Seven Die as Bolivian Coca Farmers Clash with Army

Kevin Robert Dean qualiall_2 at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 18 21:19:23 PST 2002


Seven Die as Bolivian Coca Farmers Clash with Army Last Updated: January 18, 2002 03:43 PM ET

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Seven Bolivians died, including a policeman and soldier tortured and murdered by "narcoguerillas," as poor farmers protested an army crackdown on the illegal sale of coca leaves, police said on Friday.

The two officers' bodies where found at dawn on Friday in Bolivia's tropical Chapare region, 435 miles southeast of La Paz, after another five Bolivians were killed in riots this week.

The deaths were the latest in a long drawn-out U.S.-backed government campaign to eradicate coca, the raw material used to make cocaine but also a major source of income for many peasants and chewed by some as medicine in this Andean nation.

Witnesses said the two victims were abducted on Thursday from an ambulance which was then set on fire in an attack a government source blamed on "narcoguerillas," a term used for left-wing rebels who work as drug traffickers.

Since Tuesday, farmers have set several trucks on fire near a coca market that had been shut down by authorities in the village of Sacaba, prompting bloody clashes with police which killed another five farmers and officers.

Bolivia gets valuable aid from the U.S. government in return for its successful eradication program in recent years.

Farmers in the Chapare region, one of the largest coca-growing areas in Bolivia prior to the crackdown on its cultivation, have protested a law making it illegal to sell coca produced in the region.

Officials from the government of President Jorge Quiroga, which allows only limited growth of the leaf in other regions, traveled to the city of Cochabamba for negotiations with the farmers to be mediated by human rights organizations.

Farmers want to be allowed to legally grow small plots of coca in Chapare, where Quiroga has mobilized about 5,000 troops since November to complete the eradication of illegal coca fields it says are used for drug trafficking.

A member of Bolivia's Congress from the region has called in recent months for the coca farmers to form their own "army" to combat the government's actions.

© Copyright Reuters 2001. All rights reserved. Any copying, re-publication or re-distribution of Reuters content or of any content used on this site, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent of Reuters. Quotes and other data are provided for your personal information only, and are not intended for trading purposes. Reuters, the members of its Group and its data providers shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the quotes or other data, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

© Reuters 2001. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com

__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list