Word: bolivia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...launching their dramatic operation, the Reagan Administration and the Bolivian government tackled a complex problem that seems to be beyond the reach of standard diplomatic or administrative efforts. Dissatisfied with earlier Bolivian attempts to eradicate coca fields, the U.S. State Department in June decided to cut Bolivia's $14.4 million economic support in half. Bolivian officials were hoping last week's raid would prevent any similar slashes in aid next year...
...made it a bit easier for Bolivia to support the raid by promising to wipe out only the cocaine-processing labs, leaving the coca fields undisturbed. Raising coca is legal in Bolivia -- although processing it into cocaine is not -- and the fields produce the nation's only important cash crop. Bolivia's cocaine exports are worth at least $600 million a year, more than a third of its $1.5 billion in total annual exports. The cocaine trade provides a livelihood for up to 400,000 peasants, who have no other means of support...
...Bolivia has tried disincentives. Last December the Paz Estenssoro government offered peasants $250 for every hectare of coca they did not harvest. It was all the government thought it could afford. But peasants, who can earn up to $10,000 a hectare by selling coca, were not enthusiastic. The joint U.S.-Bolivian operation against drug processing has a similar purpose: it is intended to force down the value of the leaves, making the crops much less profitable...
Mills does not belittle the tactics of the U.S. fight against drugs so much as he decries their halfhearted nature. Last year, he notes, the Reagan Administration told Bolivia that to qualify for $14.4 million in economic assistance, it would have to eradicate 10,000 acres of coca crops, roughly 9% ; of the total. Bolivia failed to do so, claiming extenuating circumstances. Yet the U.S. withheld just half the money. "The U.S. did have an eradication program in Bolivia," says Mills, "but the Bolivians didn't pay any attention to it." As a result of many such situations, he says...
...officials insist that the world drug situation has changed dramatically in the year since Mills finished researching and writing his book. The rise of new governments committed to combatting drug traffickers -- in Bolivia particularly -- has bolstered U.S. efforts. Reagan Administration officials point out that the U.S. has sponsored crop-eradication programs in 14 countries, reached a banking agreement with Switzerland that facilitates the monitoring of suspicious accounts, and negotiated an extradition treaty for use against drug traffickers in Colombia. Pakistan's opium crop, although large, has been reduced from 600 tons a year in 1981. The reduction may not seem...