Costa Rica News and Views: 10/01/2004

Friday, October 29, 2004

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Costa Rica Digest, Oct. 27

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Costa Rica/Latin American Digest, Oct. 26

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>>Costa Rica News Digest<<
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=========================================
TODAY'S CONTENTS
=========================================
*Feature Article: Resistance Mounts Against Torrijos'
Intervention in Supreme

Court in Panama

*News Digest

*Latin American News Digest

=========================================
WHAT'S NEW AT THE COSTA RICA PAGE!
=========================================
Our real estate section has just been totally updated
with lots of
new listings, mostly in the residential real estate
section, but also
we have a new rental on the rental page and some new
additions to the
land for sale section.

http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/costa-rica/real.htm

We are adding new things every day, and when our
merger comes with
COSTARICACENTER.COM, we will have a fully operational
Mercado Central
for you to buy Costa Rican products over the internet
from local merchants
[if you have a reputable business here, and want to
sell through the
Mercado, just let us know. We can help you to accept
credit cards and
all the major e-currencies on the net! We break
through the Great Barrier
that many Costa Rican merchants face getting their
products on the net!].

Hotels and tourist businesses will be able to add
their own links, and you
will be able to place your own online classifieds and
MUCH MUCH MORE!

Watch this newsletter for our official launch, coming
soon!

=========================================
FEATURE ARTICLE
=========================================
*Resistance Mounts Against Torrijos' Intervention in
Supreme
Court in Panama

In a press release today, lawyer JosÃ© Salvador MuÃ±oz
announced that
Panama's Supreme Court President Cesar Pereira Burgos
has filed a
request for a "precautionary measure" (medida
cautelar) at the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, for violations
of due process,
judicial security, honor and personal integrity and
the violation of
the obligation to respect his rights by the Panamanian
Government of
President Martin Torrijos Espino.

----------

Cesar Periera Burgos

Also today, the National Front Against Corruption in a
public statement
said that the decision by the Cabinet, with the
extensive support of
Comptroller Alvin Weeden, has plunged the country into
a "sea of
judicial insecurity," which "reminds us of the worst
moments of
Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori."

Fujimori once fired three Supreme Court Magistrates.
However, the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, on September 24
1999 decided that
the Magistrates had to be reinstated and that
governments can not
remove Magistrates. Panama has to comply with that
sentence as well,
however, the Torrijos government appears to be of a
different opinion.

Fujimori resigned and fled the country when scandal
broke about widespread

corruption in his government, and lives currently as a
fugitive in Japan.

The National Front Against Corruption, headed by
Enrique Montenegro,
further denounces the removal of the Supreme Court
President as a
"shameless act of corruption, in violation of the
Constitution and an
illegitimate interference with the independence of the
judiciary."

According to the Front, the actuation of the
Government is revealing
for what they really have in stock for Panama. "Only
48 hours ago,
legislators refused to lift their immunity so that
electoral crimes by
the Electoral Prosecutor could be investigated and
prosecuted," states
the front, "they believe that they are living in 1968.

Trying to get the replacement Magistrate approved in
the Assembly without
going through the Credentials Commission first is a
crime and a violation
of the rules of that same Assembly."

In 1968, the current President's father, Omar Torrijos
Herrera,
overthrew the elected President and installed a
military junta, which
has been characterized by extensive human rights
violations, a disdain
for the separation of the Powers of the State and
democracy in general,
and massive corruption unequaled in the history of
Panama.

"The National Front Against Corruption repeats its
call to all Panamanians

not to allow themselves to be manipulated by neither
the corruptos of

yesterday nor those of today," closes Montenegro.

University Professor and publicist Miguel Antonio
Bernal had earlier
called the removal of Periera Burgos by the government
"a de-facto coup
d'etat," an opinion that is shared by ex-President
Guillermo Endara.

Bernal has asked international Human Rights
Organizations to investigate
and denounce the actions of the Government.

Periera Burgos, meanwhile, is still acting as the
President of the
Supreme Court with the majority of the Magistrates
supporting him. Only
days ago, he ruled that the presidential pardons that
ex-President
Mireya Moscoso gave just before she left office are in
violation of the
Constitution. The decision is currently awaiting the
approval and
signatures of the Magistrates.

The pardons included those for four terrorists who had
planned to
assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Panama.

