Under the Flag of Law Enforcement
Kawell, Jo Ann
ON JUNE 28 OF LAST YEAR, SHORTLY BEfore Bolivia passed a new law aimed at controlling coca production, a crowd of protesters gathered at the drug police post in Villa Tunari, a small town in...
...But in early 1988, the growers brought it to a halt...
...In May, a draft containing a strict timetable for eradication and the text of a harsh proposed coca law was circulated...
...AND BOLIVIAN representatives sat down to negotiate the terms of a three-year bilateral drug control agreement, the U.S...
...aid inconsequential...
...6. "Drug Control: U.S.Supported Efforts in Colombia and Bo- livia," U.S...
...We had a taste of this a few years ago..,where we saw a nondemocratic government in bed with the drug traffickers....[I]f this program...fails, we could see a similar kind of non-democratic government in the near future.'"2 Officials like Gelbard see the drug lords as the main threat to Bolivia's democracy...
...Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (H.R...
...The negotiations dragged on...
...Gonzalo Flores and Jos6 Blanes, LD6nde va el Chapare?, (La Paz: CERES, 1984) p. 1 7 8 . 14...
...The growers made their displeasure known, and when the government failed to respond, the unions mobilized...
...In some recent years Bolivia's eradication figures were extremely low-only 119 acres of coca were destroyed in 1985 and 692 in 1986-partly because the legal basis for eradication was so shaky...
...For many Bolivians, U.S...
...Some complained they never received payment for pulling up their coca, and that the regional development program was going nowhere...
...They don't pay any attention to our complaints," union leader Vargas says, "What they want to do is eliminate us...
...Assistant Secretary of State Ann Wrobleski, who heads the Bureau of International Narcotics Affairs, called the new law's passage a "landmark for Bolivia and for the international community," though she recognizes that "implementing it will be more difficult...
...80, 84...
...The miners are living in garbage dumps now, eating garbage...
...DEA agents stepped up their presence in the region...
...Thanks too, to my colleagues at CIDRE in Cochabamba and CEDOIN in La Paz...
...Congress in International Narcotics Control," Raphael Perl, Congressional Research Service, (Sept...
...8 IN EARLY 1987, WHEN U.S...
...That disagreement lay at the heart of the debate over the coca law which raged for over a year throughout Bolivia...
...Long-time COB leader Juan Lechin, known for his forceful role in the tin miners' struggles of the past, joined the negotiating team of seasoned growers union leaders...
...The growers, Bolivian officials, even most U.S...
...Faced with the central government's neglect, the unions distributed land, settled disputes and built schools and health posts...
...as many as four more may soon be added...
...Henkel writes, "...official government agencies exert little influence on the [Chapare growers]....The pub- lic officials usually insure that their policies and decisions do not conflict with those established by the [union] leaders...
...6 (MARCH 1989) 29COCAo Asr4 COCA this one...
...The farmers wanted cash...
...Their wellorganized unions form part of the legal labor movement...
...His comments were greeted with cheers and applause, which grew louder when he vowed that the growers would do whatever is necessary to defeat U.S...
...The situation was tense, and U.S...
...army trainers remained to work with Bolivia's special drug police unit, and agents of the U.S...
...Many find these official figures highly questionable (as the report itself notes...
...International Narcotics Strategy Report," 1988, U.S...
...Washington's unwillingness to pay the price of the program has made the growers just as mistrustful of U.S...
...In Peru's Huallaga Valley, it was forced eradication of coca which allowed the Shining Path and MRTA guerrilla movements to win considerable support...
...Drug Enforcement Administration frequently accompany the Bolivian police in the field...
...It is estimated that threefourths of the Chapare's current population will have to leave the region if coca is eradicated, because the soil used for coca will not adapt easily to other crops...
...In reality, other forms of U.S...
...So far, there is no sign of the formation of a Bolivian guerrilla movement, but according to union adviser Radil Lara, "If there's no rational solution and they try forced eradication, I think they may be encouraging the emergence of guerrillas or some sort of violent movement...
...But we're campesinos, and we aren't responsible for the demand for our product...
...9. The main text of the "Plan Trienal Para La Lucha Contra El Narcotrdfico" was released by the Bolivian government, but the "annexes" which contain the details of how the agreement will be carried out, were not...
