SHINAHOTA, Bolivia-During nearly 14 years as president, Evo Morales pampered the Chapare, the coca leaf-growing jungle region of central Bolivia where he got his start in politics. Mr. Morales expelled U.S. antidrug agents and promoted the health benefits of the coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine, which is legal and chewed by many indigenous people. His socialist government built a paper mill, an airport, and a 25,000-seat soccer stadium in the region. In turn, the farmers gave Mr. Morales, the head of a federation of coca growers, their fervent support. [continues 902 words]
LA PAZ - The Bolivian government yesterday rejected a drug report that the White House released, stating that the US government "aims to undermine" the achievements of the country in its fight against narcotics. The Vice-Minister of Social Defence and Controlled Substances, Felipe Caceres, said yesterday that his country "does not recognize the authority of the US Government to certify or decertify the war on drugs" in Bolivia and assured that Evo Morales' government "only supports the UN anti-drug report." [continues 363 words]
A major international row with wideranging implications for global drugs policy has erupted over the right of Bolivia's indigenous Indian tribes to chew coca leaves, the principal ingredient in cocaine. On Friday, Bolivia obtained a special exemption from the 1961 single convention on narcotic drugs, the framework that governs international drugs policy, allowing its indigenous people to chew the leaves. Bolivia had argued that the convention was in opposition to its new constitution, adopted in 2009, which obliges it to "protect native and ancestral coca as cultural patrimony" and maintains that coca "in its natural state ... is not a narcotic". [continues 449 words]
TODOS SANTOS, Bolivia- There is nothing clandestine about Julian Rojas' coca plot, which is tucked deep within acres of banana groves. It has been mapped with satellite imagery, cataloged in a government database, cross-referenced with his personal information, and checked and rechecked by the local coca growers' union. The same goes for the plots worked by Rojas' neighbors and thousands of other farmers in this torrid region east of the Andes who are licensed by the Bolivian government to grow coca, the plant used to make cocaine. [continues 504 words]
TODOS SANTOS, Bolivia - There is nothing clandestine about Julian Rojas's coca plot, which is tucked deep within acres of banana groves. It has been mapped with satellite imagery, cataloged in a government database, cross-referenced with his personal information and checked and rechecked by the local coca growers' union. The same goes for the plots worked by Mr. Rojas's neighbors and thousands of other farmers in this torrid region east of the Andes who are licensed by the Bolivian government to grow coca, the plant used to make cocaine. [continues 1344 words]
There is nothing clandestine about Julian Rojas's coca plot, which is tucked deep within acres of banana groves. It has been mapped with satellite imagery, catalogued in a government database, cross-referenced with his personal information, and checked and rechecked by the local coca growers' union. The same goes for the plots worked by Mr. Rojas's neighbors and thousands of other farmers in this torrid region east of the Andes who are licensed by the Bolivian government to grow coca, the plant used to make cocaine. [continues 1312 words]
Colombia's Success in Curbing the Drug Trade Has Created More Opportunities for Countries Hostile to the United States. What Happens When Coca Farmers and Their Allies Are in Charge?. In the dusty town of Villa Tunari in Bolivia's tropical coca-growing region, farmers used to barricade their roads against U.S.-backed drug police sent to prevent their leafy crop from becoming cocaine. These days, the police are gone, the coca is plentiful and locals close off roads for multiday block parties--not rumbles with law enforcement. [continues 2327 words]
Bolivia's government has decided to renounce the United Nations' anti-drug convention because it classifies coca leaf as an illegal drug, the Foreign Ministry said. The decision comes after a proposal by President Evo Morales to remove language obliging countries that have signed the convention to ban the chewing of coca leaves was rejected following US objections. Bolivian officials contend that coca leaf in its natural form is not a narcotic and forms an age-old part of Andean culture. Morales is still a coca growers' union leader who has campaigned for the leaf's traditional uses. [continues 100 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Thousands have taken to the streets in Bolivia to chew coca leaf in support of the country's bid to remove an international prohibition on the age-old practice. The chief target of Wednesday's peaceful protest was the U.S. Embassy. Coca is a mild stimulant of high religious and social value in the Andes. It fights hunger and alleviates altitude sickness. But it is also the raw material of cocaine. Washington last week formally objected to Bolivia's proposal to remove a prohibition on coca chewing from the international Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Bolivia's U.N. Ambassador Pablo Solon says that Bolivia does not seek to remove coca from a list of controlled substances. [end]
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia - Narco-trafficking cartels are migrating to the Andes region in Bolivia, where a diminished U.S. presence has allowed a boom in cocaine production and the opening of new drug routes, regional anti-drug officials say. Recent studies by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime show a steep rise in cocaine production in Bolivia and a smaller increase in Peru. They also show a drop in Colombian cocaine output, which is subject to increased anti-drug efforts by the U.S. and Colombian governments. [continues 786 words]