24 Oct 2004

The Isthmian
http://www.isthmian.net
Daily news in english from PanamÃ¡
Free classifieds
Free banner advertising

Â• Human Rights Court Magistrate Ernesto Rey Cantor
represents Cesar
Periera Burgos before Inter-American Commission of
Human
Rights;
Â• Request for "medida cautelar" now available for
download;
Â• Press release National Front Against Corruption
available
in English
and for download

Again, we have it first.

The Isthmian
http://www.isthmian.net

========================================
= Feature Story =
Colombian Professor Ernesto Rey Cantor represents
Pereira
Burgos before the Inter-American Commission of Human
Rights

Professor Ernesto Rey Cantor from Colombia will be
representing Panama's Supreme Court President Cesar
Pereira Burgos
before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.
Rey Cantor is an
internationally well-known specialist on
constitutional and
human rights matters and actually served as a
Magistrate on the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The request by Pereira Burgos which was filed with the
Inter-American
Commission of Human Rights was composed Sunday the
24th at the offices
of lawyer Miguel Antonio Bernal, and in the presence
of JosÃ© Salvador
MuÃ±oz (Pereira Burgos' lawyer), Prof. Rey Cantor and
Pereira Burgos
himself.

----------

Ernesto Rey Cantor (r) and Miguel Antonio Bernal in
the
latter's office

(...)

To read the full story and download the documents, go
to
http://www.isthmian.net

The Isthmian
http://www.isthmian.net
Daily news in English from PanamÃ¡
Free classifieds
Free banner advertising

=========================================
DISCUSSION
=========================================

Please send your discussion topics to

costarica@destiny-worldwide.net

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=========================================
NEWS DIGEST
=========================================
*Green Fund's Jafek denies he lied or cheated

Tom Jafek said that he faced intimidation, stalking
and extortion from

unhappy investors, but he has no money and denies he
lied or cheated.

Jafek, operator of the Costa Rica Green Fund, was
responding to a news

article Monday that said he, his wife and son were the
targets of

international arrest warrants from Costa Rica charging
fraud.

"I am responsible for whatever goes down," said Jafek
in an e-mail
message. "Certainly my son and my deceased wife had
nothing to do with
what the complainants are involved with. I wish to
hell they would quit

picking on a dead person, Billie Jo."

The posting of the warrants on the INTERPOL Web site
listed all three.

Jafek did not give particulars on the death of his
wife, who died of an

illness in early 2003, but he did say that those in
his fund knowingly put

money in a high-return/high-risk investment and now
"they have selective

hearing and selective reasoning."

"There was no fraud or lying or cheating on my part,"
Jafek said. "I
invested the funds and after 9/11 and Villalobos and
Roy Taylor and
Savings Unlimited etc., the whole HYI [high-yield
interest] thing came

tumbling down like a house of cards.

"Whether stupid, as a lot would like to say, or
unfortunate, as of course
I would like to believe, the money was invested and it
is not available
now, even though the possibility still exists that I
can make it happen.
I can make it happen if I am not in a jail in Costa
Rica."

Jafek was writing from an undisclosed location,
probably somewhere in
PanamÃ¡. He used the same Hotmail.com e-mail address
that he has used for

years. He was responding to a reporter who wanted to
know if he was aware
he was the object of an arrest warrant.

Jafek said his location is not a secret. "They already
found me because
I am not trying to hide, because I never did anything
dishonest or
knowingly illegal, it was easy for them," he said of
informal groups
of recovery agents commissioned by investors.

*The Scandals. Who's Next?

With the detention of two former presidents Rafael
Angel CalderÃ³n
and Miguel Angel RodrÃguez, and a handful of public
functionaries and

businessmen, many in Costa Rica are wondering who's
next.

That sentiment carries through to the entire region of
Central America
with accusations against Nicaraguan president, Enrique
BolaÃ±os, of
illegal campaign financing and Arnoldo AlemÃ¡n, former
president of
Nicaragua, is serving 20 years for fraud.

Guatemala is slowly gathering evidence about misspent
funds under
Alfonso Portillo, who fled to Mexico after leaving
office in January.
And, the Honduran attorney-general last week fired 10
prosecutors who

protested against his decision to drop corruption
charges against
former president Rafael Leonardo Callejas.

Panama is also heating up with scandals of its own,
involving the new
government illegally firing the President of the
Supreme Court and other
matters. In fact, all of Latin America appears to be
in a state of flux.
See our Latin American Digest section below for some
of those stories.