...By all accounts, coca is now Bolivia's most valuable commodity, worth more than all the country's legal exports combined...
...This does not mean, however, that we consider the loss of U.S...
...Nine months after they began, Fernando Illanes, Bolivia's ambassador to the United States, spoke on Capitol Hill...
...7. "The Role of the U.S...
...representatives to multilateral development banks are instructed to vote against loans to the decertified country and a series of trade sanctions can also be imposed...
...In all, funding for the U.S...
...delegation, under heavy pressure from Congress, remained inflexible...
...The tax was withdrawn...
...Gringos out of Bolivia...
...If our intelligence says that paste is being accumulated in a house, we have to raid the house and get the drugs," said an official who has participated in Chapare raids...
...3. Bolivia is signatory to a 1961 United Nations accord which commits the government to abolishing coca cultivation completely by 1989...
...ESF [Economic Support Funds] assistance to Bolivia is roughly $30 million for the next year....Thus, the withdrawal of U.S...
...V IEWED FROM WASHINGTON, BOLIVIA'S new coca law no doubt appears reasonable and moderate: It allows for the continuation of the voluntary 30 eradication program...
...In 1981, the military government of Gen...
...Reporter Peter Kerr describes DEA participation in Chapare raids...
...Washington estimated in 1987 that 100,000 acres of coca were under cultivation in the Chapare, Yungas, Santa Cruz and Apolo regions of Bolivia...
...A union leader asks permission for the group to enter and go to the eradication program office located on the site...
...A State Department report reads: Although these peasants are independent owners/ planters, most are members of the more than 500 unions which combine to form 52 centrals...
...Mindful of the political clout of the growers unions, some of the Bolivians preferred emphasizing voluntary crop reduction, but the U.S...
...A Bolivian development specialist described the scene in mid-1988 in Villanueva, a Chapare town designated as a "development pole" for the project: "There's a government sign that proudly says 'We're building here,' but there's no construction going on, and no construction equipment-just one broken-down tractor...
...You can't expect a criminal to say he's a criminal," he said, adding that he believed the "great majority" of people living in the Chapare are "mixed up in drug trafficking...
...In the end, the United States agreed to pay $750 per hectare, and the Bolivian government, at least on paper, would pay the rest...
...Drug control is, in the eyes of many U.S...
...We know that the solution to the drug problem lies with the consumers...
...The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, approved by the U.S...
...The growers were to be most directly affected by the proposed U.S.-Bolivia accord, and yet their unions were not consulted...
...It even calls for a phase-in period before penalties take effect...
...He explained that the cocaine trade brought $600 million a year into Bolivia, while the country's annual gross domestic product was only $3.5 billion...
...3 The legislation for which they lobbied does permit a small controlled area of cultivation for traditional use...
...Several farmers, including the wounded man, point out the police agent who fired...
...Narcotics Related Foreign Aid...
...During a recent strike at San Andr6s University in La Paz, the country's leading university, students draped the administration building with a huge banner in support of the coca farmers and repeatedly linked the growers' demands to their own...
...Nothing in the video seems to prove this, though, judging by their appearance, several men among the police could be North Americans...
...and "Gringos out of the Chapare...
...delegation insisted that the Bolivians declare their resolve to meet the eradication targets (4,500 acres in the first year) and institute laws "to restrict the production and trafficking of narcotics, and to reduce coca cultivation and prosecute those responsible...
...nor were they met in 1987, and it lost another $8.7 million...
...dissertation, University of Wis- consin, 1971), pp...
...asked a La Paz resident who works with unemployed miners...
...Department of Defense, are frequently seen flying over the Chapare, ferrying police and U.S...
...The Bolivian government laid off 20,000 miners in 1985...
...ON JUNE 28 OF LAST YEAR, SHORTLY BEfore Bolivia passed a new law aimed at controlling coca production, a crowd of protesters gathered at the drug police post in Villa Tunari, a small town in the coca-growing Chapare region...
...In the end, the Bolivian government put aside these weighty considerations in favor of improved relations with the United States, and in mid-July the new law was approved...
...Nor was the opposition instigated by the cocaine mafia, as Bolivian officials sometimes hinted...
