Evo Morales Accuses US of Chocking Bolivia's Economy

CNN gets some of the story:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/21/world/americas/bolivia-morales/

New York (CNN) -- The United States metes out certifications to other countries for their cooperation on drug trafficking, but as the nation with the biggest demand for illegal drugs, who evaluates the United States? Bolivian President Evo Morales posed that question in an interview with CNN en Español, reiterating a recent comment that drew attention.

Relations between Bolivia and the United States are at a low point as the Morales government accuses the United States of trying to destabilize it, while the United States counters that Bolivia is dropping the ball in the fight against drugs.

Since coming into office, Morales has expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. ambassador.

"Since we don't have an ambassador here, since we don't have DEA, and no dead and injured and no military bases from the U.S. here, they decertify us," Morales said Monday in the interview, which came during his visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Morales accused the DEA and the U.S. State Department of using their agents in other countries for political purposes.

"The origins of drug trafficking are in the demand, not the supply," he said. "So I'd like for some international organism to certify or decertify the United States for their responsibility on the issue of drug trafficking."

The Bolivian president vowed to take his idea to regional bodies in Latin America to see if other countries agree.

Morales, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accused the United States of trying to taint all "anti-imperialist" countries with the drug-trafficking label.

The comment was related to the arrest this year of retired Bolivian Gen. Rene Sanabria, a former anti-drug czar who was arrested in Panama and extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges. At the time of his arrest, Sanabria was working as an aide to a minister close to Morales.

Morales alleged that the arrested general and the United States were working together on a plan to smear his country's reputation.

"We have information that he is negotiating his years in prison in exchange for something," Morales said.

His anti-American rhetoric comes at a time when Morales is facing domestic pressures.

Indigenous communities are protesting the proposed construction of a highway through a national park where they live. The indigenous groups have also called for an end to hydrocarbon extraction from the area.

Morales called the demands unrealistic, noting that 90% of Bolivia's natural gas flows through that area.

"To cease means to leave the Bolivian people without resources," he said, adding that the government remains open to dialogue with the protesters.

Last month, he also blamed the United States for stoking protest marches against the highway.

---

Alas, the mainstream media seems uninterested in any deeper analysis; consider:

"Morales, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accused the United States of trying to taint all "anti-imperialist" countries with the drug-trafficking label."

"Ani-imperialist"- ah yes a useful slogan that implies (but alas does not really mean) opposition to an ancient regime: a slogan that obscures the belying political dynamics. Consider as a start how Evo Morales is presented in the garb of communism, with his political party the "Movement Towards Socialism". Consider the times that Evo has been photographed with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez- each the proverbial "anti-imperialist".

If these men were truly "anti-imperialist" what can be said about any possible efforts by Evo Morales to persuade either Cuba nor Venezuela to re-legalized Coca Leaf? If either Castro nor Chavez were such 'anti-imperialists" do they allow the sale of coca teas and other beverages, nor require tobacco products to NOT be exempt from retail labeling of ingredients?

Indeed, among the so-called left wing 'progressive' 'environmentalist' swaths of intelligentsia one will see infinitely more upon that single highway project in Bolivia, than upon the whole issue of, ahem, imperial MERCANTILISM, banning Coca perverting it into concentrated cocaine for the sake of protecting cigarettes.

That the word "mercantilism" is so rarely heard, in contrast to the fallacy of anti-capitalism, speaks volumes about the jesuitical rot of academia.

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Bolivia Pro-Coca Campaign Inches Ahead

Via initiating process to maintain status quo
against yet another U.N. scheduled elimination of coca leaf chewing

From Drug War Rant:

Bolivian coca amendment to Single Convention

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2009/08/06.html#a3603

The Bolivian government has successfully commenced the formal process for amending the UN's Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961) to eliminate the provision that would require all countries to prohibit coca leaf chewing within 25 years (for Bolivia, that was 2001).

Interesting amendment process. If no country objects within 18 months, then the amendment passes (a nice, if time consuming, way to do it - countries need not get on the record to approve it). Countries most likely to object: United States and Sweden. If that happens, then there's a conference to consider it.

The proposal has a very nice argument as to why this provision should be removed from the Single Convention.

As reported by the International Drug Control Consortium:

http://www.idpc.net/alerts/bolivian-proposal-ecosoc-coca-leaf

Bolivia commences process to allow coca-leaf chewing under international drug control scheme

At the Substantive Session of the Economic and Social Council on Thursday, 30th July 2009 in Geneva, Bolivia commenced the formal process by which they hope to delete article 49, paragraphs 1(c) and 2(e) of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the Protocol amending the Single convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961.

