of candidates, some of whom want to scale back market reforms as a way of addressing the country's stagnant economy and social turbulence. The growing income inequality, endemic corruption and widespread protests in this country of 8.3 million people have led to the emergence of such hopefuls as Evo Morales. An indigenous leader, Mr. Morales has surged in the polls on pledges to fight coca eradication efforts and to nationalize industries. [continues 895 words]
CHIMORE, Bolivia - Bolivia's remarkable victories in the drug war may be at risk in presidential elections today. Bolivia, which once led the world in cultivating the plant from which cocaine is made, has eradicated 85 to 95 percent of its coca production over the past four years. But political turmoil threatens to undermine the controversial anti-coca efforts. Opinion polls suggest that no candidate is likely to win a majority of today's vote. If that's the case, Congress would have to pick a president, and a weak coalition government probably would result. [continues 223 words]
CHIMORE, Bolivia -- Bolivia's remarkable victories in the drug war may be at risk in presidential elections Sunday. Bolivia, which once led the world in cultivating the plant from which cocaine is made, has eradicated 85 to 95 percent of its coca production during the past four years. But political turmoil threatens to undermine the anti-coca efforts. Polls suggest that no candidate is likely to win a majority of Sunday's vote. If that happens, Congress would have to pick a president, and a weak coalition government probably would result. [continues 623 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Controversy erupted in this country's presidential campaign Friday when the bureau that regulates elections denounced the U.S. ambassador for speaking out against an obscure candidate who has demanded that farmers be allowed to grow coca. Bolivia has become a key ally in the U.S.-led war against drugs, eradicating in the past few years about 85 percent of the country's coca plants. But the eradication drive has been violently resisted by coca-growing farmers led by Evo Morales, a minor presidential candidate. Although Morales is running third or fourth in pre-election polls, he may win enough congressional seats in Sunday's election to stall the drug war, some political observers say. [continues 375 words]
CHIMORE, Bolivia - Bolivia's remarkable victories in the drug war may be at risk in presidential elections Sunday. Bolivia, which once led the world in cultivating the plant from which cocaine is made, has eradicated 85 to 95 percent of its coca production over the past four years. But political turmoil threatens to undermine the controversial anti-coca efforts. Opinion polls suggest that no candidate is likely to win a majority of Sunday's vote. If that's the case, Congress would have to pick a president and a weak coalition government probably would result, dealing a blow to Washington's war on drugs. [continues 554 words]
Bolivian Anti-Drug Unit Paid By Washington Accused Of Abuses CHIMORE, Bolivia -- The wary residents of this sweltering town in Bolivia's remote Chapare jungle have a nickname for the uniformed newcomers: "America's mercenaries." The Expeditionary Task Force, the official name for an armed unit of 1,500 former Bolivian soldiers, is paid, fed, clothed and trained by the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, the Bolivian capital. Since setting up camp 18 months ago on three bases around this town of 2,000 inhabitants, the troops and their assault rifles have become a common sight on the local highway, putting down protests along the steamy jungle road by peasants combating a sweeping, U.S.-backed campaign to eradicate the area's biggest cash crop -- coca. [continues 2054 words]
A Maverick Politician Stirs a Continent and Puts Washington's Drug War At Risk To understand why Evo Morales has come within a llama's hair of being President of Bolivia - and why his formidable political power is giving U.S. officials fits - pay attention when he and his top advisers open their mouths. That is, see what they're chewing: coca leaves, treasured by Andean Indians like Morales as a sacred tonic and as their most lucrative cash crop but better known to Americans as the raw material of cocaine. Over the past five years, the U.S. has got Bolivia to uproot almost all of its coca shrubs - only to see Morales, 42, and his left-wing Movement to Socialism engineer an astonishing protest this year that could force Bolivia's next government to let the plants flourish again. "The coca leaf," says Morales, whose party took the second largest bloc of seats in parliamentary elections in June, "is our new national flag." [continues 635 words]
