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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
U.S.-Bolivia Ties Strained As Coca Production Rises
    #8929263 - 09/14/08 04:09 PM (15 years, 6 months ago)

U.S.-Bolivia Ties Strained As Coca Production Rises
September 14, 2008 - NPR

Leftist President Evo Morales ordered the American ambassador to leave Bolivia last week, accusing him of fomenting unrest. The United States denied the charge, but responded by kicking out Bolivia's ambassdor.

The current rift comes amid an ongoing dispute between the two countries over coca, which Morales says Washington unfairly demonizes.

Morales has permitted coca farmers to cultivate small plots. The result has been a sharp increase in coca production — and what the U.S. says is a big rise in drug trafficking.

'Only Thing Saving Yungas'

Guido Toro's weathered but nimble fingers go to work, shucking the small, green leaves off a coca bush. His view is majestic — fertile, green mountains in the Yungas region of western Bolivia. He explains that you have to take care not to rip off the seeds.

Such attention to detail has helped him cultivate the biggest, most productive coca fields around.

Coca has long been legal in Yungas — nearly 30,000 acres are set aside for farmers. What they produce is supposed to go for chewing or tea, or even crackers and toothpaste.

But Toro and others acknowledge farming far more than 30,000 acres. It's an economic decision: Coca generates much more money than oranges or coffee.

"Coca is the only thing saving Yungas right now," Toro says.

The cocaine trade is alive and well, fueled by increasing drug use in Europe and Brazil, and huge, steady consumption in the United States. Bolivia does eradicate coca, but its farmers also help satisfy demand.

A recent United Nations study of coca in the Andes shows Bolivia's production is up 5 percent over 2006. The total is less than in Colombia or Peru, but the growth in Bolivian coca has been constant.

It translates into the clear-cutting of forests. Vicky Ossio owns the Green Trail eco-lodge, a reserve shared by monkeys, macaws, turtles and scores of other animals. She is close to the coca growers but says coca's spread is troubling.

"Although this is a legal area for coca production, a good part of it is going for illegal purposes," she says. "Everybody knows that."

The government has a vice ministry for coca, but officials there did not respond to requests for comment.

A Leader's Changes

Coca has a storied history in Bolivia, where it has been cultivated for centuries and chewed like tobacco. The leaf wards off hunger and increases stamina.

In the 1980s, Bolivia was a virtual narco-state, and one of its leaders became a pariah as cocaine production dominated. A harsh anti-drug campaign, funded by the United States, nearly wiped out the crop.

Then came Evo Morales.

A former coca farmer, a union leader and a staunch nationalist, he vowed to curtail Washington's war on drugs in Bolivia. Recently, he told reporters in the capital, La Paz, that his adversaries constantly accuse him of ties to drug trafficking.

"It's permanent, these types of accusations," he said. "Every night, every day around here — lies, accusations."

He also says many Bolivian farmers are churning out legal crops.

Choosing Coffee Over Coca

In Yungas, farmers have long taken advantage of good soil and a temperate climate.

On the Montano family farm, a machine peels shells off freshly picked coffee. A few feet away, Abraham Montano tastes — and spits out — coffee. His job is to make sure the farm is producing top-grade beans.

He's one of 10 siblings who are each responsible for a facet of coffee production. The family agronomist, Lidia Montano, says that helps them stay in business while other farmers around them turn to coca.

"We clash with the community because they dedicate themselves to planting coca," she says. "We do not accept that."

But many of the farmers in the region say they just can't make it without planting coca — and now the price is increasing.

Avocados and citrus trees grow at Toro's farm. But Toro is planning to increase coca production.

"I changed from coffee to coca because we saw it was more advantageous for us," he says.

Toro pulls out a huge tarp where coca leaves are dried. Then, he walks into a storeroom where he keeps coca in massive bags until the price for the leaf is higher, when he sells.

The coca ends up in the huge — and legal — coca market in La Paz.

At Market

The market is full of people — indigenous women in bowler hats and big layer-cake skirts, men in work clothes — all listening to music as they bag and weigh leaves.