Article 49, paragraph 2(e) states that ‘coca leaf chewing must be abolished within twenty-five years from the coming into force of this Convention as provided in paragraph 1 of article 41’; paragraph 1(c) states that a Party to the Convention may reserve the right to permit coca leaf chewing temporarily in any one of its territories, subject to the restrictions established in paragraph 2(e), that is, for a period of no more than 25years.

The Bolivian proposal was supported by a letter from the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, which explains that coca leaf chewing is a non-harmful and ancient socio-cultural practice and ritual of the Andean indigenous peoples closely linked to their history and cultural identity practised today by millions of people in Bolivia, Peru, northern Argentina and Chile, Ecuador, and Colombia. The Bolivian delegate to ECOSOC assured other delegates that ‘we are not talking about free growing of coca so as not to feed the narco trade’ and explained that the proposed amendment to the Convention would allow countries to ‘make up their own minds’ on coca-leaf chewing and would not require any change in the domestic law of other countries, she said ‘this is a full application of the principle for non-intervention and non-meddling in the sovereignty of states’. The delegate further stated that the Bolivian government plans to hold a seminar for interested parties on coca leaf chewing in October of this year. Read the Bolivian proposal below.

The United States of America and Sweden both raised their flags on this agenda item but the resulting dramatic tension was quickly abated by a procedural question with regards to the consultation process. The question was answered as follows: if the proposed amendment is not rejected by any Party within eighteen months of 30th July 2009, it shall enter into force. If any rejection is forthcoming, however, a conference shall be called to consider the amendment.

PDF download:

Bolivian Proposal ECOSOC July 2009.pdf

Accompanying the USA with its promotion of Virginia Bright Leaf cigarettes adulterated with numerous chemicals to increase the burn (increasing health problems and house fires in order to sell more), and misbranded (with no labeling of the additives), is Sweden, with the following suggestion for Bolivians to abandon Coca in favor of Ice Cream!

Better income from ice cream than coca cultivation

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:1GeEbGxhZNsJ:www.sida.se/%3Fd%3D1594%26a%3D32898%26language%3Den_US+Sweden+coca&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Felipe and Mabel Vera Loza have started an ice cream factory and got the farmers to grow passion fruit instead of coca leaves. This is just what the Bolivian economy needs -- modern enterprise and profitable alternatives to the drug production that results from coca cultivation.

On the Altiplano, high above Bolivia's capital La Paz, 700,000 people live in poverty, but behind the first impressions of misery hides another reality - enterprise and ingenuity, a Bolivian "Gnosjö spirit" (distinctive enterprising spirit in Gnosjö, Sweden) that has turned the Altiplano into one of the fastest growing economic regions in Bolivia. One of many resourceful entrepreneurs is Felipe Vera Loza. Fifteen years ago, Felipe and his wife Mabel bought an Italian ice cream machine of the make Catabriga, which was placed in the family's kitchen. From there they built the company Delizia, which is now the second-biggest producer of yoghurt, ice cream and Juice in La Paz. Today, the facility is worth 40 million SEK and has an annual turnover of as much, and the company continues to grow.

"You have to grow slowly in pace with demand and always adapt to the market," says Felipe, "the Bolivian economy is unpredictable. You must be prepared for quick changes but still have a long-term perspective."

Inside the Delizia factory, the shiny aluminum machines whirr and hiss day and night. At the back, between the white tiled walls, there is a conveyor belt with plastic bottles filled with juice the colour of orange peel.

"No, it's not orange, it is passion fruit juice, our latest product," explains Felipe, "today farmers grow passion fruit on 2000 hectares of land, which is delivered to Delizia. Many of these farmers previously grew coca."

Swedish support allows the company to adapt its production to meet the strict international environmental requirements. This makes Delizia and other Bolivian companies more competitive. It offers long-term opportunities to reduce poverty and, at the same time, more coca farmers the opportunity to change their cultivations to other products and build a sound basis for the Bolivian economy.

FACTS

Sida has supported industry in Bolivia since 1992 with a number of contributions. Sida cooperates with NGOs, which are in the best position to identify demands and solutions to problems. Sida also works with business development.

Updated 05 Nov 2007

To its credit, Swedish policy has at times favored the concept of harm reduction:

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/378/unforum.shtml

On the other side of the debate were UN agencies and much of the international community. The European Union and several of its member states voiced explicit support for harm reduction. Even staunchly prohibitionist Sweden "fully associated itself" with the EU's pro-harm reduction statement. Australia, Brazil, Norway, and Switzerland also supported harm reduction efforts, according to on-the-scene reports from Hungary's Peter Sarosi and England's Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt, who were representing the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the European Coalition for Safe and Effective Drug Policies, respectively. In contrast to previous years, harm reduction also drew support from Moslem countries, with Iran and Morocco reporting they were working together to forge a response to injection drug use. China reported that methadone maintenance programs were underway and that "exchange of needles and syringes is expanding step by step."

