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SW: →Drug War: add info
=== Drug War ===
In late 1985, Paz Estenssoro was under pressure from the U.S., which threatened to cut Bolivia's aid in half unless Bolivia could eliminate 10,000 acres of coca cultivation.<ref name="APJan1086">Peter McFarren, "Government May Send Troops to End Siege of Anti-narcotics Squad," The Associated Press, January 10, 1986.</ref> The government crop reduction program began in December 1985, promising farmers $350 for each hectare taken out of coca cultivation. At the time a farmer in [[Chapare]] told reporters that he earns 10 times more from coca than he could from any other crop.
Paz Estenssoro also deployed the [[Leopards Anti-Narcotics Squad]] to the Chapare. The Leopards, a 300-member police squad that was trained, equipped, and advised by the U.S. government, had been founded in 1983 and first deployed in 1984, before Paz Estenssoro was elected.<ref name="APJuly784"> Peter McFarren, "Narcotic Unit's Involvement In Coup Attempt Slows Anti-Drug Battle," The Associated Press, July 7, 1984.</ref><ref name="NYTJuly1784">Marlise Simons, "Bolivian Plot Embarrasses the U.S.," The New York Times, July 17, 1984.</ref><ref name="APSep1984">Peter McFarren, "Army Occupation Turns Coca Villages into Ghost Towns," The Associated Press, September 19, 1984.</ref> Soon after they were deployed by Paz Estenssoro, the Leopards destroyed a 25 acre cocaine paste facility in Ivargazama, an area that police say produces 1,1000 pounds of paste a month. However, the Leopards soon sparked anger when two members of the squad allegedly raped a local woman. The Leopards were surrounded and placed under siege by 17,000 angry farmers for three days.
At the time, Bolivia's Interior Minister, Fernando Barthelemy, was quoted as saying "growing fewer of the coca leaves from which the drug is produced could have serious results for the shattered Bolivian economy, which has become dependent on the illegal cocaine trade" because "cocaine brings in at least $450 million a year, about the same amount as legal exports."<ref name="APJan1086"/> In the last three years, the population of Chapare had doubled to 80,000 people.<ref name=APJan1184"/>
* Peter McFarren, "U.S. Troops Arrive for Drug Operation," The Associated Press, July 17, 1986.
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