Project

Coca Si, Cocaina No: Evo Morales' Coca Policy in Los Yungas, Bolivia

For the past two years, Bolivian President Evo Morales has shifted drug policy in Bolivia toward a program he calls "Coca Si, Cocaina No." Though the "zero cocaine" program continues to work against illegal cocaine production and trafficking, it also allows an increase in the cultivation of coca for legal purposes. Morales, a former coca grower himself, owes much of his political support to "cocaleros" — as coca farmers are known in Bolivia.

His 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.

On the other hand, Morales remains opposed to the unregulated and illegal growth of coca for cocaine production. He is encouraging growers to meet voluntary limits while continuing to cooperate with the United States government in stepping up efforts to stop cocaine traffickers. But U.S. law enforcement authorities remain skeptical of Morales' "Coca Yes, Cocaine No" program, arguing that any increase in coca cultivation will lead to an increase in cocaine production.

March 10, 2008 | PRI's The World

A Legal Market for Coca

The U.N.'s International Narcotics Control Board said last week that Peru and Bolivia should outlaw the chewing of coca. Those are fighting words in Bolivia, where coca leaves are widely grown and part of traditional Andean culture. Bolivia's president Evo Morales is a former coca grower who has pushed for increasing the legal uses of coca leaves — while clamping down on the illegal uses. He calls his policy "Coca Yes — Cocaine No" — that means encouraging legal coca growers — but cracking down on drug traffickers.

February 29, 2008 | Pulitzer Center

Bolivia: Tentación

We left Chulumani early in the morning, looking for Hernán Justo. He's the newly-elected president of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers or ADEPCOCA, an increasingly powerful organization that represents the rights of cocaleros to sell their coca in the legal market. People around town had told us that Justo was a young and charismatic farmer-turned-union leader -- just the man to talk to us about the commercialization of coca and how it's faring so far.