Bolivian president suspends US anti-drug efforts

Bolivia’s president says he is suspending operations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as relations between the two countries worsen.

President Evo Morales accuses the DEA of involvement in regional anti-government protests. U.S. officials have denied promoting such actions.

Morales announced the cutoff in DEA operations in a speech Saturday in which he said his government has wiped out more than 12,300 acres of illegally planted coca this year. Coca is the raw material for cocaine, but Bolivians use it in its natural form as a traditional tea or chew.

Bolivia expelled the U.S. ambassador last month, and Washington later put Bolivia on an anti-narcotics blacklist that cuts trade preferences.

Brief by The Associated Press