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Evo Morales Calls on Obama to Back Coca Campaign

Bolivia's Morales calls on Obama to back coca campaign

11 Mar 2009 15:26:16 GMT

Source: Reuters

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LB506427.htm

By Sylvia Westall VIENNA, March 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama should recognise traditional uses of the coca leaf because not all production becomes cocaine, Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Wednesday.

Morales, a former coca farmer, also called on participants at a United Nations drug policy meeting in Vienna to lift a ban on coca for some uses.

"My top aim (in coming here) is to defend coca, to fight for coca," Morales told a news conference through a German translator.

Bolivia is the world's No. 3 cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru. Coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, is used by millions of people in Bolivia and neighboring Peru to fight altitude sickness and stave off hunger. In its natural form, the leaf is also used in teas, in cooking and for religious ceremonies.

"We hope for support from President Obama for the decriminalization of coca," Morales said, adding that Bolivia is committed to the fight against cocaine and other drugs.

"The new U.S. president has similarities to me," Morales said, adding that he hoped Obama would help his years-long coca crusade because of what they have in common. "Before, nobody believed that an Indian could be president and nobody thought that a black man could be president of the United States," Morales said.

Morales, who has banned U.S. anti-drug agents from working in Bolivia, has said his country can fight cocaine trafficking on its own. He ordered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to stop its work in Bolivia in November after accusing the agency of spying and conspiring to overthrow him.

A U.S. State Department report in February said Bolivian cocaine production increased rapidly last year due to greater cultivation and more efficient manufacturing methods. It said Bolivia had failed to live up to obligations under international agreements.

The U.N.'s crime agency chief said on Wednesday a 10-year anti-drug drive had partially backfired by making drug cartels so wealthy they can bribe their way through West Africa and Central America, and undermining security and development. [ID:nLB426950]
(Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Bolivia - Coca as Obama's Barometer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-contradictions-facing_b_160180.html

The Contradictions Facing a Black President of the American Empire

Johann Hari

Columnist, London Independent

Posted January 23, 2009 | 03:11 PM (EST)

The tears are finally drying - the tears of the Bush years, and the tears of awe at the sight of a black President of the United States. So what now? The cliché of the day is that Barack Obama will inevitably disappoint the hopes of a watching world, but the truth is more subtle than that. If we want to see how Obama will change the world - for good or bad - we need to trace the deep structural factors that underlie US foreign policy, and tease out what he will do about them. A useful case study of these pressures is about to flicker onto our news pages for a moment - from the top of the world.

Bolivia is the poorest country in Latin America, and its lofty slums 4000 meters above sea level seem a world away from the high theatre of the inauguration. But if we look at this country closely, we can explain one of the great paradoxes of the United States - that it has incubated a triumphant civil rights movement at home, yet thwarted civil rights movements abroad. Bolivia shows us in stark detail the contradictions facing a black President of the American empire.

The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has a story strikingly similar to Obama's. In 2006 he became the first indigenous President of his country - and a symbol of the potential of democracy. When the Spanish arrived in Bolivia in the sixteenth century, they enslaved the indigenous majority and worked millions to death. As recently as the 1950s, an indigenous person wasn't even allowed to walk through the centre of La Paz, where the presidential palace and city cathedral stand. They were (and are) routinely compared to monkeys and apes.

Morales was born to a poor potato-farmer in the mountains, and grew up scavenging for discarded orange peel or banana skins to eat. Of his seven siblings, four starved to death as babies. Throughout his adult life, it was taken for granted that the country would be ruled by the white mestizo minority; the "Indians" were too "child-like" to manage a country.

Given that the US is constitutionally a democracy and its Presidents say they are committed to spreading democracy across the world, you would expect them to welcome the democratic rise of Morales. But wait. Bolivia has massive reserves of natural gas - a geo-strategic asset, and one that rakes in billions for US corporations. Here is where the complications set in.

Before Morales, the white mestizo elite was happy to allow US companies to simply take the gas and leave the Bolivian people with short change: just 18 percent of the royalties. Indeed, they handed almost the entire country to US interests, while skimming a small percentage for themselves. In 1999, an American company, Bechtel, was handed the water supply - and water rates for the poor majority doubled.

Morales ran for election against this agenda. He said that Bolivia's resources should be used for the benefit of millions of bitterly poor Bolivians, not a tiny number of super-rich Americans. He kept his promise. Now Bolivia keeps 82 percent of the vast gas royalties - and he has used the money to increase health spending by 300 percent, and to build the country's first pension system. He is one of the most popular leaders in the democratic world. In slums across South America, I have seen this pink tide rising through the barrios and favelas, where millions of people are seeing doctors and schools for the first time in their lives.