...troops descended on the Bolivian jungle in 1986 with the announced goal of searching out drug labs, was only the most high-profile of U.S...
...Some humanitarian aid and drug control funds are exempt from these sanctions...
...In other operations, police raid the tiny "laboratories" where cocaine paste is made...
...Until now, the Bolivian government has tried to juggle the interests of both the United States and the farmers...
...11 (La Paz), but some believe this was not the one finally adopted...
...What [the United States] wants is to turn us into a Yankee colony, and the government and the congress are playing along...
...Faced with a wave of criticism and the prospect of continued clashes, the government agreed to open talks with the unions...
...The farmers later charged that agents of the U.S...
...This nation of less than seven million people is the world's second largest producer of coca leaf...
...This central union structure serves as the lowest echelon of an active, functioning democratic form of local government which strongly influences the economic, political and social fabric of the Chapare peasants' life...
...Just what are those people supposed to do, starve...
...0 The Bolivian government had to weigh not just the economic cost of sanctions but also the political risks involved...
...Many view the bloodshed at Villa Tunari as VOLUME XXII, NO...
...Relations improved when the three succeeding short-lived military governments began to take some, largely cosmetic, measures against drug trafficking...
...One farmer falls dead, another is wounded...
...presence in the region...
...Concern about the law's passage was widespread, though not all shared the vehemence of the coca farmers...
...drug control efforts...
...In any case, despite this and despite what appears to be an extremely optimistic projection for the area to be eradicated in 1988 and 1989, the report still shows net cultivation rising every year between 1985 and 1989...
...Clearly, to pay a reward for each acre of coca pulled up would have been simplest...
...They add that under the terms of the bilateral three-year plan the Bolivians are to seek financing from countries other than the United States...
...Development plans and projects haven't ever worked before, and they aren't going to work now because there's not enough funding...
...actions in the name of drug control are a far more serious menace to their country's democratic process...
...State Department...
...Things look rather different on the ground...
...T HE UNITED STATES HAS LONG PLAYED an overwhelming role in drug law enforcement in Bolivia...
...6 (MARCH 1989) 25COCA a prelude to ever higher levels of violence over U.S.inspired policies, threatening the country's political stability perhaps more so than the drug trade itself...
...5. International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports issued an- nually by the State Department Bureau of International Narcotics Matters...
...Now it can occur with or without their cooperation...
...8. "Drug Control...
...policy does not permit compensation for ending what the United States views as an illegal activity--even though it is not seen as such in Bolivia...
...International Narcotics Control Program in Bolivia will probably reach $10 million for 1989.' Raids against cocaine labs hidden deep in the jungle are dramatic and visible, but the primary goal of U.S...
...D URING JUNE AND JULY 1988, IN THE ornate national congress building in La Paz, Bolivia's legislators moved toward a final vote on a controversial revision of the country's drug laws...
...One very knowledgeable source said the 1987 figure, 40,300 hectares, is much too low...
...Only to fight drug traffickers...
...While cultivating coca had never been a crime in Bolivia,' the new law, proposed at Washington's insistence almost a year and a half earlier, would turn most coca farmers into outlaws...
...Not only had the development program run short of funds, it was wracked by bureaucratic wrangling between Bolivian and U.S...
...helicopters are currently used in drug enforcement programs in the country...
...officials over how and when funds should be disbursed...
...They further charge that DEA agents have participated in such break-ins...
...we ask...
...Ultima Hora (La Paz), May 24, 1988...
...In its accord the Bolivian government promised cash payments to individual farmers who destroyed their coca, and pledged to implement a major regional development program...
...Six U.S...
...The real problem is our country's poverty...
...Before, they had to be persuaded to support eradication...
...U.S...
...After a resident of the town of Isinuta made similar charges, the producers union issued an ultimatum demanding that all DEA agents leave the Chapare within 48 hours...
...On May 25, ten thousand coca growers gathered in Cochabamba...
...After the 1980 "Cocaine Coup" led by generals reportedly involved in the drug trade, the United States refused to extend diplomatic recognition and cut off almost all aid...
...In spite of the income that coca generates, the Chapare is still a raw jungle frontier...
...Local unions are grouped into regional centrals, the centrals into national federations, and the federations belong to the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), Bolivia's powerful trade union umbrella organization...
