DRUGS-BOLIVIA: DEA Ousted – What Now?

By Franz Chávez Reprint | | Print |

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Nov 5 2008 (IPS) - Relations between Bolivia and the United States have reached a new low over La Paz's recent decision to expel the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The fight against drug trafficking and resources to rehabilitate addicts are also in jeopardy, experts warn.

Bolivia is the world’s third largest producer of coca and cocaine, after Colombia and Peru, while the United States is the biggest market for cocaine.

Although it is unlikely that relations will be broken off, there is concern about Bolivia's foreign image with respect to policies against drug trafficking and for alternative development among coca growers, former Bolivian foreign minister Armando Loaiza (2005-2006) told IPS.

Bolivia must fulfil its international commitments, said Loaiza, who quoted a former high-ranking foreign official as saying that the Evo Morales administration appears to be distancing itself from its obligations and sending the wrong message.

Loaiza said the cocaine produced in Bolivia goes mainly to neighbouring Argentina, Chile and Brazil, while the cocaine that flows into the United States comes predominantly from Colombia and is smuggled through Central America and Mexico.

The amount of cocaine seized by the police has been rising constantly since 2006, when 14 tonnes were confiscated, to 18 tonnes in 2007 and 25.5 tonnes so far this year, according to official statistics.

International organisations warn that drug-producing countries easily become consumer countries, and this appears to be true of Bolivia, judging by the rising number of addicts seeking help at rehabilitation centres.

The 72 existing centres cannot cope with the demand from people needing help to kick the drug habit, who are mainly between the ages of 18 and 45, the head of the Latin American Scientific Research Centre (CELIN), Franklin Alcaraz, told IPS.

CELIN studies indicate that over the past two-and-a-half years, demand for rehabilitation has grown among consumers of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine. The greatest increase has been among consumers of cocaine and "pasta base" or cocaine sulfate, an intermediate product between coca leaf and cocaine.

Alcaraz complained that U.S. aid to rehabilitation centres is being cut, in spite of the humanitarian nature of their work.

Rehabilitation is also a positive economic gain for the country, because it recuperates the capabilities and productive contribution of drug users, the expert said.

Tension between Washington and La Paz has been escalating because of the expulsion of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Jun. 25, and the decision to declare Ambassador Philip Goldberg "persona non grata" on Sept. 10.

DEA activities were suspended in Bolivia on Nov. 1, after Morales accused the anti-drug agency of spying and financing opposition groups that took part in violent protests that left at least a dozen indigenous supporters of the government dead in September. On Tuesday Nov. 4 he gave DEA staff three months to leave.

Morales, an Aymara indigenous leader who still heads the six most powerful coca growers' unions in the country’s central Chapare region, made his announcement the day after the U.S. government suspended Bolivia's benefits under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) and "decertified" Bolivia's anti-drug efforts, saying the country had failed to cooperate adequately in the fight against drugs.

Exclusion from the ATPDEA will mean the loss of 250 million dollars' in annual revenues and 80,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector, according to estimates by private companies.

In September, the government claimed a "civil coup" was being hatched by opposition governors in the so-called "eastern crescent", made up of the relatively wealthy departments (provinces) of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, and he now accused the DEA of supporting the groups involved.

Since September, the Bolivian and U.S. embassies have been headed by chargés d'affaires, following the mutual recall of their ambassadors.

The accusations against the DEA are not compatible with international law, which requires proof to support an allegation, said Loaiza.

According to the former diplomat, the arrival of a new Democratic administration in the United States, where elections were held on Tuesday, will not alter U.S. foreign policy. He pointed out that Barack Obama has an expert on international anti-drug and terrorism strategies at his side – a reference to the president-elect’s running-mate Joe Biden.

The vice president-elect actively participated in drawing up the U.S.-financed counterinsurgency and anti-drug Plan Colombia, launched in that civil war-torn country in 2000, he noted.

Loaiza advocates redesigning bilateral policies against drug trafficking in consultation with international forums, instead of relying on the present entrenched attitudes.

It is possible to negotiate agreements with the United States "with dignity," said Loaiza, who in 1994 took part in negotiating an extradition treaty with the U.S.. It was a difficult process, but Bolivia’s interests were asserted to good effect, he said.

Morales built his political platform on the defence of coca farmers against U.S. policies of total eradication of their crops. After several years' resistance against police and the army, he won the right for every family to grow coca on a "cato" of land, equivalent to 1,600 square metres.

When he became president in January 2006, coca farmers' organisations accepted the assignment of one "cato" per affiliated member.

Morales announced on Nov. 1 that 5,025 hectares of illegally-grown coca have been eradicated this year, in the central province of Cochabamba, the eastern province of Santa Cruz and the western province of La Paz.

According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the area under coca cultivation grew 1,400 hectares from 2006 to 2007.

At the end of 2007, the total area amounted to 28,900 hectares. Under Bolivian law, only 12,000 hectares of coca can be grown legally in traditional production areas, for brewing tea, medicinal purposes, and ritual uses by indigenous people.