I suspect that a majority of the American people - who are good and decent - would be pleased and support this process if they were told about it honestly. But how did the US government (and much of the media) react? George Bush fulminated that "democracy is being eroded in Bolivia", and a recent US ambassador to the country compared Morales to Osama Bin Laden. Why? To them, you are a democrat if you give your resources to US corporations, and you are a dictator if you give them to your own people. The will of the Bolivian people is irrelevant.

There is another layer of disagreement between Morales and US power. Bolivians have a widespread millennia-long tradition chewing coca leaves, or brewing them in tea: it's a good way of keeping your energy up when you are doing grinding work at such a high altitude. But in the 1980s, the Reagan administration announced that this was contrary to the demands of the "war on drugs". They trained and paid for elite white military units to forcibly "eliminate coca." They rampaged across the Bolivian countryside destroying the crops of desperately poor people. Evo Morales - a coca farmer himself - saw them burn a peasant farmer alive, an experience he says "changed me forever." He wants to legalize coca for private use - and he is supported by 80 percent of Bolivians.

For these reasons, the US has been moving to trash Morales. Latin America still lives in the shadow of its own 9/11: on September 11th 1973, Henry Kissinger and the CIA backed the coup that led to the violent death of the freely elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, to stop his programme of democratic socialism from proceeding

Over the past few years, the techniques have become a little less crude. By an odd quirk of fate, almost all of Bolivia's gas supplies are in the east of the country - where the richest, whitest part of the population lives. So the US government has been funding and fueling the hard-right separatist movements that want these regions to break away. Then the mestizos would happily hand the gas to US companies like in the good ol' days - and Morales would be left without resources. The interference became so severe that last September Morales had to expel the US Ambassador for "conspiring against democracy." This weekend, Morales is holding a major referendum on a new constitution for the country which will entrench the rights of the indigenous people.

Enter Obama - and his paradoxes. He is obviously a person of good will and good sense, but he is operating in a system subject to many undemocratic pressures. Bolivia illustrates the tension. The rise of Morales reminds us of the America the world loves - its yes-we-can openness and civil rights movements. Yet the presence of gas and coca reminds us of the America the world hates - the desire to establish "full spectrum dominance" over the world's resources and send troops barging into their countries, whatever the pesky natives think.

Which America will Obama embody? The answer is both - at first. Morales has welcomed him as "a brother", and Obama has made it clear he wants a dialogue, rather than the abuse of the Bush years. Yet who is Obama's Bolivia advisor? A lawyer called Greg Craig, who represents Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada - the hard-right former President of Bolivia who imposed some of the most extreme privatizations of the 1980s, and is now wanted on charges of genocide in Bolivia for the massacres of indigenous protesters. Craig's legal team says Morales is (yes) leading "an offensive against democracy."

The structural pressures within the US political system that drove hostility to a democratic civil rights leader like Morales up to now have not dissolved in the cold Washington air. The US is still dependent on foreign fossil fuels to keep its lights on, the drug war bureaucracy will continue its senseless crusade, and US corporations still buy Senators from both parties. Obama will still be swayed by those factors.

But while this is a reason to be frustrated, it isn't a reason to be cynical. Why? Because while he will be swayed by those factors, he will also subtly erode them over time. Obama has made energy independence - a massive transition away from foreign oil and gas, and towards the wind, sun and waves - the centre of his governing programme. If the US is no longer addicted to Bolivian gas, then its governments will be much less inclined to topple anybody else who wants to control it. (If they're off oil, they'll be much less invested in the Saudi tyranny and petro-wars in the Middle East too.)

Obama also says he wants to peel back the distorting effect of corporate money on the US political system. He is already less slathered in corporate cash than any President since the 1920s. The further he pushes it back, the more breathing-space democratic movements like Morales' get to control their own resources. He also seems to be a less fanatical drug warrior than his predecessors, offering praise in the past for those who believe the US should concentrate on treating addicts at home rather than trying to burn and fumigate their supply from every forest or mountain on earth.

But we will see. If you want to know if Obama is really altering the tectonic forces that drive American power, keep an eye on the rooftop of the world.

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Coca, Bolivia, and 'Law' 1008

Coca, Bolivia, and Law 1008
Drug War Rant Friday, March 7, 2008
http://rcs.salon.com/rcsComments/comments?u=2762&p=3114&link=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.salon.com%2F0002762%2F2008%2F11%2F10.html%23a3114

There's a fascinating 5-part series of videos on Bolivia and coca at vbs.tv. Definitely worth watching -- I learned quite a bit about the coca leaf. I was particularly interested in Law 1008 -- a law written by an American in English controlling what Bolivians could do with their coca leaves. A law, like every drug prohibition law, that had roots in racism and lies. And a law, like every other drug prohibition law, that actually caused the conditions for developing a massive international black market.

