Politics & Advocacy
Bolivian President Evo Morales said Saturday he wants to legalize the small holdings farmers use to grow coca. Morales, who rose to power as the head of a coca growers' union, said he wants to permit farmers to cultivate a coca plot, or cato, of 130 feet by 130 feet.
coca seedlings
"We need to achieve a legal market for coca, and because of that, we are rationalizing the cato of coca," he told coca growers in Cochabamba. "It is our obligation to plan how to legalize the cato of coca in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly," Morales said, using the new name for the Bolivian congress.
Morales handily won reelection on December 6 with 64% of the vote, and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) holds a two-thirds majority in the assembly. Noting these facts, Morales predicted that the measure will pass.
If it does, it will only add to tensions between Bolivia and the US and between Bolivia and International Narcotics Control Board. In the past year, the US has criticized Morales' policies allowing an increase in coca production, while Bolivia has expelled DEA agents and US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, accusing them of meddling in internal Bolivian affairs. Bolivia under Morales is also demanding that the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs be amended so that coca is removed from its list of controlled substances.
While the US-sponsored Law 1008 allows for up to 30,000 acres of coca cultivation, the actual area under cultivation this year was nearly three times that, according to the UN. Morales and his supporters argue that amending Law 1008 both to increase the overall legally permitted acreage nationwide and to limit each farmer to one cato will serve to allow more farmers to grow coca without allowing individual farmers to grow so much they can divert it to the black market to be made into cocaine.
Bolivia is the world's third largest coca and producer, behind second place Peru and first place Colombia.
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Comments
I am pleased to see that
I am pleased to see that Bolivia had the guts to expel the DEA and the US ambassador for interfering in their internal affairs. Anyone should be able to grow coca and convert it to cocaine if they choose. The archaeic attitudes towards drugs has led us to nothing but a war on civilians all over this planet. All drugs should be legal and freely available in every country. Mark Montgomery [email protected]
Good Job
Cheers to Morales for having the guts to no longer pander to stupid US drug policies. The US is involved in an ongoing war against it's own citizens - against me. I have no respect for the US government and plan to leave the country soon to take up residence and eventual citizenship in Costa Rica. If more countries were to stand up to the US and not accept their policies on drugs, then the so called drug war would be over. Most countries don't do this because they like the money (my taxes) that the US government hands out. That money will stop flowing soon - it has to -for America is broke and in deep debt. You can only print money and live on perception for so long.
This is a great move for
This is a great move for Morales in my opinion, but he is by no means endorsing cocaine use. I have spent the past two years researching the Bolivian socio-political climate and Morales is attempting to preserve a two millennium old cultural practice of coca use not open up a market for cocaine export. The expulsion of the DEA and Goldberg is both a moral and political move, meant to assert Bolivian hegemony within its own borders. Moralistically, Morales does seek to aid the impoverished cocleros, small coca farmers, who have had their crops and livelihoods destroyed by ineffective and ignorant US eradication policies. The actions of the DEA in the Yungas region of Bolivia have been especially violent, and ironically enough most DEA agents use coca leaf extensively to alleviate altitude sickness, it's even recommended for US tourists who are not acclimated to low-oxygen conditions of the Andes by the US embassy. However, stemming DEA eradication is more than a moral approach. Coca represents a large portion of Bolivia's domestic capital. Likewise, DEA and political expulsion is an approach to solidarity in the region. With the southern portion of the hemisphere growing progressively left Bolivia, by alienating the United States, is showing solidarity with other leftist countries openly antagonizing the US. Morales has proven himself to be an exceptionally intelligent leader, and is well aware that the likelihood of an amendment to the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is slim to none, it should however, open up an international dialogue, and stem the violence and underdevelopment caused by eradication policies. With that being said, Morales is walking a fine line. The United States accounts for a large portion of Bolivia's GDP via trade. Trade embargoes stemming from Bolivian refusal to cooperate with US demands of coca eradication may lead to a crippling of the already impoverished Bolivian economy. Undoubtedly the measure proposed by Morales will pass, but unfortunately it seems as though US ideology on how to wage the drug war will remain consistent and change will be slow in coming.
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