Coca, Poverty and Hope
Inter Press Service News Agency
Saturday, April 28, 2007 13:53 GMT
Diana Cariboni and Franz Chávez
COROICO, Bolivia, Jan 4 (IPS) - Just about any crop can be grown in the heart of Bolivia's fertile Yungas
region, say local farmers. But only coca has prospered. And although it is the only crop that brings
anything close to a living income, local campesinos are still steeped in poverty.
Coca has been grown since time immemorial in these forest-covered mountains. Centuries ago, Spanish
chroniclers described the coca plantations in the Yungas region that were controlled by the Aymara
kingdoms from the highlands.
"Coca and tourism," responds Santiago Gutiérrez, 38, the municipal government secretary in Coroico,
when asked about the main economic activities in this town, the capital of the province of Nor Yungas in
the "departamento" (state) of La Paz.
Coroico, a town of 12,750 people, is located 90 km north of the city of La Paz. Some 3,000 families
(basically the entire population) depend on coca for a living, says Gutiérrez, who has years of
experience as a leader of the "cocaleros" (coca growers) and of the local chapter of the governing
Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).
Drug law 1008, passed in 1988, authorised the cultivation of 12,000 hectares of coca in this region near
the capital for "traditional" consumption -- chewing of coca leaves, and medicinal and ritual uses. But no
one denies that the area planted in coca far exceeds that limit.
In this subtropical Andean region around 1,700 metres above sea level, "everything grows well," says
Gutiérrez. But "after two coca harvests, nothing else can be grown on the land," he added.
The families plant coca on plots ranging from less than one "cato" (1,600 square metres) to one hectare
in size. They also grow a few other crops, or raise a few sheep and pigs.
"A cato that we have already tired out provides between five and eight 50-pound 'taques' (drums or
packages)," coca farmer Pacífico Olivares, 50, tells us after his initial mistrust is finally overcome.
Olivares is the president of the Coroico, Arapata and Coripata regional branches of the Departmental
Association of Coca Producers (Adepcoca), which are comprised of 22 communities of coca growers.
Each taque sells on the market in La Paz for some 800 "bolivianos" (100 dollars). Coca leaf is harvested
here three to four times a year, and labour power is required "to cultivate, sow, harvest, dry the leaves,
and take them to market," says Olivares' son, who is studying administration in La Paz.
People from surrounding areas, especially the "altiplano" or highlands, come to Yungas in search of
seasonal work, which pays around 3.75 dollars a day.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who took office in January 2006, rose to prominence as a leader of the
cocaleros in the central Chapare region, who were continuously at loggerheads with past
administrations and their U.S.-prescribed anti-drug policies.
Bolivia is the third largest producer of illegal drug crops in Latin America, after Colombia and Peru, with
some 25,000 hectares of coca crops, according to estimates by the United Nations and Washington.
Morales shifted the focus from forced eradication to voluntary or cooperative reduction of excess coca,
or "rationalisation," as the government refers to its programme. These efforts are being overseen by the
influential federations of coca growers, in what is known here as "social control."
Since 1994, the campesinos (peasant farmers) have organised themselves in community committees
that make up Adepcoca, whose members monitor the cultivation and sales of coca.
Under the rationalisation programme, families are asked to reduce their plots from one hectare to one
cato.
"I agree with Evo," says Gutiérrez. If people grow more coca, prices fall, "and many people say the price
could drop to 600 bolivianos per taque," he adds.
But Adepcoca has asked for law 1008 to be amended so that the limit for legal coca is extended from
12,000 to 18,000 hectares.
"Nor Yungas is already ‘rationalised' -- there is no more space for coca crops to expand," says an
emphatic Olivares in his small brick house in Cruz Loma. The village, home to around 200 people, is just
a few kilometres from Coroico.
To illustrate his point, he explains that "My father had one hectare, which he divided among his five
children. I have four kids, so I'll basically end up dividing what I have into furrows. They should carry out
rationalisation in Caranavi, not here."
Some people in this area say thousands of hectares of coca are illegally grown in that neighbouring
province. U.N. satellite monitoring shows that coca is grown on more than 1,000 hectares in Caranavi.
Past governments created the problem, says Olivares. "They planted the coca to win votes. And now
Evoàeveryone thinks he'll let them continue growing it, but he won't," says Olivares.
Coca leaves grow year-round, need hardly any fertiliser or pesticides, and survive between 10 and 30
years if they are well cared for, say the campesinos.
The bushes of the "sweet" variety of coca grown in the Yungas region reach no higher than half a metre
tall. The leaves, which are five centimetres long, shorter than those produced in the Chapare region,
are considered by traditional users to be of higher quality, and are thus in greater demand.