Many Costa Ricans were surprised at the events of the
past two weeks,
when they saw on television on on the front pages of
every newspaper,
one of their own, a former president who reached the
heights of being

Secretary General of the Organization of American
States (OAS) be
escorted off an arriving flight in handcuffs and then
placed in a police

wagon taken to court. Miguel Angel RodrÃguez is under
house arrest,
which is being appealed by the FiscalÃa, who want to
see the former
president spend the next nine months in a jail cell.

Less than a week later, another former president,
Rafael Angel CalderÃ³n,
was detained and this time a judge agreed with the
FiscalÃa's request and

ordered to spend the next six months in a jail cell in
La Reforma prison.

Both former presidents are being accused of corruption
and illegal

enrichment, RodrÃuez in the ICE-ALCATEL scandal, while
CalderÃ³n in the

FISCHEL-CAJA scandal.

Both men were detained after witnesses, who themselves
are being
accused of wrongdoing in the scandals, decided to
"sing" to better their

situation>

Many political leaders have distanced themselves from
referring to or

speaking about the scandal and the detentions.
President Abel Pacheco has

made several small commentaries, the last being on
Sunday at the official

opening of the new Alajueal hospital, when he told the
crowd that the

"sinvergÃ¼enzas y los canallas" (scoundrels and swines)
are few within the

CCSS and other public institutions.

Apart from that comment, he has not said much more
than that he is "pained"

and hopes that all will resolve well for his two
friends and colleagues.

Oscar Arias, former president. Nobel Peace prize
winner and presidential

hopeful in the next elections has said very little as
well, preferring to

stay quiet on the subject.

And another former president, JosÃ© Maria Figueres
Olsen, has been absent of

commentary on all that is happening in Costa Rica.
Figueres, who was

president in 1994-1998, following CalderÃ³n and
preceding RodrÃguez, is now

CEO of the World Economic Forum (WEF) - one of the
most influential private

organizations in the world. Based in Switzerland, the
WEF brings together

heads of state and government and prominent business
leaders from over 100

countries.

Both Arias and Figueres belong to the Partido
LiberaciÃ³n Nacional (PLN) or

Green party, while, CalderÃ³n, RodrÃguez and Pacheco
belong to the Partido

Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) party.

Perhaps, the most feared man in Costa Rica by
politicians and businessmen
at this time is the current Fiscal General (Chief
Prosecutor), Francisco

Dall'Anese, who has shown that no one - not even
former presidents - are

above the law and is moving ahead with full force to
clean up corruption
in Costa Rica.

*Yet Another Minister Resigns President Pacheco's
Administration

Ovidio Pacheco, the newly appointed Minister of Obras
PÃºblicas y
Transportes is the 14th minister to resign from
president Abel Pacheco's

administration.

The decision was made public following a revelation by
the Spanish
language newspaper La NaciÃ³n, accusing the minister
that one of his
family businesses involves high interest lending in
the small town of

Turrialba.

Pacheco admitted that in the 1970's the company was
involving in lending

money at rates of 60% per year and higher and resigned
his post rather
than cause the government any embarrassment and
further damage to Costa

Rica's image.

La NaciÃ³n reported that the company Agropecuaria La
Pradera S.A. was being

managed up until the year 2002 by the law firm Pacheco
and Pacheco, and is

now being run by Pacheco's sons.

This is curious in light of President Pacheco's
comment about the
Villalobos high yield investment company, known
informally as The Brothers,

that it "must be an illegal ponzi" because "there is
no way to make such
high returns" in light of this fact that has just come
to light of just
such a business in his own back yard. One wonders if
the President
considers the investors in that company to be "fools"
too, as he accused

Brothers investors of being.

The Brothers had a flawless payment record for well
over 20 years, with no
investor complaints, until the government raided their
offices within 2
months of Pacheco taking office. Information demanded
under Canada's
Freedom of Information Act, and which was grudgingly
supplied by the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, showed that they allegedly
had referred the case to
Prosecutor Walter Espinoza and the judge in the case
through "unofficial
channels," which is illegal for them to act on, but
they did anyway.

Further, in testimony before the Legislative Assembly
earlier this year,
the attorney for the investor group UCCR testified to
other irregularities

and illegalities allegedly perpetrated by Espinoza in
this and other cases,

including the mysterious setting free of an Italian
drug smuggling suspect

under his "care." But nothing has come of this
"investigation" despite
the passing of several months.