The first three parts of the video are the most interesting, and you do have to get past the smarmy fashion disaster correspondent, but it's worth it.
Thanks to Drug War Flipside



Coca Cookies and Constitutional Dreams By Jean Friedsky
Special to The Narco News Bulletin December 2, 2005

Decriminalization and How It Could Change Life for Bolivia’s Cocaleros


Coca leaves at market.
Photo: D.R. 2004 Jeremy Bigwood

The Contradictions of Coca Eradication in Bolivia By Reed Lindsay
Narco News Authentic Journalism Scholar
February 15, 2003

The drug war in Bolivia has hit a brick wall. While the Bolivian government wiped out more than 70 percent of the nation’s coca production in the late 1990s, the U.S.-backed eradication program has ignited a firestorm of opposition from coca growers, called cocaleros, in the Chapare region of central Bolivia. A growing movement of coca growers has not only stopped the eradication program in its tracks, it has gained widespread popular support that nearly swept cocalero leader, Evo Morales, into the presidency.

Behind the failure of the U.S.-promoted eradication policy in the Chapare region is a gross misunderstanding of the use of coca leaves in Bolivia and elsewhere, say activists and experts attending the Out of the Shadows drug legalization conference in Merida, Mexico.

Coca leaves have been consumed and used for thousands of years in Bolivia for medicinal and religious purposes. Today, coca is primarily “consumed orally,” in a manner similar to chewing tobacco, but it is also used to make tea and in indigenous ceremonies.


Peruvian Vintage Wine of Coca...
According to the Sears, Roebuck and Co. Consumers' Guide (1900)

A POLITICAL DRUG WAR IN BOLIVIA By Jens Gluesing
Is Coca the New Hemp? March 28, 2006

Bolivian President Evo Morales has put a stop to the eradication of coca plantations, triggering fears in Washington of a new wave in the illegal drug trade.


Bolivian President Evo Morales wants to make coca leaves the new hemp, but critics believe his promotion of the plant used to create cocaine will just boost the illegal drug trade.

The wine, a bit on the sweet side, is supposedly a remedy against Parkinson's disease and impotence and, according to the label, it is especially suitable for "athletes and singers." In small doses, that is, because the wine is pressed from coca leaves, enhancing the effect of the alcohol. If you get drunk, you don't have to worry about how you're going to feel the next day because "coca wine doesn't cause a hangover," says Melby Paz.


A Word From Our Sponsor...
His Holiness The Pope enjoyed the invigorating properties of coca wine. Leo XIII carried a personal hipflask to fortify himself in time of need. A grateful Pope awarded a Vatican gold medal to its distinguised orginator, the Corsican-born pharmacist and businessman Angelo Mariani. Mariani had a keen eye for the benefits of celebrity-endorsement.

ANDEAN DRUG WAR UPDATE By Bill Weinberg

Dissent Against Washington's Drug War Emerges as Chaos Spreads



Bolivia and Peru defend coca use


The UN lists coca as a controlled substance like cocaine or opium
Tonnes of coca leaves grown illegally in the village of Huaculi, central Bolivia, are burnt (Dec 2007)

The UN lists coca as a controlled substance like cocaine or opium
Bolivia and Peru have defended the continued, traditional use of coca leaves after they were criticised by a UN drugs agency report.


cocaine toothache drops (1885)

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Bolivia 1988 - 2008 and Counting

The Presidents of Bolivia

The Presidents of Bolivia known for standing against US/UN orchestrated pharamacratic inquisition against Coca.

#73 Jaime Paz Zamore (In office August 6, 1989 - August 6 1993)

#80 Evo Morales (In office since January 22, 2006)

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1988- Bolivia Re-Legalizes Coca Food and Drug Products

From my unpublished manuscript "Coca- Forgotten Medicine"

The years 1989-1992 marked the greater part of the 4 year term of Bolivian President Jaime Paz Zamora (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) who took office August 6, 1989, with an active pro-Coca agenda including expanding the variety of commercially available Coca products, and followed by expanding their markets internationally through Coca’s "de-penalization" with a campaign before the United Nation’s World Health Organization and its International Narcotics Board to de-list Coca from the 1961 Convention’s list of scheduled substances. (Despite Paz Zamora’s Bolivian government’s clear interest in the Coca issue, the Drug Policy Foundation did not include any speakers on this issue from the Bolivian government.)