Documents Reveal Details of Casimiro's Murder Embassy Called Him a "Die-Hard," Special to The Narco News Bulletin Publisher's Note: Last December 6th, we arrived in Bolivia within hours of the assassination of coca growers union leader Casimiro Huanca. As we went to his town of Chimore in the Chapare region of the Amazon to investigate the crime, interview eyewitnesses and take photographic evidence, Bolivian government officials were lying to the press and the international community about what had occurred. [continues 1513 words]
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Bolivia, the world's No. 3 cocaine producer, on Saturday rejected U.S. criticism that it was not doing enough to fight illicit drugs and said what it needed instead was access to U.S. markets for legal crops. "We've reduced coca crops (the plant from which cocaine is extracted) by more than 90 percent ... and we'll continue controls, but the task won't be completed without access to markets and opportunities for legal crops and products," President Jorge Quiroga told reporters in Lima. [continues 239 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (AP) - At 45, Maximo Rivero looks like he could turn 65 tomorrow. Cancer gnawing away at his cheek, the coca farmer wept as he described his plight - no money and in yet another hospital, this time with a broken leg crushed during hours of interrogation by police searching for farmers who killed five military men. Rivero joins a growing number of victims in the latest chapter of the battle over coca that has plagued Bolivia since 1997 when the government launched a U.S.-backed campaign to eradicate the Andean crop, used as the base ingredient of cocaine. [continues 1021 words]
A Tale of Two Bolivias March 5th was a day of extremes in Bolivia. In the morning, in one of the most luxurious hotels of the East, in the Amazon city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the boss of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, found himself amidst a mountain of bureaucrats from different countries for the 20th International Drug Control Conference. But by nightfall, in the Andean western corner of La Paz, more than 5,000 peasants from all regions of the country proclaimed Evo Morales, the coca growers' leader, as their candidate for President of the Republic in the election that will be held on June 30th. [continues 1110 words]
THREE British tourists are stranded in northern Bolivia after being caught up in clashes between coca farmers and government troops trying to crack down on the drugs trade. The three Britons are among 40 Western tourists trapped in the remote Sorata valley, about 60 miles north of the capital, La Paz, for the past two weeks. They were caught after farmers blockaded roads out of the valley in protest at the government's attempts to stop production of the coca plant, the raw material for cocaine. [continues 155 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Seven Bolivians died, including a policeman and soldier tortured and murdered by "narcoguerillas," as poor farmers protested an army crackdown on the illegal sale of coca leaves, police said on Friday. The two officers' bodies where found at dawn on Friday in Bolivia's tropical Chapare region, 435 miles southeast of La Paz, after another five Bolivians were killed in riots this week. The deaths were the latest in a long drawn-out U.S.-backed government campaign to eradicate coca, the raw material used to make cocaine but also a major source of income for many peasants and chewed by some as medicine in this Andean nation. [continues 240 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP)--Bolivian peasants and farmers have threatened a new wave of protests against the government of President Jorge Quiroga, saying it hasn't followed up on promises of aid and development. Quiroga, who took office Aug. 7 after Hugo Banzer resigned the presidency to fight cancer, inherits the intense social conflict that marked Banzer's last years in office. Indigenous, impoverished peasants and farmers angry at eradication of coca have given Quiroga time to attend to their demands, which range from granting them more land to ceasing coca eradication. [continues 219 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The presidents of Bolivia and Colombia agreed Monday to press nations that are the major consumers of illicit drugs to improve trade ties with countries trying to wean themselves from the drug trade. "What we are clearly saying is that without shared responsibility by consuming countries, there is little we can do," said Colombian President Andres Pastrana, who met with his Bolivian counterpart, Jorge Quiroga, in La Paz. "We are asking that these consuming and developed nations open their doors to us and offer more possibilities for our products," he said. [continues 219 words]
