President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada

Palacio de Gobierno

La Paz - Bolivia

Fax. 00 591 2 39 12 16

Brussels, 17 July 1995

Dear President Sanchez de Lozada,

As members of the European Parliament, we want to express our profound concern at the detentions of a least 50 leaders of peasant unions, most of them from the Tropical Region of Cochabamba, on Friday July 14th. According to various testimonies, the detentions took place in a very brutal way.

Among those detained is Evo Morales, President of the Andean Council of Coca producers and Secretary General of the most important peasant federation in the region. On his recent tour through Europe, in March of the year, Mr. Morales impressed his audiences with his concern and constructive proposals to find lasting solutions to the problems surrounding the drugs trade in the world in general, and Bolivia in particular.

We know that your government, like many members of the European Parliament, is anxious to combat the drug trade and the problems it creates in all our societies. But we are convinced that the way forward is through open minded dialogue. The detention of the legitimate representatives of peasant unions is a measure that can create more problems than solutions. We therefore urge you to ensure that the detained peasant leaders are freed forthwith, to guarantee their human and constitutional rights and to stop the military operations aiming at the forced erradication of the cocaplants in the Tropical Region of Cochabamba.

On the other hand, we recognize that it is also our duty, being representatives of cocaine consurmer countries, to solve the drugs problem. Therefore, we guarantee you our full support to open the way of dialogue and negotiation with the European Union, in order to identify just and effective drug control policies. In relation to this, we would like to comment you that the European Parliament recently approved a resolution, in which it considers that EU support should not be provided for crop erradication throuygh the use of repressive measures.

Finally we would like to emphasize our interest in promoting the beneficial use of coca leaves, though the manufacturing of derivatives with medicinal, nutritional and therapeutical applications.

We look forward to hearing of the swift resolution of this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Marco PANNELLA, Gianfranco DELL'ALBA