Coca farmers just want to make a living

The campaign has had a profound impact on the Chapare region. Anti-narcotics officials have succeeded in eradicating tens of thousands of hectares of coca leaf plantations. Officials estimate there are now only 5,000 hectares of coca leaf left - equivalent to just 1% of all land use in the Chapare.

But this is still sufficient to produce 35 tonnes of cocaine.

The remaining coca leaf plantations are mostly tiny plots of land hidden amongst dense forest and jungle. Every day armed anti-narcotics patrols carry out around 10 raids on illegal plantations and on small laboratories where coca leaves are processed into cocaine paste.

Eradication 'possible'

The fight between those who seek to grow the coca leaf and those who seek to get rid of it appears never-ending. But anti-narcotics officials say they are confident that they will be able to eradicate the remaining plantations.

They will never get rid of it, the coca leaf will be defended

Evo Morales, head of the coca growers' union

"It's possible," says Lt-Col Jaime Cruz Vera, the commander of the anti-narcotics regiment, "And once we've done it, we will continue our operations to make sure that it stays this way.

"We will carry on patrolling the area, we will sweep the region making sure that the areas we've eradicated stay eradicated.

"And we'll patrol new areas as well because farmers here will always try to grow coca somewhere."

Evo Morales says coca farming will survive

The government hopes to persuade coca farmers - known as cocaleros - to switch to alternative crops such as banana or pineapple. So far, a number have done so. But many have not.

"They will never get rid of it," says Evo Morales, the head of the cocaleros' union, "The coca leaf will be defended.

"The fight against drug trafficking is a pretext for the US to dominate Latin America - for the US to dominate our people - to violate our sovereignty."

Armed conflict

Many Bolivians question the wisdom of the eradication policy that has led to armed conflict between the army and coca farmers in the Chapare region.

"It's had social costs," says Roberto Laserna, an academic who has studied the drug issue for many years, "And it's very hard to say that coca can be eradicated. Is it useful? Is it sound? Is it a good policy? Are they also eradicating drug consumption?

The tropical region once supplied much of the world's cocaine

"If not, people will start using other drugs and we will go on to see new drug wars in other parts of the country. And Bolivia will be left with widespread corruption and poverty."

So far, in some ways, the "Dignity Plan" has been successful. Coca leaf cultivation has been reduced - although total eradication looks unlikely. And major drug traffickers have switched their efforts instead to Colombia where the government has little control over its territory.

But for Bolivian authorities there remains the challenge of making the eradication of the last few years a permanent achievement. Until they can persuade farmers to grow other crops, many cocaleros will always try to grow the one crop they know they can sell.

And armed conflict between farmers and soldiers will continue.