Bolivia's Women Farmers Refuse To Pay The Price For U.S. Drug Policies IN NOVEMBER 2000, BOLIVIA'S RURAL poor came by the hundreds to the city of Cochabamba, in the center of the country. Most were from the Chapare-the tropical region surrounding the city where the coca plant is grown-and had come primarily to protest the arrest of women leaders who were also coca farmers. Women marched at the front of the demonstrations, babies on their backs. Many carried signs: ENOUGH MILITARIZATION; COCA FOREVER; and LET THEM PUT ALL CHAPARE WOMEN IN JAIL. For 17 days, up to five hundred farmers wove through Cochabamba's colonial center, from the police station to San Sebastian Plaza, where the city's two main jails sit; one for women, the other for men. Both jails are full, but the women's is especially overcrowded because, along with the 320 prisoners, there are 250 children who have no one to care for them but their mothers. Nine out of ten women are there because they were caught up in the wide and often arbitrary police and military sweeps that have become the norm since Bolivia decided to wipe out coca, the plant used to make cocaine. [continues 2227 words]
The government and coca growers have reached an agreement ending three weeks of protests that blocked major highways and threatened the government's stability. The coca growers won concessions to improve working conditions and loan terms for small producers, peasant farmers and teachers. Clifford Krauss (NYT) [end]
LIMA - Bolivia stepped back from the brink of violent social conflict with talks due to start yesterday in the capital, La Paz, between the government and protesting coca growers. In negotiations to hold the talks, coca growers, led by Evo Morales, a militant union leader and congressman, agreed to clear road blocks set up to protest about the US-sponsored eradication of their crops, a government spokesman said. In return, the government has withdrawn some 7,000 troops from the tropical Chapare area - once the main coca-growing region - 200 miles south-east of the capital. [continues 309 words]
General Strike! Set To Begin Tuesday, May 1 And Go On Indefinitely The Bolivian Central Union (COB, in its Spanish acronym) on Monday ratified its decision, beginning on May 1st, International Workers Day, to begin a general strike for an undetermined period of time to demand official attention at its 15-point petition, its leader Alberto Camacho announced this morning. "Until the government (of President Hugo Banzer) effectively meets our demands the decision to convene a National STrike will be maintained," said Camacho, who had announced the adoption of this strategy on Monday. [continues 148 words]
The Bolivian President, Hugo Banzer, has pledged to eradicate all significant amounts of coca crops in his country by the end of the year. Mr Banzer, who had talks in Washington with the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, thanked the United States for financial support to develop alternative crops. However he also said he will not negotiate with the coca-leaf growers, who have been protesting against the government's eradication programme saying it undermines their livelihood. On Monday protestors clashed with police in the capital, La Paz, after their two-week march which began in the central coca-growing region of Chapare. [end]
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bolivian President Hugo Banzer told Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) Tuesday he believes that all significant amounts of cocaine will be eradicated from his country by the end of 2001. Powell congratulated Banzer on his success in fighting illegal drugs and expressed appreciation for the sacrifices Bolivians have made in this effort. An account of their 30-minute meeting was provided by State Department spokesman Philip Rekker. Reeker said Powell encouraged Banzer to continue the anti-drug campaign. [end]
More Than 10 Years Of Battles To Eradicate The Drug Crops Have Failed To Establish Viable Alternatives Leon Montano sits on his porch in the still of the evening. Thick banana tree groves surround his ramshackle farmhouse near Chimore, in the Chapare region of Bolivia. "Much of this used to be coca," he says as a black pig saunters into the yard. "Then the soldiers came and chopped it all down." Mr Montano has few regrets. He recalls the decades when cocaine ruled the region. [continues 766 words]
