Photo Credit: Aizar Raldes/AFP/Getty Images[1]

By: Tavhata Boyer

For many centuries, Bolivians have used the coca leaf to combat hunger, fatigue, altitude sickness, stomachaches, headaches, joint pain, and thirst.[2] In the mining industry, chewing the coca leaf is a matter of survival due to the altitude that workers are exposed on daily basis.[3] Some indigenous groups from the region, such as the Aymara, use the leaf for religious and cultural ceremonies.[4] For many Bolivians, the coca leaf is a mediator between the spiritual and human world.[5] Consequently, they offer it to the earth mother, Pachamama. The coca leaf also has a high concentration of iron, vitamin A, vitamin B.[6] 3.5 ounces of coca leaf contain 1,540 milligrams of calcium, while an eight-ounce glass of milk has around 300 milligrams.[7] The nutritional value of this crop is relevant in a country where over half of the population lives in poverty.[8]

The legal status of the coca leaf in Bolivia has had a tumultuous history. In 1961, Bolivia signed the UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs. The Convention prohibits the use and commercialization of the coca leaf for all its adherents.[9] Loosely abiding by this Convention, all Bolivian administrations have allowed traditional growing zones and limited commercialization of the coca leaf for cultural reasons from that time and on.[10] In 1997, however, the Bolivian government considered that the production of coca leaves were out of its control and thus committed to end its trafficking. In order to achieve this goal, the Bolivian government entered into a partnership with the U.S. The two governments created the Dignity Plan to offer up to $2,000 to farmers to shift from coca productions to the production of other crops.[11] The economic incentives of this plan did not help to end trafficking substantially. Thus, funding from the Dignity Plan was directed in its entirety to train antinarcotics forces to combat the illegal production of coca leaves. As a result, violent confrontations started to occur between coca farmers and police troops.[12] Several human rights organizations denounced the Bolivian government for violating the most basic rights of its citizens. They provided evidence to show that civilians suffered torture, murder, and rape at the hands of the police. [13] Additionally, they criticized the U.S. government for failing to ensure the protection of all Bolivians while financing contra-narcotics initiatives.[14] Under these circumstances, peasants’ organizations turned into main political opposition groups. In 2005, Evo Morales, a coca farmer and the leader of the pro-coca movement,[15] won the presidential election.

President Evo Morales turned into the defender of the production, commercialization, and industrialization of the coca leaf. Five months after taking office in 2006, he authorized coca producers to sell the coca leaf across the territory in markets not covered by retail merchants.[16] During the first year of his administration, Morales inaugurated the first coca industrialization plant in the country. Under the People’s Trade Agreement, Venezuela provided funds for the project. The plant currently packs coca leaves and produces an herbal tea made of anise, chamomile, and coca.[17]

The Bolivian government has made it a priority to internationally promote the decriminalization of the consumption of the coca leaf on the grounds of defending indigenous traditions that are constitutionally protected. According to the Bolivian Constitution of 2009, the national government has the responsibility to defend the rights of the indigenous people of Bolivia. Based on this prerogative, in June of 2011 Morales withdrew its country from the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs claiming that this international treaty violated indigenous rights.[18] One month later, in July of 2011, the Morales administration started a campaign to recognize the right of Bolivians to use the coca leaf for cultural reasons. This campaign included two main international demands: the alignment of the UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs to the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the re-acceptance of Bolivia into the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs with a reservation on the chewing of coca leaf for cultural purposes.[19] Morales was the most active leader from the country in the campaign. He presented himself at international forums chewing coca leaves and bestowed coca-leaf art to heads of state.[20]

The Morales administration’s campaign on the coca-leaf has resulted on the acceptance of the reservation to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Starting on February 10^th, 2013, Bolivia will again be a member of the convention and it will be exempted from prohibiting the commercialization and use of the coca-leaf in its territory. The United States, Britain, Sweden, Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Netherlands, Israel, Finland, Portugal, Ireland, Japan, and Mexico are opposed to the change, but they were outnumbered by the other 161 countries that either supported or did not oppose to the reservation.[21] The fifteen countries that are opposed to the reservation argue that commercialized coca from Bolivia will be illegally smuggled into their territories. Ultimately, their efforts to control drug trafficking will be hampered.

The arguments made against coca commercialization seem valid given the Morales administration’s failure to provide a regulatory framework to control production of coca. Since 2006, Morales has publicly suggested that farmers should ration their crops to half an acre.[22] However, his government has not clearly delineated the means to control the production of this high return crop.

Another issue to consider in this context is that the reservation to the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs has benefits for Bolivians. Firstly, it has given hope to peasants that in the near future they will be able to export coca leaves to international markets.[23] Secondly, the reservation has enabled coca organizations to experience success placing their products outside of Bolivia. For example, Agwa de Bolivia is a coca leaf liqueur commercialized in some European countries. The beverage is made out of coca leaves “shipped under armed guard from Bolivia and handcrafted in Amsterdam.”[24] In September 2010, some of the parties hosted during the London Fashion Week offered this beverage to their attendees.[25] In this context, the question is if the Bolivian peasants will limit their production to only satisfy the demand of legal markets.

Overall, the reservation granted to Bolivia by the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs opens the door to include new approaches to issues related to the treatment of narcotics. The exception gives some legitimacy to the idea that some societies can openly accept, consume, and produce narcotics. Inadvertently, the exception also raises concerns on the prospect of a world where countries have divergent policies on narcotics.

Tavhata Boyer is a M.I.A. candidate at The Penn State School of International Affairs. She has conducted extensive research on violence against indigenous women in Mexico and has spent two years researching populism in Latin America at Brigham Young University. Tavhata has experience volunteering for NGOs teaching high school curriculum among poor communities in Mexico and has interned with the Mexican Foreign Service in Belize. Her interests are on issues regarding women, development, democracy, and political participation in Latin America. Tavhata is fluent in Spanish.