Racked by inflation and recession, Ecuador two years ago bagged its currency, replacing the sucre with the U.S. greenback.

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"The government has opened the door to the US market, " said Lourdes Millares, a local MP from Bolivia's legal capital Sucre.

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Brito demonstrated that the model that Sucre municipal council was proposing to combat the disease affecting the crop was not advisable.

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Some of it is denominated in the sucre, a putative common currency.

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But after the (unconnected) murder of Sucre, his most loyal general, he set off, ailing and disillusioned, for a proposed exile in Europe.

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Bolivia calls for legal action against perpetrators of violence in Sucre.

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Not surprisingly, when Ecuador announced that it was floating the sucre, the currency spiraled down like a deflated balloon -- just as had happened with the Asian currencies.

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GDP, inflation was 61%, and the sucre lost 65% of its value against the dollar. (It lost a further 21% this year, before being fixed at 24, 975 to the dollar).

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One of the most prominent and saddest cases is that of Venezuelan biologist and farmer, Franklin Brito, whose torment began in 2002 when he dared to submit a project to solve a problem in Sucre Municipality, Bolivar state.

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