MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia/US agree on “zero cocaine” policy

Bolivian President Evo Morales reached an agreement with the United States to reduce surplus coca crops in the central Chapare region and adopt a “zero cocaine” policy.

Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia Linera, held a long meeting over the weekend in Government House with U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia David Greenlee to discuss the anti-drug policy to be implemented by Bolivia's new government.

President Morales whose political background is closely linked to the union representing coca farmers in Bolivia's central jungle region, said peasants would have to eradicate excess coca crops "either voluntarily or with the help of anti-drug forces".

Like neighboring Peru, Bolivia allows the cultivation of small amounts of coca for nutritional, cultural and medicinal purposes.

In late 2004 after long discussions with government officials when Mr. Morales was president of the coca farmers union, it was agreed to allow each of the more than 30,000 families farm just over a third of an acre with coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine.

President Morales now said the surplus coca crops would be defined as those that exceeded an area 40 meters by 40 meters. He added the agreement with the U.S. diplomat opened the way for the voluntary reduction of coca crops, but he did not say by what amount.

Morales stressed the agreement was designed to ensure peace in coca growing areas so there would not be "even one death, or one injury, or one blockade of roads, or one march".

Ambassador Greenlee told reporters that the Bolivian government was committed to "continue with an effective policy" of destroying coca crops, and how the goal would be met would be decided in the next few days.

Last week, Morales said he would not expel U.S. drug-enforcement agents, as demanded by coca farmers who helped propel him to power, but he warned foreign officials operating in Bolivia to respect the nation's sovereignty and dignity.

Coca growers gathered in the central city of Cochabamba for their annual congress voted February 14 to ask President Morales to expel Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents.

Under a bilateral pact, the United States provides financial, material and technical assistance to Bolivia in battling the cocaine trade. Part of the program involves the presence of DEA agents in the central coca-growing region of Chapare.

Morales who took office last month, campaigned on a promise to lift all restrictions on coca farming but intensifying the struggle against the trade in illegal drugs: zero cocaine.