Centuries ago, when it was a Spanish colony, Bolivia was one of the world's largest silver suppliers. Then the Andean nation dominated the tin market. Now it is a key player in supplying coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine. But mass protests in the last week of September, in which 10 people died fighting government efforts to wipe out illegal coca fields, have forced Bolivia's leaders to reconsider the South American nation's social and economic foundations. The activity employed up to one in every eight Bolivians.
Bolivian officials expect to do so by year's end.
Kempff said only 5,000 acres of coca fields remain to be eliminated from the Chapare region, which at its height in the mid-1980s had 125,000 acres of land under coca, producing about 95 percent of the raw material for cocaine coming out of Bolivia. As long as there is demand for cocaine in the United States and Europe, someone in South America will be ready to supply their needs.