INTERVIEW-Bolivia to sideline U.S. in anti-cocaine war

By Simon Gardner and Eduardo Garcia

LA PAZ, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Frustrated by the way the United States spends money to fight cocaine production in Bolivia, the government has decided to take over the program, the country's anti-drug tsar said on Tuesday.

"We're planning to nationalize the war against drug trafficking," Felipe Caceres told Reuters. "We will still welcome cooperation in the future, but the Bolivian government will decide how that money will be spent."

"It's a question of sovereignty, of dignity," added Caceres, President Evo Morales' deputy minister of social defense and controlled substances.

Caceres, who like Morales owns a plot for growing coca, the raw material used to make cocaine, advocates cultivation of the plant for traditional uses such as making tea and fighting altitude sickness and hunger.

But as South America's poorest country distances itself from its colonial past with Morales' reforms and seeks to break away from U.S. influence, the government also wants to be the leading voice in the domestic war against narcotics.

Bolivia is the world No.3 cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru.

The United States has contributed about $25 million to interdiction efforts this year. It also funds programs to encourage coca farmers to switch to alternative crops like peppers, bananas, citrus fruits and coffee.

"The policy of the U.S. government means that of all the money that should go into helping improve conditions for coca farmers, 85 percent of it goes into vehicles, salaries, they live in hotels with swimming pools ... it goes into their pockets," Caceres said.

"We are not rejecting U.S. aid. But the aid is not going to the coca farmers, who are prepared to produce other products and leave the coca leaf behind," he added. "At the moment, the U.S. cooperation is autonomous. ... We want to reverse that situation."

Caceres said Bolivia was looking to other potential partners like Russia for hardware like helicopters.

"We welcome the idea that the Bolivian authorities will be willing and able to put forward funds from Bolivia to also deal with this issue," said David T. Johnson, visiting from the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, after meeting Morales.

"Our data shows that approximately 88 percent of our funding goes directly to assist Bolivian authorities and working to deal with counter-narcotics issues."

COCA CULTIVATION GROWING

Morales has adopted a "zero cocaine, but not zero coca" policy, which gives tens of thousands of farmers permission to grow their own coca plot for legal uses, which the United States has described as "permissive."

According to the United Nations, Bolivia allows the cultivation of 12,000 hectares (nearly 30,000 acres) of coca for traditional uses, though output is nearly 29,000 hectares (71,660 acres), or approximately 104 tonnes of coca a year. That compares with 48,600 hectares (120,000 acres) farmed in the mid-1990s.

Caceres estimates that 65 percent of coca production is for traditional, legal uses. The balance goes into the cocaine trade.

Morales believes that 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) is an appropriate production level. Caceres says it will take at least five years to reduce the national crop to that amount.

He says demand for Bolivian cocaine has surged, with much of it destined for Latin American countries and Europe. But he says much of the cocaine confiscated in Bolivia is from Peru, bound for Brazil, the United States and Europe.

Coca is prevalent in Bolivia. It is sold at street markets by women in bowler hats and colorful shawls. Indigenous people in the Andes often have a wad of coca bulging in their cheek like chewing tobacco. Witch doctors use the leaves to tell fortunes. In the building where Caceres' office is located, pictures of dark green coca leaves and a poster advertising a coca festival adorn the walls.

Caceres would like Bolivia to find ways to export coca legally.

"There are 14 alkaloids in the coca leaf. Only one of them is cocaine. If we take cocaine out of coca, then we can export it. That is the plan." (For more stories on Bolivia's recall election and political crisis [ID:nN07269257])