By 1990, Bolivia approved the domestic sale of additional varieties of Coca products, developed and introduced by a budding homegrown industry. In addition to raw Coca leaves, teas, and the four preparations approved in 1988 -- and in contrast to Peru, where Coca was available either in raw form, or in simple tea bags through the Peruvian State Coca monopoly: E.N.A.C.O. -- Bolivians saw Coca sodas, Coca chewing gum and even Coca cookies: There are a few specialty coca shops in La Paz. There is one tucked into one of the many artesanals (courtyards or maze-like tunnels full of small merchant booths) along the main street about a block uphill from the San Francisco church. The shop displays a sign displaying the name COINCOCA, a Cochabamba-based home industry that manufactures various coca products. It sold coca leaves, coca teas, COINCOCA Vino de Coca (coca wine), several brands of coca balm, Co-Dent toothpaste, and other coca related products. I ran across similar shops in Coroico, and I'd wager that most Bolivian towns have them.

Bolivia’s pro-Coca policies invoked comments elsewhere, such as in Europe, with United Kingdom's Princess Anne's publicly expressed support for the peasant growers of Coca against the drug laws which she ridiculed in a speech by having us imagine have some foreign power do to the French custom of wine drinking the way industrialized nations treat Coca:

"We must not forget that most drugs developed from bona fide herbal remedies. I took advantage of one of them when I visited Bolivia ... (where) the natives for thousands of years have been using the leaf of the coca plant, either drunk as tea or chewed ... Science, needless to say, hasn't caught up with the reasons for this, but I can vouch for the tea ... To stop (coca) producers is like asking the Scots to stop growing barley because people one the other side of the world can't hold their drink, or the French to stop growing grapes."

The United States government would respond with its defense of the status quo with its insistence upon forced eradication of “excess” Coca crops.

By 1992, several thousand Bolivian peasant farmers each contributed some $25 apiece for the purchase of an abandoned match factory to set up La Paz's first coca market. (One year later, the 22,000 members of the Departmental Association of Coca Growers, ADEP-COCA, are selling 50,000 pounds of coca leaves a week. "We bought the market with our own money to demonstrate to our government and the international community, especially the United States, that coca is not a problem," said Geronimo Meneses Mollo, president of ADEP-COCA. "The market is our chance to show the world that we can come up with our own model of alternative development.")

By 1992, it was the incident of the Spanish police confiscating the some 20 pounds of Coca leaves shipped for Bolivia’s entry in the 1992 World Exposition in Seville, Spain scheduled to open April 20– intended to show the "scores of cultural use of coca in Bolivian society" that would frame the start of Jaime Paz Zamora’s “Coca Diplomacy” before the very international bodies with the authority over defining what constituted a “dangerous controlled substance.”

Within the following month, Bolivian President Paz Zamora gave a speech at the 45th annual meeting of the U.N. World Health Organization (W.H.O.), calling it investigate Coca's possible medical and nutritional properties, (as reported a June 17 1992 article in The New York Times):

"with an eye toward[s] removing it from the list of products that can only be sold under tight government supervision." . . .

The World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD), according to its 28th Report, discussed Coca as one of ten psychoactive substances to be considered for a critical review procedure.

"the chewing of coca leaves was reviewed at the third and fourth meetings of the Committee, which concluded that is was a form of 'addiction' (4) ... Since then, there has been no official evaluation of coca leaf chewing by WHO". It would so conclude "the coca leaf is appropriately scheduled under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, since cocaine is readily extractable from the leaf. The Committee did not recommend coca leaf for critical review." (5)

W.H.O. would furthermore state that Coca’s removal from the list of controlled substances under the 1961 Single Convention would require the approval of the 1961 Convention’s monitoring body, the U.N. International Narcotics Control Board, I.N.C.B., established in 1968. The I.N.C.B.’s 1992 response was:

"to relax the controls under the international drug control treaties over coca leaves and a variety of coca based products such as coca tea and coca toothpaste" as "contrary to the provisions and aims of the 1961 Convention"

The 1961 Convention specifically limits all such activities, from production to use of coca leaves and coca - leaf products. Relaxing the controls of the Convention would enable coca leaves and coca - leaf products to be marketed internationally for other purposes would require a radical change in the attitude of the international community and amendments to the 1961 Convention. Without amending the 1961 Convention, its control over imports for non - medical or scientific purposes would effectively embargo attempted exports for such purposes…

Alternatively, the 1961 Convention allows a course of action where a substance can be effectively dropped from such a list of dangerous controlled substances, by its provision allowing individual nations to formally denounce the Convention via giving a 12 month notice that they would no longer be bound by the Convention’s requirements. Theoretically, Peru and Bolivia could denounce the Convention, along with any other nation.

None of this was going to happen with the political status quo.

Under this status quo, a person in the United States who drank Coca tea faced the same problems in loosing job eligibility as a person who snorted or shot cocaine hydrochloride powder or smoked cocaine sulfate, with regards to pre-employment drug tests which did not differentiate these very different modes of drug.