Adelio Soria, who is among the leaders of a local coca farmers' cooperative, says Bolivian coca has dignity and that those who say coca goes into cocaine are trying to slander farmers.

There are, of course, plenty of legal buyers — like the folks at El Viejo Roble, a liquor maker that produces a sweet coca liqueur.

Marketing manager Miguel Cardenas says he hopes to one day export the liqueur.

"One coca leaf industrialized is one less coca leaf for narco-trafficking," he says.

American counterdrug officials, though, say that increasing amounts of the coca wind up in clandestine labs dotting the region — labs where leaves are processed. The finished product — cocaine — then heads west or south, toward Brazil and Argentina.

A young man named Miguel — who didn't want his full name used — says traffickers paid $500 to turn his family kitchen into a makeshift lab.

He says the traffickers go from home to home, paying for temporary quarters for their labs. That's the only way to keep from getting caught.

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OfflineAtticusProphet
just a tool
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Registered: 02/07/08
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Re: U.S.-Bolivia Ties Strained As Coca Production Rises [Re: veggie]
    #8929547 - 09/14/08 05:06 PM (15 years, 6 months ago)

makes me proud to be bolivian:cool:


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There's just one small problem...


...and it's a big one!


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Offlinemagicgreenbeans
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Re: U.S.-Bolivia Ties Strained As Coca Production Rises [Re: AtticusProphet]
    #8930866 - 09/14/08 09:48 PM (15 years, 6 months ago)

i actually think that this is really cool, not because i use coke, but because i believe that it is finally time that someone stood up to the US about something as non-controversial as drugs when it comes to international politics, so the only way the US government can effectively retort is by doing the same thing they did to us and thats all we can do.

I also feel that it is good because it helps keep americas nose out of everyones business, in a time where its nose needs to be smelling its own upper lip.  And it is a starting point for other countries to start removing the powers which the US just enforced on them with no reason as to why they should accept other than that the government would just support some puppet regime that promised improvement because americans were giving them money, and helping them improve when we really did nothing except exploit the willingness of the other countries for aide into just trying to cut the supply on a legal, and safely used drug in another country instead of trying to make people more aware of themselves in this world.  But they couldnt do that though because if people in the US actually became aware of what the government was trying to do because it wasnt distracted by all the amusement shoved in our faces to distract us from the real problems we would all be a little better off, and that is for everyone who the US affects as well, we need to maintain relations with the other countries, but we should not be trying to help them  maintain their government, or push our values on the peoples of other countries, period.

Because of this we have actually made our position worse because boliva will have a grudge from here on out, more so than before that is, putting its people at risk.

I feel that there is more of a risk of something moving through boliva to the us, that that which is currently coming from there, if they want cocaine to be their chief national export, then so be it; who said they had to abide by all the rules that everyone else sets, if they produce it, there is a market, and it is one that cannot be controlled by government, so it is impossible to shut down.

I hope this continues to happen in other countries, i would love to see the black market in the US skyrocket due to lack of control, the things you could get your hands on, and at the prices they would be the best.

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InvisibleInvisible_Woe


Registered: 05/25/07
Posts: 11,708
Loc: Mabase
Re: U.S.-Bolivia Ties Strained As Coca Production Rises [Re: magicgreenbeans]
    #8933841 - 09/15/08 02:55 PM (15 years, 6 months ago)

i think its about time for someone to stand against the us for any reason....im praying for may hen, im praying for tidal waves, i wanna see it go right down, i wanna watch you flush it all awayyyy


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These are not the answers you should be questioning.

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OfflineIrieforester
Head to toe inH2O
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Re: U.S.-Bolivia Ties Strained As Coca Production Rises [Re: Invisible_Woe]
    #8935148 - 09/15/08 06:46 PM (15 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

The current rift comes amid an ongoing dispute between the two countries over coca, which Morales says Washington unfairly demonizes.



The U.S. is far too ignorant to make any distinction between coca and cocaine, just as they cannot wrap their heads around the fact that hemp and marijuana are different things.
Well the end-product at least.


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I am still and forever learning

Apollyphelion said:
You can learn A LOT from shitting in the right set and setting!:thumbup:

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