...The troops left after four months but U.S...
...He calculates 75,000- 100,000 hectares were being cultivated in the Chapare alone...
...In Washington, DEA spokesperson Cornelius Dougherty specifically denied that any agents had been involved in the shooting, but said the DEA has no comment on whether any agency personnel were present on the day of the incident...
...The helicopter watching from above as the marchers fled, however, provided a stark reminder of the active U.S...
...Following the October, 1982 election of civilian President Hernin Siles Suazo, the United States agreed to reopen the aid pipeline, if (and it was a big if) there were progress--defined by strict U.S...
...The farmers occupied the buying centers and the government was forced to retreat...
...attempts to impose its drug control policy in Bolivia have provoked bitter opposition from the wellorganized coca farmers unions, as well as from large sectors of the Bolivian people, virtually all of whom in some way depend directly or indirectly on coca income for survival...
...New York Times, April 17, 1988...
...In the Chapare, where at least 40,000 families cultivate coca, even U.S...
...23 (June 1986...
...In Cochabamba, capital of the region that includes the Chapare coca zone, several thousand farmers-members of powerful legally recognized growers unions-directed much of their anger at the United States: "iCarajo gringos...
...The goal is to stem migration to the Chapare...
...The governments that are against coca have to understand that we aren't going to give up what we've got for nothing-they have to consider its worth, offer some other means of employment in exchange...
...This agreement is still technically in force and provides the legal basis for defining coca as a "controlled substance" inter- nationally, but few people still believe it is possible or rational to try to wipe coca off the face of the earth...
...Because coca continues to be used in these traditional ways, many drug control officials have reluctantly concluded that an outright ban is culturally insensitive and-perhaps more important in their view-unenforceable...
...If not, "they will be held responsible for what might occur as a result of the abuses they commit against the region's poor farmers...
...But, Gelbard claims, the policy will ultimately be a bulwark for Bolivia's democratic government against the drug lords...
...Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had encouraged the police action...
...4. State Department Bureau of International Narcotics Matters 1989 Budget Request to Congress...
...With the passage of the new coca law, the farmers lost one of their most valuable bargaining chips...
...Those targets were not met in 1986, and Bolivia lost $9.5 million in U.S...
...The terms of the voluntary eradication accord firmly commit the Bolivian government to making this one a success...
...Without coca, many Bolivians believe, their dire economic fate would be even grimmer than it already is...
...But U.S...
...Under the Flag of Law Enforcement Linda Farthing generously shared her research on this subject and her assistance is gratefully acknowledged...
...Their outrage was not simple elecVOLUME XXII, NO...
...In 1982, the government demanded that the Chapare farmers sell their coca only at outposts of a new official agency which would pay less than the free market price...
...A police official promises that his men's arms will not be used again "against campesinos...
...The complete text of the "Ley de sustancias controladas," was published in Presencia (La Paz), July 18, 1988...
...It is not...
...One version of the "annexes" was published in Debate Agrario, No...
...We don't want to end up like them...
...poor roads make the transport of agricultural products difficult...
...Latinamerica Press (Lima), Sept...
...An hour-long video tape made by a crew from a local television station documented the scene: Hundreds of marchers, dressed in shabby work clothes and carrying no visible arms, not even sticks, approach the post...
...Area farmers charge that police often use the raids on Chapare homes as a cover for stealing money and household appliances...
...Operation Blast Furnace, in which some 160 U.S...
...officials are unable to overlook the importance of the growers' organizations...
...drug agents to and from operations.' 6 Drug control officials say many of their actions are directed against the small planes that land and "within seven minutes load up a cargo of cocaine paste and leave...
...The power of the unions dates back to the 1960s, when large numbers of people migrated to the Chapare [see "El Dorado Gone Awry...
...These two decrees appear surprisingly similar to the 1988 law-but neither was ever ratified by the Bolivian congress or effectively enforced...
...But many more shots are heard as the police push the marchers off the grounds and far down the road...
...Opposition to the U.S...
...The development program was not a new one, but a re-packaging of U.S.AID-funded projects already underway in the Chapare, where a number of development programs have been tried with little to show for it...
