The United Nations’ International Narcotics Control Board recently made the announcement that Peru and Bolivia should, once and for all, outlaw the chewing of coca. Those are fighting words in Bolivia, where coca leaves have been grown and used in their natural form for thousands of years.
The United Nations’ International Narcotics Control Board recently made the announcement that Peru and Bolivia should, once and for all, outlaw the chewing of coca.
Those are fighting words in Bolivia, where coca leaves have been grown and used in their natural form for thousands of years.
Besides being a symbol of Bolivia’s indigenous culture, the coca leaf is considered a cure for many ailments and an important source of work for farmers in this poor South American country.
Coca is not cocaine. However, the leaf is the main ingredient for the drug, and the United States and the United Nations would like to see the plant completely eradicated.
But Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, is a former coca grower who has pushed for an increase in the cultivation and legal uses of coca – while still clamping down on the illegal ones.
He calls this new and controversial policy "Coca Yes, Cocaine No."
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Roberto Guerra and Ruxandra Guidi’s reporting on coca in Bolivia was made possible by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington, D.C.