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Bolivian President Suspends Drug War Base: Blockades Lifted
(Alex Contreras Baspineiro, The Narco News Bulletin, April 8, 2004)
The coca growers – known in Spanish as cocaleros – of the Yungas region mobilized from April 5 to 7, blocking the highway that connects La Paz to the east. Starting today, they have declared a state of emergency in response to the construction of new military infrastructure and the attempts to forcibly eradicate their crops. . . . In June of 2003, confidential reports leaked from the Ministry of Defense demonstrated that the government had agreed to demands from the US for the construction of two new military bases inside Bolivian territory. One would be in the Yungas region, the other in the Chapare – the country’s two major coca cultivation zones. . . . The documents also revealed that the US Embassy was to finance the establishment of the “Tricolor” radio station (a reference to the three colors of the Bolivian flag) in the town of Chimoré, to be run by the Bolivian armed forces. Broadcasting at up to 15 kilowatts the station will reach all across the country, disseminating discouraging messages to the coca growers about the supposed war on drugs and terrorism. . . . In the Rinconada region, construction has begun on new police/military barracks. There are also rumors circulating about the installation of the “Tricolor” radio station in the Chapare. . . . Yesterday, after three days of conflict, the government and the coca growers signed an accord, which indefinitely suspends the construction of the Rinconada base. It also requires that the existing installations not be used as barracks, and that no forced eradication take place in the three provinces of the Yungas region. . . . Having achieved their goal of shutting down the military base construction indefinitely and preventing the eradication of their crops, the coca growers lifted the highway blockades and returned to their communities. . . . The latest satellite data from the US government, produced this February, show 28,100 hectares (69,500 acres) of coca fields in Bolivia. Of these, 23,550 hectares are located in the Yungas region, and 4,600 hectares in the Chapare. . . . On Tuesday, April 6, US Ambassador David Greenlee reminded President Carlos Mesa of the existence of 11,000 hectares of surplus coca in the Yungas. . . . “According to the satellite readings,” said Greenlee, “there are surplus coca plantations in the Yungas that must be eradicated through integrated alternative development.” . . . In a conversation with Narco News, congressman and cocalero Roberto Calle rejected US interference in internal affairs, and called Greenlee’s words manipulative. . . . “It is an embarrassment that the Mesa government accepts so much interference from the United States,” said Calle. “We will not permit them to touch even one coca leaf in the Yungas, and we emphatically reject the ambassador’s words when he proposes an integrated alternative development. That is a new lie, and nothing but a distraction in this low-intensity war.” . . . Calle added that the coca growers’ demands include the immediate withdrawal of Joint Task Force troops (the Bolivian forces charged with coca eradication) from the area; the abandonment of a plan to separate the coca marketing association in the Yungas into two or more organization, thus dividing the coca growers along provincial lines . . . What is clear, dear readers, is that the United States feels that the Chapare region has now left the coca-cocaine circuit, and that the violent intervention should now be realized in the Yungas. . . . The administration of Carlos Mesa now finds itself at a crossroads: it can continue to passively obey the impositions of the US government, or it can begin to hear the demands of the Bolivian people.

posted by LoZo 7:22 PM