One wounders as to the true motivations of the new
chief prosecutor, who is
going after the former presidents with both barrels,
while apparantly not

conducting any investigations into allegations of
gross irregularities and
crimes allegedly committed by his own prosecutors.

It is also curious that while the President of
Nicaragua faces impeachment
for campaign finance illegalities, why a vigorous
investigation of Costa
Rica's current President does not seem to be being
pursued, considering
the seriousness of the charges, including accepting
donations from a
Panamanian businessman who is on the US terrorist
watch list! One would
think THAT would be of interest to any Prosecutor
worthy of the name.

Of course, the fact that BOTH major political parties
allegedly took
donations from this same source, as well as other
illegal contributions,
maybe THAT has something to do with it, although
prosecutors are supposed
to be apolitical. Maybe Calderon and Rodriguez are
just sacrificial lambs,
or, perhaps prosecuting these two serves some other
political agenda we
are not aware of.

Informed sources have hinted that there may be some
internal investigations
going on behind the scenes against Espinoza and
others, but nothing has yet
been revealed in public. It would certainly help the
image of the

Prosecutor's Office to show that it is just as tough
on "its own," instead
of simply "investigating" high profile cases to make
headlines for

themselves.

Pacheco had been at the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y
Transporte (MOPT)
for only six weeks, replacing Javier Chaves, who
resigned following the

blockades and protests against the government and it's
policy on the

vehicular inspection contract with Riteve SyA.

Pacheco had also been a legislative deputy for the
periods of 1990-1994 and

1998-2002 and was secreaty general of the Partido
Unidad Social Cristiana

(PUSC) between 1995 and 1996. The PUSC is the same
party of former presidents

CalderÃ³n and RodrÃguez and current president Abel
Pacheco.

*UN Delays Decision on Human Cloning Ban

Sixty-one countries, including the United States,
believe that all
scientific research using cells extracted from cloned
embryos should be

banned immediately and support Costa Rica's proposal
to ban both
reproductive and research cloning.

However, 24 other nations -- including Singapore and
South Korea -- say that

cloning for research purposes, if regulated properly,
has the potential for

advancing health and science.

Those nations are supporting a proposal by Belgium
that would ban

reproductive cloning but allow research cloning. The
Belgian proposal would

leave the question of cloning for research purposes up
to the discretion of

individual countries.

The Royal Society, Britain's national academy of
science, is urging countries

to reject the U.S.-backed proposal to ban all forms of
human cloning. The

U.N. General Assembly in December 2003 agreed to delay
until the current

session a discussion about a treaty that would
recommend banning human

cloning.

According to Bernard Siegel, executive director of the
Genetics Policy

Institute, the delay marks a "tremendous victory" for
proponents of stem cell

research, as well as a "definite erosion of the U.S.
plan to ban" cloning for

research purposes.

However, an "up-or-down" vote may still take place,
according to David

Prentice, who is monitoring the debate for the Family
Research Council - a

group that supports the U.S.-backed ban. "I think the
Costa Rican proposal

probably will pass" if a vote occurs, Prentice said.

Roberto Tovar, Costa Rica's minister of foreign
affairs, said, "Today we must

decide whether the international community will adopt
a utilitarian ethic

that justifies the deliberate creation of human
embryos with the purpose of

destroying them for scientific experiments".

*Coffee Harvest Expected to Drop

The Instituto Costarricense del CafÃ© (ICAFE)said it
predicts a drop of 7%

over last year, in the production of coffee during
this harvest season,
which begins in November.

ICAFE blames the lower prices for the coffee bean in
the past several months.

Coffee bean price have been regaining strength in the
market and that could

mean a good harvest next season.

Currently the price paid to pickers is Â¢500 colones
per bushel.

=========================================
LATIN AMERICAN NEWS DIGEST
=========================================

*Haiti is a violent basket case filled with death

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Â— Political violence,
instability and natural
disasters are taking their toll on the people of
Haiti. In the past few
weeks more than 50 people have died in political
violence. Nearly 2,000
died and hundreds remain missing from floods caused by
Tropical Storm
Jeanne.

Haitian police each day work their way through the
slums of Bel Air,

exchanging gunfire with the dreaded Chimieres, gangs
of supporters of
former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The
Chimieres, which in
Creole roughly means ghosts, live up to their name.
They disappear
into a maze of alleys in one of Port-au-Prince's
oldest neighborhoods
that is a stronghold of support for the former
president.

