Feature:
Coca
on
the
March
in
Peru
7/1/05
In the last week, the Peruvian government's decade-old, US-backed policy of dealing with coca cultivation -- a practice that goes back hundreds, if not thousands, of years in the Andes -- by largely trying to wipe out the crop, has come under renewed attack from coca growers and their allies. Last week in the ancient Inca imperial capital of Cuzco, the local government defied the national government by issuing a decree, or "ordenanza," legalizing production in three area river valleys. This week, even as the national government flailed about searching for a response to the Cuzco challenge, coca growers in the Upper Huallaga, Apurimac, and Monzon river valleys have called a general strike to demand an end to forced eradication. Some 7,000 cocaleros gathered Tuesday in a show of strength in the Upper Huallaga Valley town of Tingo Maria Tuesday, according to Peruvian press accounts.
While conflict over coca eradication has been chronic, if sporadic, since large-scale repression got underway in the late 1990s, the current attacks on the government's coca policies began last week in Cuzco. On June 21, as some 2,000 coca growers in the town square watched, an Andean priest blessed coca leaves carried in on the backs of donkeys. Then, regional authorities, responding to pressure from local cocaleros, declared the plant a national treasure and announced they had issued a decree legalizing coca production for medicinal, nutritional, and traditional uses in three nearby valleys. "I have issued this law, which we are promulgating with great satisfaction in the name of the poorest people in Cuzco, who are biting their nails and in hunger and solitude turn to their hillsides to sow their sacred plant," Cuzco regional president Carlos Cuaresma told Reuters Television. "We passed the law because of pressure from coca growers," said Cuzco Vice President Alejandro Uscumayta. "There have been marches and roadblocks and we don't want that to continue because it hurts tourism." As the imperial capital of the Inca empire, Cuzco is a tourist attraction in its own right. The presence of the nearby ruins of Macchu Picchu, Peru's top tourist draw, only makes the city a more attractive destination for visitors. But it wasn't just tourism that moved local authorities, according to one Peruvian coca expert. "This is in part for reasons of electoral politics," said Hugo Cabieses, a former advisor to the Peruvian anti-drug agency DEVIDA and current advisor to the national coca growers confederation, CONPACCP, which supports the Cuzco ordinance. "Carlos Cuaresma wants to run for reelection next year, and he has only a 5% approval rating from voters. This maneuver will allow him to rise in the polls as he receives the support of coca growers in the valleys and consumers in the Cuzco highlands," Cabieses told DRCNet. Initial reaction from the Peruvian government was quick and negative, with DEVIDA head Nils Ericsson expressing concern that the ordenanza had effectively legalized 42,000 acres of coca crops. "This is throwing wood on the fire against a backdrop of agitation by coca growers. I'm very disappointed for our anti-drugs efforts," Ericsson told Reuters. Such actions could quickly turn the country into a "narcostate," he warned. But with Cuaresma refusing to back down and even threatening that he "would not be responsible" for the consequences if the central government tried to overturn the law, President Alejandro Toledo's weak government was forced to negotiate. Earlier this week, Cuaresma and Prime Minister Carlos Ferrero reached a face-saving agreement for both in which the government will allow legal coca cultivation in one valley -- not the three Cuaresma originally named. Still, the national government has taken a blow by acceding to the agreement, because in so doing it has yielded national authority to a regional government. "This is very important," said Cabieses, "both for Cuzco and at the national level. It has already caused a huge political scandal. The government first tried to reject the ordinance, and when that failed, had to settle for modifying its content. They managed to get 'valleys' changed to a single 'valley,' which was a step back for Cuaresma, but they still look very weak," he said. "It also signifies that a new period of debate over coca, drugs, and drug policy has opened, and let us hope it will be serious and balanced. The ordinance provides an opening for those of us who argue for the necessity of creating alternative policies, revising the national law, and modifying the international treaties." The Cuzco ordinance allowing legal cultivation in the La Convencion Valley is also reverberating among cocaleros elsewhere in Peru, said Cabieses. "Today in the Alto Huallaga and Aguaytia the cocaleros are on a general strike -- with blockades of the highways -- against the forced eradication of coca, and one of their platform points is supporting the Cuzco ordananza." Beginning Monday, an estimated 150,000 cocaleros in the country's central valleys initiated a general strike in defense of legal coca growing. Peruvian press reports announced blockades on highways in the Upper Huallaga, and the leaders of the country's cocalero movement converged on Tingo Maria along with thousands of their followers Tuesday. Some 24 different coca grower confederations were represented at Tingo Maria, with some 250 cocalero delegations from surrounding areas heading for the city, according to the newspaper Peru.21. Elsa Malpartida, leader of the Confederation of Coca Leaf Producers, told the newspaper the growers are demanding that the government craft a new coca law that guarantees both traditional coca-chewing and coca crops for commercial production of medicinal and nutritional products. Malpartida also signaled that the cocaleros are joining other Peruvian peasants in opposition to the free trade agreement being negotiated between the US and Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. The cocaleros would fight "to the bitter end," she said. By Wednesday, pressure on the government rose further as cocaleros from the Apurimac River valley led by David Chavarria announced they would join the strike next Monday. Cocaleros from the Monzon River valley who had rejected the strike last week were also joining up by mid-week.
And they are in for a fight. As the cocaleros gathered in Tingo Maria, Prime Minister Ferrero announced that the Toledo government would next month introduce a bill for a new coca law. In remarks made to celebrate the UN's international anti-drug day, Ferrero said the new law would revise the amount of coca that could be legally grown and update the list of growers who are certified to sell legal coca to the Peruvian state coca monopoly, ENACO. Coca growers were most emphatically not invited to help formulate the new law, said DEVIDA head Ericsson. They could not participate, he said, because most of them are violating the law by planting coca for illicit ends. And hovering in the background is the United States, desperate to have something to show for the $5.4 billion it has spent since 2000 trying to wipe out coca in the Andes and cocaine use in the US. The Congressional Research Service, which came up with that figure, also noted all that spending had "no impact" on cocaine prices in the US. According to Peru.21, US Ambassador James Curtis Struble is playing the traditional role of American plenipotentiaries in Latin America, warning darkly that the Peruvian government must establish a more consistent and reliable policy centered on eradication.
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