A page one, October 23, 1992 article in The Washington Post by Gabriel Escobar, would report upon the story of Jeannette Vidangos of Arlington Virginia, who was accused of being an illicit drug [ab]user, and dropped from consideration for a job when the urine test result was positive for cocaine metabolites. Taking issue with this accusation, Vindangos, 47, who emigrated from Columbia 15 years earlier, and whose husband Jorge was originally from Bolivia, said she had not used cocaine itself, but rather that the cocaine reading -- for which there apparently was no controversy -- resulted from her use of an herbal tea she had been drinking since undergoing an operation. (This was a use echoing the previous century's use of in convalescence.) Accordingly, the two had purchased "several large boxes of Bolivian coca leaf tea two years earlier at Plaza Latina in Alexandria [Virginia], and Vindangos drank it daily for several weeks after her operation."

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Collision Course: Bolivia's "Coca, Si; Cocaine, No" Policy Runs Afoul of the International Drug Control Board and, Probably, the United States

From DRC Net

About Criminal Mercantilism that Subverts Liberty and Health

Drying the leaves in the warehouse.
The sign reads ''Coca Power and Territory, Dignity and Sovereignty, Regional Congress 2006-08''

That does not sit well with either the United States or the international anti-drug bureaucracy based in the United Nations. This week, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) took direct aim at Bolivia in its 2006 annual report (go to Special Topics, beginning with paragraph 171). In the report, INCB accuses Bolivia of violating the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics, which defines the coca plant as an illicit drug.

"The situation in Bolivia, which for many years has not been in conformity with that State's obligations under the international drug control treaties, continues to be a matter of particular concern to the Board," the report reads. "Bolivia is a major producer of coca leaf, and national legislation allows the cultivation of coca bush and the consumption of coca leaf for non-medical purposes, which are not in line with the provisions of the 1961 Convention."

The INCB was particularly concerned that Bolivia "has indicated its intention to review existing national drug control legislation, with a view to using coca leaf for a wide range of products, some of which might be exported." That, too, would not be in line with the INCB's interpretation of the Convention.

The language of the INCB report is a clear shot over the bow aimed at the Morales government's expressed policy of "coca, si; cocaine, no" and its efforts to expand the use of the coca leaf for medicinal and nutritional products. Worse yet, in INCB's view, Bolivia could set a bad example for other coca producing countries: "The Board is also concerned that policy developments in Bolivia could have repercussions in other countries in South America," the report fretted.

The United States has also expressed concern about Bolivian coca policy under Morales, as well as concerns about Morales' ties with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, whose government earlier this month finalized an agreement with Bolivia to finance the construction of coca processing plants in Bolivia and to import Bolivian coca products to Venezuela. So far this year, the US government has limited its expressions of concern to worries about the "anti-democratic" natures of the two left-leaning South American leaders, but the State Department's annual review of other countries' compliance with US anti-drug policies is due later this month. A key question is whether Morales' policies will lead the US to "decertify" Bolivia as being in compliance with those objectives.

Coca grower union member and former leader Vitalia Merida with her daughter in their coca field -- hidden several miles from the road via arduous hike, a legacy of eradication days

The Bolivian government didn't help matters last week when its foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, told a gathering of the Organization of American States that Bolivia would never eradicate coca and that it was more interested in "consensus" than "democracy." "The struggle of the indigenous peoples goes beyond democracy," said Choquehuanca. "In the word democracy, there exists the word submission, and to submit to one's neighbor is not to live well. For this reason, we wish to resolve our problems through consensus."

Clearly, there is no international consensus right now on coca, and if the Bolivian officials and analysts Drug War Chronicle spoke with this week are right, neither is there any indication the Bolivian government is about to bow to drug warriors in Washington and Vienna.

Industrialization of coca processing and expanding legal markets are the correct course of action, said Bolivian Deputy (congressman) Asterio Romero Wednesday. A member of Morales' Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party, Romero strongly supports the "coca, si; cocaine, no" policy. "First, I want to say that I am from the Chapare, I was a coca grower leader. It was always 'coca zero,' but there will never be zero coca," he told the Chronicle. "We fought for many years, we suffered many dead and imprisoned because coca is a source of economic subsistence for us. We will never allow other governments to impose 'coca zero' on us. We are a sovereign nation; it is a matter of Bolivian dignity," he said.

"While, yes, we fight against the drug traffic -- and we are doing quite well; seizures of cocaine and precursor chemicals are up -- we also have to decriminalize coca growing, and industrialization is the way," Romero argued. "We have to revalorize the coca, we have to find more markets for coca. There are friendly countries that help us, like Venezuela, and we thank them for that."

"With its opposition to the coca leaf, the INCB merely foments the drug traffic," said Silvia Rivera, founder of the Bolivian group Coca y Soberania (Coca and Sovereignty), professor emeritus of sociology at the University of La Paz, and advisor to Romero. "Every leaf that goes to good, healthy uses is a leaf that doesn't go to the traffickers," she told the Chronicle. "That's the best way to fight against the drug traffickers. Those bureaucrats at the UN simply do not understand; they think coca is a drug."