...aid, while harmful, constitutes a minor blow, a drop in the bucket, and simply cannot be expected to have the kind of impact some believe it will...
...It was later reported that at least 12 more people died, some by drowning, as the marchers tried to escape across a river...
...U.S.AID is currently trying to implement an "integrated development" plan aimed not just at the Chapare, but also at the highlands areas from which many Chapare farmers come...
...officials agree that funding is inadequate but say it is intended only to get things started...
...The United States admits that its drug policy is, in the words of State Department official, now ambassador to Bolivia, Robert Gelbard, "very risky" for the Bolivian government...
...aid is cut...
...2. Author's interview with economist and former Bolivian fi- nance minister Flavio Machicado...
...The solution lay in a semantic sleight of hand: Farmers were given $2,000 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) of coca destroyed-characterized as aid for switching to new crops, instead of as compensation for losing the old one...
...Most Bolivians worry about the growth of the cocaine mafia and say they support strong action against drug dealers, but they are equally concerned about the economic impact of cutting off coca production...
...They set up roadblocks on the highway leading to La Paz-one of the most heavily travelled routes in the country-declaring they would not leave until their demands were heard...
...and many towns lack schools and other public facilities...
...On June 6 the government and the growers signed an accord in which the growers disavowed links with the drug trade and agreed to a voluntary coca eradication program...
...Countries which are considered uncooperative are "decertified" REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 26and face mandatory penalties-in the first year, half the country's U.S...
...Almost everyone, even the coca farmers, agrees that some kind of control is desirable...
...There is almost no industry (except for the manufacture of cocaine paste...
...plan, and criticism of the heavy-handed way the United States was pushing for its adoption, was coming from some "moderate" politicians, as well as from Left parties that the U.S...
...Ray Henkel, "The Chapare of Bolivia: A Study of Tropical Agriculture in Transition," (Ph.D...
...They want to take it away just like they did to the miners...
...officials, those fields are, above all, cocaine in unfinished form-the source of some 90 metric tons of the drug that year...
...Armed helicopters, on loan from the U.S...
...officials, at the center of U.S.-Bolivian relations...
...because] the economic problems that will be caused by eliminating coca will provide an excellent medium for extremists who wish to take advantage of the situation...
...activities...
...I N BOLIVIA, THE FARMERS WHO GROW coca do not live in a shadowy underworld far outside the mainstream of national political life...
...Nervous police, wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with automatic rifles, block the marchers' advance...
...It provides both a carrot (the development program) to encourage cooperation and a stick (jail terms) for those who refuse to go along...
...The law even specifies that the President cannot waive these special requirements for Bolivia by citing national security concerns.15 Even before the new coca law was passed, Bolivian drug police and U.S...
...Thus, until the 1988 law was approved, for all intents and purposes, coca cultivation was legal in Bolivia, or at least, to use the currently popular word, "decriminal- ized...
...30, 1988), pp...
...1 3 In 1987, the conservative administration of President Victor Paz Estenssoro made the mistake of overlooking this history...
...Celso Torrelio Villa issued a decree aimed at controlling coca production and sale, and in 1985 elected president Herndn Siles Suazo issued an "executive decree" to the same end...
...intentions as the United States is of theirs: "The gringos want to take away our work," said a farmer who has grown coca in the Chapare for five years to support his entire ten-member family...
...But there is bitter disagreement over the nature of that regulation, and how it should be enforced...
...I do not have to tell this group how impoverished my country is....Under the best of circumstances, that is without sanctions, the total U.S...
...While some of the paste labs are hidden in dense jungle, officials say a large number are found near the owner's home where paste is frequently stored...
...2, 1988...
...At least 300,000 more work in the huge underground economy that depends on the millions of dollars generated by the coca trade...
...7 Congress singled out Bolivia, declaring that the country should not be certified unless it met strict eradication targets...
...if the country is decertified for a second year, all aid is eliminated...
...In 1965, when the prefect of Cochabamba tried to impose a new tax on coca shipped out of the Chapare, the unions threatened to resist the tax by force and burn down the collection station if necessary...
...The United States wanted to make part of the payment in tools and seed...
...It originated with the coca farmers themselves...
...I don't want to be a pessimist," said Radl Lara, legal adviser to the growers unions, "but I've been studying this for a long time...
