In Focus: Bolivia's Coca Culture

Learn more: http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/south-america/coca-si-cocaina-no-evo-moral...

The coca plant, used in indigenous cultural rituals and traditional medicines, is also the main ingredient for cocaine. Bolivia is the third largest producer of coca and cocaine after Peru and Colombia. Despite pressure to cut back on coca farming, many Bolivians see few alternatives.

Evo Morales' controversial "Coca Yes, Cocaine No" program focuses on the industrialization of coca for products like tea, medicine and toothpaste, much of it with financial help from Morales' regional ally, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. According to Bolivia's Coca Industrialization Directorate, there are an estimated 50,000 coca growers in Los Yungas, who already support the effort to market coca legally.

This project is part of Pulitzer Center-sponsored project "Coca Si, Cocaina No: Evo Morales' Coca Policy in Los Yungas, Bolivia" (http://bit.ly/u0lgmn).

Featured on Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal the week of September 19, 2008.

Credits:

Bolivia's Coca Culture
Directed by Gabrielle Weiss
Produced by Ruxandra Guidi, Bear Guerra and Gabrielle Weiss
In association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Pulitzer Center
• Bolivia
• Coca
• Cocaine
• Coca Growing
• Bolivia Indigenous People
• American Indians
• Peru
• Colombia
• Evo Morales
• Coca Si Cocaina No
• Coca Policy
• Bolivia Coca Trade

[nepalnt21]

@ratkillerinparadise ok you win everything is deadly and nothing is more deadly than anything else

[ratkillerinparadise]

@nepalnt21 I did not say that the plant was deadly. I said that guns were deadly. Food can be deadly too. Are you high?

[nepalnt21]

@ratkillerinparadise well put. i love the insult thrown in right at the end for that little extra attempt at a coherent point.

are you saying that the plain leaf has potential to be as deadly as a factory-made tobacco cigarette?

[ratkillerinparadise]

@nepalnt21 That is like saying a shotgun is more deadly than a 22 rifle. It depends on the application...dumbass.

[nepalnt21]

@ratkillerinparadise no way is the plant anywhere near as harmful as alcohol and brand-name cigarettes. i would assume that chewing the leaves would have less of a negative effect than drinking a cup of coffee. 

[HelmetVanga]

The US & Bolivia had a treaty to erradicate cocaine. But the the DEA was involved in meddling in bolivian internal affairs according to the press and american students while in Bolivia were asked to do survailance venezuelans and cubans. Plus the US embassador Goldberg was meedlinging in Bolivian affairs. It seems the US didnt uphold their barganing part why should Bolivia uphold its part?

[ratkillerinparadise]

I guess that stuff is almost as bad as alcohol and cigarettes (nicotine freebasing).Freebased nicotine is more addictive than cocaine they say.Cultural differences are so interesting!Thanks for the vid!