Scores have died in violence in Haiti since Sept. 30,
when Aristide

supporters began violent demonstrations calling for
his return.
Aristide, who lives in exile in South Africa, says he
was forced to
leave Haiti earlier this year by the United States and
France, a charge
both countries strongly deny.

*Chile rejects remarks of Bolivian president

The Chilean government rejected and lamented the words
of Bolivian President

Carlos Mesa that his Chilean counterpart is "extremely
temperamental," local

daily El Mercurio reported Monday.

The Chilean authorities, however, said it opted not to
"fall in the game"

with Mesa and keep the discussion in the field of
bilateral relations, based

on respect for international laws and treaties.

It has expressed friendship with concrete gestures,
the government added.

Chilean right-wing leader Joaquin Lavin also voiced
support for President

Ricardo Lagos Escobar, despite their many differences
on domestic politics.

"There is a single voice and we back him a hundred
percent," Lavin said. "He

deserves, as the president of Chile, all the respect
of his counterparts."

Mesa's remarks are part of Bolivian diplomatic
offensive to pressure Chile to

return the coastal territories taken from it at the
end of the 19th century.

Last Wednesday, the 100th anniversary of the peace and
friendship treaty that

defines the border, Mesa repeated demands to
renegotiate the 1904 accord,

saying Bolivia's economy has been hurt by the loss of
a seaport.

The treaty established the territorial limits between
both countries after

the War of the Pacific (1879-1884). Chile occupied
120,000 square kilometers

of territory belonging to Bolivia and Bolivia has
aspired to reclaim sea

access ever since.

Mesa insisted on Bolivia's sovereign control over a
port in the Pacific

Ocean. But the Chilean president replied that there
are no pending issues

with respect to sovereignty and the 1904 accord was
final.

*Brazil's nuclear program not for military purposes:
minister

The Brazilian government said there does not exist any
possibility that its

nuclear program could be used for military purposes,
the local media reported

Monday.

"It is clear we'll only make a peaceful use of nuclear
energy. It is a

decision established by the Constitution itself that
our nuclear program has

to be that way," Eduardo Campos, Minister of Science
and Technology, was

quoted as saying.

Campos made the remarks in response to an article
issued in the latest

edition of the journal Science, which said Brazil
would have the capability

of producing nuclear warheads and would have purchased
uranium-enrichment

technology from foreign scientists.

The article indicated that if the Brazilian government
manages to limit the

inspections of the experts from the International
Atomic Energy Agency

(IAEA), Iran could claim the same treatment.

Last week, IAEA inspectors were allowed to enter the
nuclear-fuel plant in

Resende, Rio de Janeiro State, but their visual access
to uranium enriching

devices was restricted.

"As it is not possible to patent this equipment, the
only way to preserve its

uniqueness is not giving visual access to technicians
from other countries,

who would identify the differences through this
contact," said Campos.

He said the accusations against his country had
reproduced an economic

dispute, derived from the growth of the nuclear-energy
market and because of

the fact that Brazil's uranium-enrichment devices
could have a performance

superior to foreign equipment.

"Brazil is a country with great abundance of this
mineral, with70 percent of

our territory yet to be investigated," he said.

"In 11 or 12 years time, nuclear energy will represent
25 percent of our

energy production and we want to be self-sufficient by
2010. It is quite

clear this potential places us in an important group,"
said the minister.

Brazil in early October agreed to allow the IAEA to
inspect some of its

nuclear facilities. The tentative compromise is aimed
at allowing inspectors

to verify that Brazil has neither enriched uranium to
weapons-grade levels

nor diverted the nuclear material to other places.

But the country has refused to allow IAEA inspectors
to conduct a full visual

inspection of the Resende plant, saying the plant's
advanced technology could

be stolen by other countries should outsiders be
allowed into it.

*Mexico's New Power Before the United States

"...it is impossible for the United States to
militarily invade Mexico
- or even place an economic embargo upon it - without
causing conditions
that would fast lead a rebellion by United States
citizens against their
own government at home, and that Mexico enjoys a
unique power in this

sense..."

I have said this, in fact, to thousands of people in
recent years,
imploring Mexican friends and allies to realize the
real power they
have to change drug policies, and others, without fear
of Uncle Sam, and
imploring gringo friends and allies to understand that
a potential silver
bullet exists South of the Border to collapse the
entire drug war game.

I usually get blank stares in response. To suggest
that the little guy can
beat the neighborhood bully here in a barrio called
AmÃ©rica seems to
cause a kind of nervous discomfort.

