Author: Leah Cohen

Edited by: Marissa Heuser, Yura Yokoyama, and Joseph Geidel

A Brief History

The coca leaf is considered sacred by many indigenous peoples, such as the Aymara. (Delgado, 2017)

The coca leaf is a staple in Bolivian culture. For many Indigenous Andeans such as the Aymara, the plant is considered sacred (Deutsche Welle, 2017). The coca leaf can be used as an appetite suppressant, energy booster, and helps with altitude sickness. It can be chewed, used for teas, and even toothpaste among other things; but what makes the plant so controversial is that it is the key ingredient in the production of cocaine (Grinaffi, 2016). The increase of cocaine consumption in the United States during the 1980s, caused the illegal production of coca to take off in the Chapare region of the Cochabamba district (Garcia, 1998). According to a BBC article from 2001 entitled “Coca Quandary for Hard Up Bolivia” a Bolivian law instituted in 1988 granted the Yungas region, located north of La Paz “12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of coca to be cultivated for legitimate uses.” This means that other regions such as the Chapare that cultivated coca leaves for centuries and made their living doing so no longer could. In 2004, a decree granted Chapare 3,000 hectares for coca production, but it is estimated that the actual number of hectares in the region used for coca production was nearly double this figure, it just wasn’t traveling through legal channels (Deutsche Welle, 2017).

Map highlighting the Yungas and Chapare regions of Bolivia. (The Economist, 2001)

Before becoming president in 2006 Morales grew coca in the south-eastern province of Chapare (Barbier, 2015). It could be because of this and his aymara background that Morales took a different approach to the cocaine problem. Morales defiantly abandoned the coca eradication attempts and the crop substitution plans by the US in favor of his “coca yes, cocaine no” policy, that called for the legalization of small amounts of coca leaf cultivation in designated zones and a self policing strategy to ensure growers do not exceed their limit (Grinaff, 2016).

The New Coca Leaf Bill

This past week the Bolivian government approved a bill to increase the legal limitation on coca leaf production from 12,000 hectares to 22,000 hectares (Stauffer, 2017). While this may seem like a good thing for coca growers, the mere proposal of it has created unrest among the Yungas coca farmers. In the days leading up to the new bill’s approval Yungas coca growers protested in the National Assembly (Delgado, 2017). For the Yungas coca growers the issue with the bill is not the increase in the hectares available, but the disproportionate distribution of hectares. Under the new bill the 20,000 hectares will be divided up between La Paz and Cochabamba with 13,000 going to La Paz and 7,000 to Cochabamba, creating unfair advantages for some regions such as the Yunga region (Panam Post, 2017).

The protests started out peacefully, but soon turned violent as protestors began throwing rocks forcing police to intervene with tear gas (Stauffer, 2017). Below is a short video clip of the violent and chaotic scene:

Attempts by the police to subdue the protests have been unsuccessful, the Yungas protestors have begun blocking off streets, keeping pedestrians and vehicles from passing through the Plaza Murillo, located in La Paz (Delgado, 2017). The bill was originally intended to increase the limit to 20,000 hectares, but in an attempt to appease the protestors the government revised the proposal to 22,000 hectares (Deutsche Welle, 2017).

Summary Factoids Questions:

Q: Name some of the ways indigenous populations utilized the coca leaf?

A: Appetite suppressant, energy boost, and also helps with altitude sickness

Q: What was the name of Morales policy regarding coca growth and what did this policy entail? 

A: Coca yes, Cocaine no, this movement called for the legalization of small amounts of coca leaf cultivation in designated zones and a self policing strategy to ensure growers do not exceed their limit.

Q: Why were the Yungas coca farmers protesting the new coca leaf bill?

A: The new coca leaf bill would increase the limit on hectares that can be used or coca production but the increase does not include all regions that want to produce coca. The new law would grant 13,000 hectares to La Paz and 7,000 to Cochabamba but this distribution would leave the Yungas region still under restriction.

References:

Barbier, C. (2015, April 24). Bolivia resists global pressure to do away with coca crop [Electronic version]. the guardian.

Bolivia coca cultivation to grow if Morales signs law. (2017, February 25). Deutsche Welle. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.dw.com/en/bolivia-coca-cultivation-to-grow-if-morales-signs-law/a-37713073

Coca’s second front. (2001, January 04). The Economist. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.economist.com/node/466464

Coca quandary for hard-up Bolivia. (2006, April 14). BBC News. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4902192.stm

Delgado, Y. (2017, January 12). Bolivia’s Plan to Expand Legal Coca Plantations Stirs Controversy among Growers. Panam Post. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://panampost.com/ysol-delgado/2017/01/12/bolivias-plan-to-expand-legal-coca-plantations-stirs-controversy-among-growers/

Delgado, Y. (2017, February 20). Bolivian Coca Growers Erupt in Protest against New Plantation Law. Panam Post. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://panampost.com/ysol-delgado/2017/02/20/bolivian-coca-growers-erupt-in-protest-against-new-plantation-law/

Garcia, J. Z. (1998). Chapter 24: Bolivia. In Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise (5th ed., pp. 443-454). Westview Press.

Grinaffi, Thomas. 2016. “After the Referendum: Evo Morales and the Movement Toward Socialism.” FocaalBlog, 18 April. www.focaalblog.com/2016/04/18/thomas-grinaffi-after-the-referendum-evo-morales-and-the-movement-towards-socialism.

Stauffer, C. (2017, February 24). Bolivian lawmakers pass bill to nearly double legal coca area. Reuters. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-coca-idUSKBN16328R