Bolivia: Eradicating Democracy.

In September 2000, Bolivia, South America's poorest country, was rocked by a series of civilian protests, including roadblocks throughout the country. Unionists, teachers, peasant coca farmers, and others have demanded that the Bolivian and U.S. governments stop trying to completely eradicate coca growing and cease construction of three new military bases in the Chapare region. Protesters are also demanding that the government increase teachers' salaries, eliminate taxes on water and electricity, and improve alternative development programs in the coca growing region.

Popular protests have been growing in Bolivia for several years. In 1999, the Cochabamba-based Coordination in Defense of Water and Life, headed by Oscar Olivera, waged a battle against the Bolivian government's sale of the city water system to a private consortium, which includes a subsidiary of U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation. In April 2000 the consortium withdrew, and the government agreed to reform laws pertaining to water services.

The roots of the protests are deep. Bolivia is weighed down by a tremendous foreign debt of $6.2 billion, according to 1999 World Bank figures. Much of this debt was incurred during the 1970s, when Bolivia was plagued by military dictatorships. But particular fury is directed at President Hugo Banzer's neoliberal economic policies, his inability to move the country out of its severe economic crisis, and his heavy-handed antinarcotics efforts, involving forced eradication with a target of no coca production (beyond that grown for domestic use) by the end of 2000. Most heavily affected are Bolivia's indigenous people who comprise over 50% of the population.

Banzer was Bolivia's military dictator from 1971 to 1978 and he was then widely accused of profiting personally from the cocaine business. He reentered politics in 1997, winning only 23% of the popular vote which led to an unwieldy and ineffectual coalition government. Despite Banzer's unsavory history, the U.S. has continued to back him, largely because he is implementing Washington's war on drugs.

With the end of the cold war, U.S. military policy in Latin America has shifted from fighting communism to fighting drugs. This "war" has focused on the lowest, most vulnerable rung of the drug ladder: the coca growers and the drug industry workers. Unlike Peru and Colombia, where antidrug efforts have been combined with controlling guerrilla warfare, Bolivia has no guerilla movement so the full force of repression has been felt by the 35,000 coca growing families.

Coca is not cocaine: the leaf has been consumed for over 2000 years in the Andes, and, when chewed or taken as a tea, it provides a mild stimulant that decreases hunger, fatigue, and altitude sickness. While traditional use continues, coca leaf--the source for cocaine--has become Bolivia's main crop export, making Bolivia the world's third-largest coca cultivator. Since 1995, the U.S.-financed war on drugs appears to have had considerable success in slowing down Bolivian and Peruvian coca production, but much coca has been replanted in more remote areas.

In addition, Colombia--not a traditional coca growing country--has moved rapidly into production, so there has been little or no net reduction in world cocaine production.

Banzer claims eradication efforts have reduced coca production by half. But the price has been a greatly-increased military presence in the Chapare coca growing region and widespread harassment, torture, and even murder of its indigenous people. To make matters worse, the U.S. government is providing $2 million in funding to build the barracks for three new Bolivian military bases in the region. This has ignited protests against the Bolivian military's growing involvement in anticoca operations within the country and heightened fears that the creation of a permanent military presence in the Chapare region will lead to further human rights violations.

Coca is not the only flash point. Since 1985, Bolivia has followed the structural adjustment model pushed by the U.S., World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and others. This impoverished nation has been forced to cut government subsidies, decimate social welfare and public sector employment, freeze wages, privatize even economically viable state enterprises, and open the country to foreign private investments. As a result, the middle, working, and indigenous peasant classes are all notably worse off. Indeed, the annual growth rate of GNP per capita fell from 1.8 in 1989 to -2.2 in 1999, according to World Bank figures.

Observers predict that the civil strife will deepen unless the U.S. and the repressive Banzer government meet some of the protesters' demands and move, more fundamentally, to address the issues of impoverishment and political marginalization of the indigenous people.

Key Points

* Since the end of the cold war, the war on drugs has become a cornerstone of U.S. policy and this has led to an expansion over the last decade of both U.S. military aid and human rights abuses.

* Under structural adjustment programs, Bolivia has slashed government social spending; decimated labor rights and unions; and moved to privatize basic services, including water, by selling them to both domestic and foreign investors.

* Although Bolivia has moved from dictatorships to multiparty elections, its democratic institutions are still weak and have not improved living standards or increased political participation for many Andeans.