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DRUGS-BOLIVIA: Washington Warns Morales Policies Will Have Consequences

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Sep 19 2006 (IPS) - When Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, arrived in New York on his first visit to the United States, he received an unmistakably chilly welcome: disapproval of his anti-drug policy and the threat of probable decertification in 2007 because of coca-crop expansion in the South American country.

The White House report with these warnings, sent to the U.S. Congress Monday, struck a sour political note with the indigenous leader, in the country to give a speech at the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.

But prior to leaving for the United States, Morales had accused the George W. Bush administration of allegedly planning to stir up armed conflict between Bolivia and neighbouring Paraguay, also suggesting the U.S. was joining forces with multinational oil companies to block his government’s renationalisation of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves, a decision announced May 1.

Now, Morales faces the unpleasant likelihood that his flexible coca-crop policy will be rejected, which will deal a blow to his efforts to eliminate the illegal plantations that produce cocaine for the U.S. market.

The statement, signed by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, stated that “Despite increased drug interdiction, Bolivia has undertaken policies that have allowed the expansion of coca cultivation and have significantly curtailed eradication.”

A diplomatic source told IPS that the document strongly warns Morales that he must drastically reduce coca leaf crops by at least 5,000 hectares by March 2007 and revoke government resolutions that permit open commercialisation of the plant that – in addition to providing the basic ingredient for cocaine – has legal uses in traditional medicine and rituals.

The report that has circulated in Washington also implicitly demands that Morales eliminate a third leaf-storage and concentrated market in the town of Caranavi, in the central province of La Paz, because the 1989 anti-drug law permits such markets only in the cities of La Paz and Sacaba, in the province of Cochabamba.

The document criticises the initiatives of Morales, who is also the head of the coca growers’ movement. He has made several concessions to these growers – the social and political base that propelled him to the presidency Jan. 22, with 53.7 percent of the vote in December’s elections.

The president expanded several policies that had already been modified by his predecessor, Carlos Mesa (2003-2005), such as the one authorising 1,600 square metres per family for coca leaf cultivation. His extension of this right to every member of the cocalero movement exponentially increased the number of plantations.

Crop area measurements published by the United States three months ago showed that Bolivia has approximately 26,500 hectares of coca fields, while the U.N. estimates the total at 25,400 hectares.

The Bolivian law governing controlled substances allows the cultivation of 12,000 hectares of coca for traditional use, in teas and indigenous rituals; any other plantation is illegal.

Morales and the growers agreed to eradicate some 5,000 hectares of coca fields, and the government confirms that, to date, 3,411 hectares have been peacefully eradicated without any violence or confrontations between the security forces and the farmers.

After reading the White House report, presidential spokesman Alex Contreras stated that the United States had “the wrong idea” about what is going on with Bolivia’s anti-drug policy, since during the eight months of Morales’ mandate the government has voluntarily proceeded with the eradication, without violating human rights.

“This means that the goal of eradicating 5,000 hectares by the end of the year will be easily surpassed, not because of U.S. pressure, but through our own will and without using a single drop of tear gas – much less repression or confrontations,” he said..

Washington’s “decertification” could hit Bolivia hard economically, as it would cut off the 150 million dollars the United States grants the Andean country each year, and it would also mean a vote against them on the boards of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), institutions which the country relies on heavily for foreign aid.

Each year, the country receives from these institutions an estimated 400 million dollars in loans and donations to finance social programmes and build roads, schools and hospitals.

Bolivia’s gross domestic product, according to IMF statistics, stands at approximately 9.5 billion dollars, while its foreign debt has climbed to almost 4.5 billion dollars – in a country where poverty affects 63.7 percent of the population of 9.2 million.

“The Evo Morales administration will be hard-pressed to break with the paradigm the president has created with his insistence that the coca leaf is not the same as cocaine, so long as the situation is seen otherwise by the international community,” the director of the Latin American Scientific Research Centre, Franklin Alcaraz del Castillo, told IPS.

Morales’s request to decriminalise coca at the Sep. 11-16 Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana did not receive enough support, noted Alcaraz del Castillo.

The president had initiated an international campaign, through diplomatic representatives, to get the U.N. to decriminalise coca-leaf crops, which it listed as a controlled substance in 1988, prohibiting its commercialisation and consumption.