His Excellency
President of the Republic of Bolivia
Gonzalo SANCHEZ DE LOZADA
Palacio de Gobierno
Bolivia
Fax. 591-2-39.12.16
Brussels, April 25, 1995
Dear President Sanchez de Lozada,
I write on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party to express our profound concern at the detention of members of the Andean Council of Coca Producers, at their assembly in Copacabana on April 18. As we know the Bolivians remain in detention and the Peruvians and other nationals have been expelled from the country.
Among those detained are serveral members of the COCA '95 Campaign, including Maruja MACHACA, Evo MORALES and Roger RUMRRILL, who, on their recent tour of Europe, impressed audiences with their sincerity, innovative ideas and concern to find lasting solutions to the problems surrounding the drug trade.
I know that you, like all of us, are anxious to combat the drug trade and the damage it does in all our societies. But we are convinced that the way forwards is through an end of the present war on drugs, in other words the worldwide prohibitionnist policy and, consequently, through a denonciation of the United Nations conventions on drugs in order to give to the state legal autorities the control on the production and distribution of the various drugs.
The detention of those proposing alternative policies, such as the depenalization of the coca leaf, can only polarize debate and make it harder to find the solution we all desire to see. We would urge you therefore to ensure that the Bolivians are freed forthwith and that the expelled foreign nationals, many of whom are internationally respected analysts, have the expulsion orders revoked so they may continue their legitimate work.
We also urge you to stop immediately the military operations aiming at the forced erradication of the cocaplants and we wish to offer you support in order to reopen the way of dialogue and negociation. We are convinced that this will result the only way that will bring a lasting solution to the problem.
We look forward to hearing of the swift resolution of this matter.
Your sincerely,
Olivier DUPUIS
(secretary of the Transnational Radical Party)