Bolivian candidate would legalize coca growing

[bishop]

article

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia -- Evo Morales, the front-runner in next week's presidential election, has told The Washington Times that he plans to legalize small coca plantations and dismantle U.S. anti-drug operations in Bolivia if he becomes president. Mr. Morales -- the son of an Indian servant who was born in a grass hut, never finished high school and gained national prominence by organizing militant unions of landless coca farmers -- is challenging one of the most sensitive and critical areas of U.S. policy in Latin America. During an interview in Bolivia's coca-growing region, Mr. Morales, said he is prepared to risk international sanctions against South America's poorest nation in order to achieve his movement's key objectives. "We are going to derogate the coca zero law," he said of a measure pushed through Bolivia's parliament 20 years ago strictly limiting coca production and authorizing cooperation with U.S. eradication efforts. "We are prepared to negotiate with the gringos, but won't accept impositions," he said. "If they want to take away their aid, let them. It's useless anyway and serves mainly to repress the people." Mr. Morales, 45, says he would not tolerate cocaine trafficking but promises to allow every farming family to cultivate coca on one "cato" of land -- roughly half an acre -- for therapeutic uses and for chewing, a long-standing tradition among Bolivian Indians. But critics say that amount of production would produce huge surpluses available for export, turning Bolivia into a narcostate. Eradication efforts have been largely suspended in Bolivia since last year, when the country was paralyzed by protests and blockades led by Mr. Morales' left-wing Movement to Socialism (MAS). The protest movement has succeeded in toppling two presidents since 2003. The government estimates there are 79,000 acres of coca under cultivation in Bolivia. Officials privately say that there is little they can do to reduce production without risking a new round of unrest that could scuttle hopes for a peaceful election next Monday. The latest opinion polls show Mr. Morales likely to win nearly 40 percent of the vote with his main opponent, Jorge Quiroga of the conservative Podemos party, not far behind. Podemos has launched a negative television ad campaign highlighting MAS ties with narcotrafficking, terrorism, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Mr. Quiroga is expected to carry the big-city vote of Santa Cruz and the capital, La Paz. But in a country where an estimated 70 percent of the population subsists outside the formal economy, MAS is relying heavily on mobilizing peasant support in rural areas where growing coca is a way of life. In the community of Quillancollo recently, about 15,000 Indians gathered to cheer and throw rose petals on Mr. Morales, who promises to "put an end to over 500 years of white domination." "Of course we are going to legalize coca. It's the only way that we are going to get out of our current misery," said Ileana Fuentes, a young MAS militant who cheered when speakers declare in the native Quechua language: "Death to those who have sold out the homeland" and "Let's finish off the Yanquis." Omar Barrientos, a Cochabamba lawyer who worked as a consultant to the U.S. State Department in drafting anti-drug policy, said Mr. Morales had fashioned a coalition of various far-left groups "for the common purpose of resisting the highly unpopular coca zero law." "Evo formed MAS by forging an alliance between coca-growing syndicates, remnants of Che Guevara-inspired guerrilla groups, radical indigenous organizations, Trotskyite-led miners' unions as well as elements of the traditional left," Mr. Barrientos said. The United States was authorized to interdict coca growing in Bolivia in the 1980s after a drastic increase in coca production as miners from the high Andes migrated to Cochabamba to make easy money farming coca in the tropical valley of Chapare.

[jose]

Well coca cola used to contain coca hence the name

[Jimmy the Pro]

Well, it is interesting, I mean, these people have no other way of life, and one has to make a living. The choice up for grabs now, is do they make the living legally or illegally? It should be interesting to see what happens, but I see only one outcome, a rise in verbal and/or physical violence no matter which way the vote goes. Basically, the vote is like the jury voting on a verdict, waiting to condemn Bolivia, and the worst part is, there is no way, to get off the hook.

[rmnunez]

I suppose that since Coca Cola (a famous US brand) once contained cocaine, it can't be all that bad and any efforts to curb its production and distribution unwarranted. If Mr. Morales does well, earns the presidency, legalizes small-scale coca production to then eliminate all coperation with the US against drug trafficking or production, his country will be isolated, embargoed and punitively sanctioned into misery.

[tivodan1116]

While I am disturbed by Mr. Morales' seemingly socialist ties, I have to say that by legalizing coca he would be more libertarian than any of our current myopic band of idiots leading the country (yes, both major parties). FINALLY, a world leader (somewhat) acknowledging that one of the best ways to invigorate an economy and free up valuable cash and government resources is to STOP throwing money into the neverending pit called the "War on Drugs"... I mean really, what else would you call a war that lasted a hundred years, made no measurable success, cost billions of dollars (TRILLIONS now) and thousands of lives, but a complete failure?

[pubmanager]

Growing coca is a way of life for native indian Bolivians (of whom Evo Morales is one), the plant has massive cultural significance and was grown and revered for it's medicinal properties and other characteristics. It has very little to do with the production and distribution of cocaine.

The campaign being launched against him and supported by the US administration is a sinical use of the coca/cocaine issue to gain political capital.

[Plasma Snake[D]]

Hey, another interesting thing about Bolivia is that they've been fighting with Chile for like 120 years over access to the Pacific ocean.

[pubmanager]

And there was me thinking that the war for access to Iraqi oil had lasted too long.

[bishop]

there were two things that i thought were the most interesting about this article..

first, the obvious, was how there is another south american country allying itself with venezuela. and at the same time (eg. second), it's a country choosing to do what it feels are in its own self-interests - and it shows that our policies towards the country have been utterly unsuccessful.

[Keith Hamburger]

Quote by: bishop there were two things that i thought were the most interesting about this article.. first, the obvious, was how there is another south american country allying itself with venezuela. and at the same time (eg. second), it's a country choosing to do what it feels are in its own self-interests - and it shows that our policies towards the country have been utterly unsuccessful.

Actually, they've been completely successful in the way they've always been successful. They've driven a potential ally into the hands of the Socialists or another group that stands so strongly against us.

Strong US intevention in any country almost invariably leads to a country that will stand united against us, in any way they can.

The only thing that can lead to a different outcome is if we make the population of the country feel guilty for what their own country has done. It worked in Germany in WWII but not in WWI. It worked in Japan. Other than those two countries, the only other exception I can think of would be South Korea and they still are afraid of the Chinese and North Koreans. Eliminate that threat and if we don't move out quickly, they'll hate us too.

Keith

[bishop]

it's not intervention per se, it's imperialism - i.e. using your influence to dictate policy decisions to another sovereign nation. nothing wrong with interventionism imo, as long as the policies are supported by the people of both countries. you don't end up with those divisive policy wedges in those cases..