But in today's Mexico City daily La Jornada, somebody
else just said it:
a very official-looking bloke from the David
Rockefeller Center for Latin
American Studies at Harvard University. His name is
John Coatsworth.
Look at his photo. It's not like he's wearing a
ski-mask over his
suit and tie. This guy is as establishment as they
come. I'll translate
his words. Maybe y'all will listen to the guy in the
suit...

Coatsworth, director of the Rockefeller Center, said:

"For the first time in the history of the
Mexico-United States
relationship, the latter can't act against its
neighbor in a manner that
damages significant Mexican interests without damaging
its own interests...

"I think that the most interesting and least
recognized aspect of the
relations between both countries is how power has been
displaced so
dramatically from the United States toward Mexico. The
people who keep
talking about the asymmetry have to rethink it. That
offers Mexico the
capacity to project power toward Washington in favor
of its own interests
and in a way that is still not being exploited, very
consistently and
consciously..."

Coatsworth was interviewed by David Brooks and Jim
Cason about the
upcoming elections in the United States, prospects for
changes in
immigration policy, and economic issues. To be fair,
I'll note that he
didn't bring up drugs.

But I'll also say that everything he says about the
changing power
dynamics between the two countries applies with
exactitude to questions
of drug policy.

The days are over when U.S. Ambassadors and special
envoys - like
Washington's Charles Shapiro attempted Thursday in
Bolivia (Read Alex
Contreras' Narco News report on that adventure in
imperial arrogance)
- can threaten Mexico with similar harm if it doesn't
toe the line on
drug policy.

The dynamics are simply too explosive. Harm the
Mexican economy, and you
harm the U.S. economy. The right hand can't shoot the
left hand without
losing blood itself.

So what keeps the drug war in place in Mexico?

Read the analysis on The Narcosphere:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/10/25/122117/29

*The United States Opposes New Agreement Between
Government and Coca Growers
State Department Representatives Push for More Violent
Eradication as Bolivia

Looks for Peaceful Solutions

By Alex Contreras Baspineiro
Narco News South American Bureau Chief
October 22, 2004

Â“It is very important that Bolivia meet its
eradication goals this year,Â”

Charles Shapiro, the U.S. State DepartmentÂ’s Andean
envoy, told the press on

Thursday. Â“The president says that the goal of 8,000
hectares (20,000 acres)

eradicated will be met. But the new agreement says
that (the government) will

carry out a study and not eradicate all the coca in
the Chapare. This is

troubling. Â”

Shapiro met with Bolivian President Carlos Mesa and
several government

ministers on Thursday, to explain to them that the
United States opposes the

agreement recently signed with Chapare coca growers.
The agreement recognizes

the legitimate existence of 3,200 hectares (7,900
acres) of coca in the

Tropic of Cochabamba (the region where the Chapare is
located).

The October 3 Memorandum of Understanding between the
government and the coca

growers says, in its fourth point: Â“The reduction of
all coca crops the

Tropic of Cochabamba to no less than 3,200 hectares is
agreed upon, until the

results of the Study of the Demand for Legal Coca
Consumption are known.Â”

The fifth point adds: Â“This area for coca cultivation
will be distributed

among the 23,000 members of the Six Federations,
including the settled area

of the Isiboro SÃ©cure National Park.Â”

Â“There is joy throughout the Chapare, because if we
calculate it, this allows

every coca-growing family one cato of coca.Â” said
congressman and coca grower

Evo Morales upon signing the memorandum. (A cato is a
40 by 40 foot plot of

land.) Â“This is the product of many years of struggle
with previous

governments, who were subject to the will of the
United States Embassy,Â”

According to the agreement, the coca growers
themselves are in charge of

coordinating the peaceful elimination of their crops.
Many consider this

agreement a major victory because it was able to break
Law 1008, the Bolivian

Â“Regulation of Coca and Controlled Substances LawÂ”
that has been in effect

since 1988. Interior minister Saul Lara assured the
press, after signing the

agreement, that it did not, in fact, weaken Law 1008 Â–
that in fact, it would

help to reach the goal of eradicating 8,000 hectares
of coca by the yearÂ’s

end.

Â“We have no doubt that the United States Embassy and
the international

community understand that this is a move to comply
with international

efforts,Â” said Lara. Â“We are using our own sovereign
law in a peaceful

manner, working in consensus with the coca growersÂ’
leadership.Â”

Find complete story here:

http://www.narconews.com/Issue34/article1088.html

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