The Coca Museum, downtown La Paz

"It is the same thing with the government of the United States," said Rivera. "The Americans cannot recognize the rationality of other ways of life, and its approach is truly schizophrenic. It fears the drug trade, yet creates the conditions for it to flourish by trying to block other uses for the coca plant. The US tries to argue that Evo is in favor of the cocaine dealers, but it is the US policy that aids them. Also, the US has backed the narco-dictators in the past because they were radical fascists. That's who the US supports and gives arms to so they can kill the people."

In fact, rather than retreating in the face of criticism from the INCB and the US, the Morales government appears determined to push the envelope with its agreement to supply coca products to Venezuela. Bolivia is also making noises about going to the root of the problem by mounting an effort to amend the Single Convention to remove coca from its list of illicit drugs.

"This is a way for Chavez to push the limits and see what the boundaries are," said Kathryn Ledebur of the Cochabamba-based Andean Information Network, which has monitored the Bolivian coca economy and efforts to repress it for years. "Who is going to stop him? There are already substantial coca leaf exports to northern Argentina, and nobody says anything about that. Still, if this helps sharpen the focus on changing the Single Convention, that's a good thing -- it needs to be amended."

Ledebur doubted that the Morales government would make a concerted effort to amend the Single Convention in Vienna next year. "Let's just say that his domestic coca policy is more advanced than his international one," she said. "I see little chance of anything getting done unless there is some sort of concerted lobbying effort with Peru, and I don't see Peruvian President Garcia as someone who is willing to actively buck the US."

Such a move would require a concerted effort by coca producing countries, said Romero, and he didn't see that happening just yet. "It is the job of the Bolivian government to change the Vienna Convention," he said, "but it is also the job of Colombia and Peru to join us at the UN. While we here in Bolivia have with Evo a government with popular support to push this, in Peru and Colombia, the governments are neo-liberal and pro-imperialist and they will not join us. But we are anti-neoliberal and we are going to maintain this position. Still, we are willing to talk government to government and man to man about this."

La Paz street vendor Santos, enjoying an afternoon coca chew

But for Romero and the Bolivian government, standing up for coca is a matter of national pride. "We are a sovereign government, and we will move forward with our policies," he said. "Coca is not dangerous, coca is not poison. We will work bilaterally with countries that support our position. And countries that now try to impede us, like the US, well, perhaps we can send them some coca, too."

With Bolivia already facing off against the INCB, the next measure of the Morales government's coca policies will be the US certification decision, which should come by the middle of March. But given the current conjuncture in hemispheric affairs, with a rising tide of left-leaning governments and the US, obsessed as it is with affairs in the Middle East, losing influence in the region, the US may well step back from attempting to isolate and punish Bolivia via the certification process.

"The US still cannot step out of its anti-drug framework of using the military and forced eradication," said Ledebur, "but there is no agreement within the Bush administration about what to about certification. If it decertifies Bolivia, it loses what little leverage it has left. Bolivia now has other sources of assistance, and not just Chavez; it no longer has to blindly obey US dictates. If the US chooses to decertify now, what does it do next year?" she asked.

This is getting very interesting. The Morales government's "coca, si; cocaine no" policy is anathema to both the US and the INCB, but there appears to be little either can do to stop it, and chances are the Bolivian challenge will eventually aim directly at the 1961 Single Convention, perhaps knocking the first hole in what is the legal backbone of the global drug prohibition regime. Stay tuned.

A confrontation is brewing over Bolivian President Evo Morales' effort to rationalize coca production in his country and expand markets for coca-based products. After decades of fruitless efforts to wipe out the coca crop in Bolivia -- the "zero coca" policy embraced by the United States and shoved down the throat of successive Bolivian governments -- Morales, a former coca growers' union leader, has crafted policies that allow for the increased cultivation of coca from the 30,000 acres allowed under current Bolivian law to 50,000 acres. Now, the Morales government is also pushing for expanded legal markets for coca products and, in a joint venture with the Venezuelan government, is preparing to begin coca product exports to that country.

Drug War Issues Coca - Eradication

Politics & Advocacy United Nations - Politics Outside US - Federal Government

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Bolivia should challenge US criminal mercantilism

Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 1:15pm

Has EVo Morales considered suing the US under any free trade provisions?

Or the fact that Coca is safer then Coffee and infinitely safer then Tobacco?

What about a law suit against the US government for mass murder, given that Tobacco takes 40 million lives annually, Coca takes 0, and that the US largely went after Coca in the early 1900s as a "tobacco habit cure"?

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