U.S. Says Drug Trade Is Booming as Morales's Plan to Encourage Legal Products From Leaves Backfires When Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, became president of Bolivia in 2006, he promised to restore the thumb-shaped green leaf to the place of respect it enjoyed in Inca times. Farmers could legally grow more of it, and his government would build factories to churn out coca shampoo and toothpaste. He would fight drugs under a policy of "zero cocaine, but not zero coca." [continues 833 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Cocaine production is on the rise in Bolivia, with Colombian and Mexican cartels hiring intermediaries to process the locally made coca paste there rather than exporting it, says Bolivia's top anti-drug officer. Cartels are contracting a growing number of middle men to process the paste into cocaine in Bolivia, saving time they would otherwise spend processing it themselves, anti-drug police chief Oscar Nina told The Associated Press on Thursday in an interview. "There is more interest and investment in purifying coca paste here and exporting it, rather than sending it to Colombia for purification" as in years past, Nina said. [continues 327 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The last U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents left Bolivia on Thursday, ordered out by President Evo Morales even as Bolivian police reported that coca cultivation and cocaine processing are on the rise. Morales demanded the DEA's exit in November as part of a dispute between U.S. and Bolivian officials that included his expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg and the Bush administration's decertification of Bolivia as ineffective in the drug war. The departure over recent weeks of three dozen agents ends the DEA's presence in Bolivia after more than three decades. Senior law enforcement officials said it was the first time a DEA operation had been ordered out of a country en masse. [continues 342 words]
The Last of the U.S. Drug Agents Leaves on President Evo Morales' Orders. The U.S. and Bolivia Are in a Bitter Dispute Over the South American Country's Anti-Drug Efforts. The last U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents left Bolivia on Thursday after having been ordered out by President Evo Morales, even as Bolivian police report that coca cultivation and cocaine processing are on the rise. Morales demanded the DEA's exit in November as part of a bitter dispute between U.S. and Bolivian officials that included his expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg and the Bush administration's decertification of Bolivia's anti-drug effort. [continues 565 words]
EL ALTO, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales seemed assured of an easy victory in a referendum on Sunday over a sweeping new Constitution aimed at empowering Bolivia's Indians. The vote capped three years of conflict-ridden efforts by Mr. Morales to overhaul a political system he had associated with centuries of indigenous subjugation. Citing preliminary vote counts, reports on national television said about 60 percent of voters had approved the new Constitution. If that margin holds or goes higher, it would strengthen Mr. Morales's mandate, political analysts here said. [continues 941 words]
The Measure Will Let President Morales Seek Another Term, and Give Land and Royalties From Resources to Indians. A new constitution that voters are expected to approve today would give more power to Bolivia's indigenous communities, promote agrarian reform and allow President Evo Morales to seek reelection to another term. But analysts warn that passage of the new constitution also could worsen Bolivia's polarization, throw its legal system into chaos, and discourage investment in the natural resources that are its main ticket to prosperity. [continues 688 words]
Bolivian President Evo Morales Accuses the DEA Employees of Spying and Helping Criminals to Attack Authorities. Bolivian President Evo Morales suspended operations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Saturday after accusing the agency of aiding "criminal groups" that oppose his rule. Morales' move was the latest sign of the deterioration in relations between his leftist government and Washington. "There were DEA agents who worked to conduct political espionage and to fund criminal groups so they could launch attacks on the lives of authorities, if not the president," Morales told reporters during a visit to the Chapare region, a major production zone for coca plants, from which cocaine is extracted. "We are obligated to defend Bolivian sovereignty." [continues 356 words]
President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending "indefinitely" the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia. Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September. He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca-growers have been pressing him to do. Bolivia's first indigenous president once served as the leader of the country's union of coca-growers. Relations between Bolivia and the US have been strained since Evo Morales won presidential elections in January 2006. [continues 226 words]
Says Government Being Undermined President Evo Morales suspended US antidrug operations in Bolivia yesterday as Washington's relations with his leftist government spiraled downward. Morales accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of espionage and funding criminal groups trying to undermine his government. He announced the indefinite suspension while declaring that his government has eradicated more than 12,300 acres of illegally planted coca this year - the minimum required by a 1988 Bolivian law passed under US pressure. Coca is the raw material for cocaine, but use of the small green leaf in its less-potent natural form is common among Bolivians, who brew or chew it for its medicinal and nutritional properties. [continues 537 words]
Suspension of Preferences Raises Fears of Widespread Job Losses LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The decision by the Bush administration to suspend trade preferences that benefit Bolivia has left workers here worried about the potential for widespread layoffs at a time when the nation is struggling to cope with the international financial crisis. U.S. officials estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 Bolivians might lose their jobs as a result of the suspension of preferences, which are important for such Bolivian exports as textiles and jewelry. [continues 751 words]
Bolivia