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia This Andean mountain nation in South America is about to accomplish the unthinkable: eradicating commercial coca production in a country that once was a major narcotics supplier to the United States. Bolivian troops have uprooted the last 1,500 acres of coca plants in Bolivia's southern Chapare region and are launching an offensive in the north to effectively rid the nation by the end of 2002 of the plant from which cocaine is manufactured, government officials said. [continues 741 words]
CHIMORE, Bolivia -- Coca was king for years here in Bolivia's steaming Chapare jungle. From the 1970s on, the leaf used to make cocaine brought thousands of peasants to this tropical basin 200 miles southeast of La Paz in the shadow of the Andes. Their crops vaulted Bolivia to the rank of the world's second-largest producer of raw and partially processed coca, making the country a hub of the regional drug trade. But U.S.-supported Bolivian soldiers and military police last month completed an extraordinarily aggressive -- and successful -- three-year campaign to eradicate coca in the Chapare. As a result, Bolivia has fallen off the list of major drug-producing countries for the first time in almost a half-century. U.S. and Bolivian officials are calling what happened here the largest victory in the drug war so far, a model for other countries. [continues 1557 words]
Country Once Leading Supplier Of Narcotics To United States SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- This Andean mountain nation in South America is about to accomplish the unthinkable: eradicating commercial coca production in a country that once was a major narcotics supplier to the United States. Bolivian troops have uprooted the last 1,500 acres of coca plants in Bolivia's southern Chapare region and are launching an offensive in the north to effectively rid the nation by the end of 2002 of the plant from which cocaine is manufactured, government officials said. [continues 840 words]
CHIMORE, Bolivia -- Declaring a victory in the drug war, the Bolivian government says a U.S.-financed campaign has wiped out coca farming in the Chapare region, once a major world producer of coca. But farmers who were persuaded to give up coca in favor of legal crops say the victory may be short-lived if they don't receive financial aid. They called on the United States to help by buying more of their bananas, oranges, and pineapples. "You all have to open up your markets," said 30-year-old Beningo Cossio, a coca farmer turned honey producer, referring to the United States. "Our products are only being sold locally and that's not enough." [continues 417 words]
Declaring a victory in the drug war, the Bolivian government says a U.S.-financed campaign has wiped out coca farming in the Chapare region, once a major world producer of coca. But farmers who were persuaded to give up coca in favor of legal crops say the victory may be short-lived if they don't receive financial aid. They called on the United States to help by buying more of their bananas, oranges, and pineapples. "You all have to open up your markets," said 30-year-old Beningo Cossio, a coca farmer turned honey producer, referring to the United States. "Our products are only being sold locally and that's not enough." [continues 526 words]
With U.S. Aid, Bolivian Farmers Turn From Coca To Legal CHIMORE, Bolivia -- Declaring a victory in the drug war, the Bolivian government says a U.S.-financed campaign has wiped out coca farming in the Chapare region, once a major world producer of coca. But farmers who were persuaded to give up coca in favor of legal crops say the victory may be short-lived if they don't receive financial aid. They called on the United States to help by buying more of their bananas, oranges, and pineapples. [continues 266 words]
The Bolivian president, Hugo Banzer, has opened a two-day international conference on the illegal drugs trade in the eastern city of Santa Cruz. Delegations from Europe, the United States and Latin America will share ideas on combatting drug-trafficking. As the conference began, Mr Banzer announced that after an intensive three-and-a-half year offensive, all illegal coca plantations in the Chapare region had been eradicated. The government said only two-thousand hectares of illegal coca plantations remained in Bolivia, down from forty-five-thousand when Mr Banzer took office in 1997. [end]
