Bolivia and coca: Between tradition and business

By Mario Roque Cayoja Jan 25, 2012, 1:44 GMT

La Paz - Indigenous people in Andean Bolivia have for many centuries chewed on coca leaves, a centuries-old tradition they call 'acullicu' which helps fight hunger and exhaustion and alleviate pain.

The Spanish conquistadors who arrived in modern-day Bolivia in the 16th century also made use of coca leaves, which allowed them to brutally exploit locals even longer in the silver mines of the South American country.

Nowadays, the leaves of the coca shrub fetch very good money, although those funds do not make it to the 'cocaleros' who cultivate the plants - but rather to the drug gangs that use them to make cocaine and smuggle it into the lucrative markets of the United States and Europe.

One kilogramme of the small, oval coca leaves goes for around 10 dollars in Bolivia. It takes around 120 kilogrammes of leaves to make one kilogramme of cocaine freebase.

Within Bolivia, it is apparent why the illegal trade in drugs is such a big business. According to the Bolivian Special Force for the Fight Against Drug Trafficking (FELCN), one kilogramme of cocaine goes for about 1,500 dollars in the local market.

By the time it gets to the borders with Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina or Chile that price will have doubled. And if the cocaine makes it to Europe, that same kilogramme of cocaine can fetch up to 100,000 dollars in the black market, depending on its purity.

The powerful drug cartels of Colombia, Mexico and Brazil have long been active in Bolivia. They control whole communities in remote areas where they work undisturbed in their clandestine laboratories to make cocaine, according to Cesar Guedes, of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

'Our personnel receive threats when they inspect illegal coca crops,' he said.

The government of the extremely poor Bolivia struggles to carry out the fight against the drug cartels.

Even so, Bolivian President Evo Morales, who made a name for himself as a leader of coca leaf farmers, wants to stand up for the traditional practice of chewing coca leaves.

For this reason, Bolivia withdrew on January 1 its compliance with the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. But in fact, Bolivia wants to support the convention again, with a caveat that it not follow Article 49, which bans chewing coca leaves.

Critics say such a move may lead to an uncontrolled rise in coca crops.

Already in late 2008, Morales expelled from Bolivia the representatives of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), whom he accused of having backed a coup attempt against him.

Since then, US financial help for Bolivia's anti-narcotics efforts, which had amounted to 300 million dollars a year according to former Bolivian Interior minister Sacha Llorenti, was reduced to just 25 million dollars.

'Drug trafficking is growing and diversifying,' says economist Roberto Laserna, who specializes in drug-related crime.

According to Bolivian authorities, the country provides highly pure cocaine for the markets in richer neighbouring nations like Brazil and Chile.

At times, Bolivian state power and the lucrative drug business actually merge. Former Bolivian secret service boss Rene Sanabria was arrested last year in Panama, in a raid on a drug gang.

General Sanabria, 58, who is a former head of the FELCN, had smuggled almost 150 kilogrammes of cocaine into the United States, and a court in Miami recently sentenced him to 14 years in jail. There is, moreover, speculation that he had scores of accomplices in high positions in Bolivia.

'The government's weakness (in the face of the drug gangs) was made clear,' Laserna said.

According to this expert, the eradication of coca plantations by police and the military has only had limited success. Bolivian law allows cultivation of up to a total of 12,000 hectares of coca shrubs nationwide for traditional consumption of the leaves. The leaves can be chewed, taken in the form of tea or used in medicine.

However, according to the latest UNODC data, there are some 31,000 hectares of coca plantations in Bolivia, of which 19,000 hectares are believed to be devoted to the production of cocaine. In the Chapare province of the Cochabamba region, moreover, strong fertilizers are being used that allow up to four harvests per year.

The nearby region of Santa Cruz is regarded as a stronghold for the drug cartels, who supply from Bolivia around 20 per cent of the coca leaves required in the global cocaine trade. The remaining 80 per cent are supplied by Colombia and Peru, roughly half and half.

In 2011, Bolivian police seized around 4,600 cocaine laboratories. And yet that hardly hurts the gangs, which according to Laserna have grown 'better organized and more violent.'

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