...T ESPITE BOLIVIA'S CHECKERED HISTORY L.of enforcing laws, there is every reason to expect that the United States will press hard for enforcement of VOLUME XXII, NO...
...They were talking about forced eradication," said a Bolivian who was present...
...Three days later, police and military units were sent to dismantle the blockade, killing two and wounding nineteen -1-7 "'.COCA in the process...
...Congress in October, says Bolivia cannot be certified for foreign aid in 1989 unless it has reached the eradication targets of the three-year plan and "has begun a program of forced eradication if the targets for voluntary eradication are not being met...
...Where do they think there are other jobs...
...John Cusack, former DEA chief of international operations, is one of the few...
...2 In addition, an estimated ten to twenty per cent of the Bolivian coca crop is consumed not by the international drug mafia, but by Bolivians who chew it in leaf form or use it medicinally or ritually [see "Does the Pope do Dope...
...Lara said a "serious" project would require at least $500 million-the U.S.AID plan called for spending only $72 million over five years...
...They took $5,900, a radio, blankets, appliances and other belongings," the farmer maintained...
...It's Yankee imperialism that's got the attention of this traitorous congress," a speaker told the ten thousand people demonstrating against the coca law last June in Cochabamba...
...Peru is the largest...
...By threatening sanctions for failure to meet eradication targets, Illanes said, "Congress is essentially demanding results before funding your participation...
...personnel were pulled out of the area...
...For U.S...
...Shots ring out...
...Bolivia's leading human rights organization, the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of Bolivia, takes the farmers' complaints very seriously...
...We're human...
...Embassy characterized as "extremist" even though they sit in the Bolivian Congress...
...Why are other nations consuming so much...
...1. Various legal controls on the production and sale of coca have been in effect in Bolivia since colonial times, and perhaps before, but these were generally aimed at raising revenue...
...At a Cochabamba press conference on May 23, Alberto Villarroel said that police agents obeying orders from "the gringos" entered his home in Samusabeti...
...In a June interview, a drug control official denied that DEA agents had been responsible for any abuses and he brushed aside the victims' professions of innocence...
...At least that is how the growers saw it: They were obligated to continue with the eradication program only as long as the government made sure the development project moved forward.' 4 A T FIRST, THE VOLUNTARY ERADICATION program advanced at a brisk pace, with over 2,500 acres of coca destroyed...
...The Villa Tunari protest was only one of many in the final weeks before the vote...
...5582 sec 4302...
...policy is to destroy the coca fields...
...the farmers chanted, "Coca is not poison...
...7-10...
...Then the United States said it would disburse funds to individuals only after they had destroyed at least 70% of their coca, and it would fund local development only after the same percentage of coca had been eradicated in the entire area...
...See his remarks in Coca and Cocaine: Effects on People and Policy in Latin Amer- ica, Cultural Survival Report No...
...6 (MARCH 1989) tioneering, as the Embassy liked to imply...
...plans for their country...
...While officially one in four Bolivians is unemployed (the actual rate is probably far higher), more than 200,000 make their living in the coca fields or in the labs where the leaves are converted to paste and then to cocaine...
...The United States is careful to monitor the total amount of coca destroyed, a figure often used as a rough measure of the success or failure of drug control efforts...
...Though they have been weakened, the coca farmers still enjoy the sympathy (and often the outright political support) of Bolivians from all walks of life...
...1988...
...General Accounting Office, Nov...
...Narcotics Related Foreign Aid Sanctions: An Effective Foreign Policy ?," Congressional Research Service report on semi- nar held for the Senate Caucus on Intemrnational Narcotics Matters, Sept., 1987...
...We support that," union leader Alberto Vargas said later...
...assistance were increased so Bolivia could pay its share...
...Indeed, we will require more, not less participation from your government...
...officials, all agree that no coca control program, voluntary or involuntary, can succeed unless the farmers have an alternative source of income...
...In August, following the killings at the Villa Tunari police station at the end of June, it opened a Chapare office to monitor the situation...
...guidelines-on drug control.' That policy has since become law: In 1986 Congress passed legislation which requires the president to certify to Congress each year that drug producing countries are cooperating with U.S...
Vol. 22 • March 1989 • No. 6