Farmers Battle Government's Campaign To Eradicate Cash Crop Although President Hugo Banzer says coca leaf in his nation's main growing area has been virtually eliminated, residents of the region vow to keep growing the lucrative plant. In a New Year's address, Banzer said his government's goal of "zero coca" in the jungle-covered Chapare region of central Bolivia had been reached. "We need much more than applause," Banzer said. "It is time the world took stock of the work we have done." [continues 1048 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) -- Bolivia blamed "drug terrorists" for the shooting death of a policeman on Thursday in the coca growing Chapare region, where eradication efforts are nearly complete. Police officer Abad Espinoza Quinteros was "shot in the face and head" at 6:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) in the Ismael Montes region about 370 miles (600 kilometers) east of La Paz when his patrol was on its way to root out coca plants in the troubled lowland area. "We're on the right path for the defense of all Bolivians, we're fighting the drug traffickers and this violence will not turn us back," Government Minister Guillermo Fortun said. [continues 168 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia--William Aponte, my tour guide, was waiting. He has plenty of time these days. Ten years, to be exact. That's how long a judge gave him for drug trafficking. He's serving his sentence at San Pedro Prison, across from the Plaza Sucre in downtown La Paz. San Pedro's convicts pay their own expenses. Aponte leads tours to get by. Anyone with 51 bolivianos (about $8) and a twisted sense of adventure can see his home. [continues 717 words]
SHINAHOTA, Bolivia -- Drug-smuggling planes used to land in the middle of the street in this farming town at the height of the cocaine boom in the mid-1980s. That was when Roberto Suarez, the local kingpin, was so rich he offered to pay off Bolivia's entire national debt. But after three years of a government coca eradication campaign, cocaine is virtually a thing of the past here. Now the future is full of suntan lotion and long drives off the tee. [continues 684 words]
SHINAHOTA, Bolivia -- Drug smuggling planes used to land in the middle of the street in this farming town at the height of the cocaine boom in the mid-1980's. Roberto Suarez, the local kingpin, was so rich he offered to pay off Bolivia's entire national debt. But after three years of a government coca eradication campaign, cocaine is virtually a thing of the past here. Now the future is full of suntan lotion and long drives off the tee. At least that is the idea of Oscar Bakir, a telecommunications executive who thinks Shinahota could be the next Disney World or Riviera. [continues 740 words]
Leonardo Marca is down to his last acre of coca, and he has no intention of giving it up without a fight. When soldiers took machetes to his fields in Chipiriri, Bolivia, two years ago, he begged them to leave him something to support his family. Perhaps it was the big military tattoo on one arm, left over from his army days, that persuaded them to spare him a single patch covered by a thick jungle canopy. "I know they are coming back," said Marca, 43, a man of sheepish manner but fiery words. "The government says it will take our land and send us to jail if we persist in growing coca. We will have no alternative but to defend ourselves, like in Colombia." [continues 837 words]
Peter McFarren, the longtime Associated Press correspondent in Bolivia, recently took a step that has nothing to do with his journalistic duties: Lobbying the government. McFarren made a presentation to the Bolivian senate, on behalf of the Bolivian Hydro-Resources Corp., for a $78 million water project. The result, the AP confirmed yesterday, is that McFarren has resigned. McFarren's extracurricular efforts were disclosed by journalist Al Giordano, a former Boston Phoenix writer who recently launched NarcoNews.com. "Imagine if a congressional correspondent for a major Washington daily was found lobbying the U.S. Congress on behalf of a private industry project," he said. "The problem is, U.S. correspondents in Latin America receive very little scrutiny." [continues 888 words]
CHIPIRIRI, Bolivia, - Leonardo Marca is down to his last acre of coca, and he has no intention of giving it up without a fight. When soldiers took machetes to his fields two years ago, he begged them to leave him something to support his family. Perhaps it was the big military tattoo on one arm, left over from his army days, that persuaded the soldiers then to spare him all that is left now, a single patch covered by a thick jungle canopy. [continues 1188 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Only in Bolivia can one find a museum dedicated to the much-maligned and misunderstood coca leaf, holy of holies in ancient Andean religions but also the reviled raw material used to make cocaine. Much like the hidden coca patches dotting South America's subtropical lowlands, the International Coca Institute's museum is nestled in a barely noticeable backyard of a busy La Paz open market in the San Sebastian district. Finding its Web site (www.coca-museum.magicplace.com) might prove to be easier. [continues 748 words]
Inside Bolivia
