DRUGS-BOLIVIA:
More Cocaine, More
Political Tension?
By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, (IPS) - An
eight percent rise in
Bolivian coca
cultivation documented
by the United Nations,
equaling an annual
supply of 94 tonnes of
cocaine, could cause
tensions with Brazil and
European Union (EU)
countries where the
illegal product is
marketed, political
observers say.
The 2007 World Drug
Report published on
Tuesday by the United
Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) says
that "coca cultivation
in the Andes (Bolivia,
Colombia and Peru)
continues to decline,"
But UNODC's report on
Bolivia, released on
Jun. 14, says that
Bolivian coca
plantations, which
provide the raw material
for cocaine, rose from
25,400 hectares to
27,500 hectares in 2006,
thus increasing
potential cocaine
production from 80
tonnes in 2005 to 94
tonnes in 2006.
The two percent fall in
coca production for the
Andean region as a whole
is attributed by UNODC
to a nine percent
reduction in coca
cultivation in Colombia,
the world's largest coca
grower and cocaine
producer, which
compensated for
increases in Peru and
Bolivia.
Under Bolivian law, only
12,000 hectares of coca
cultivation are
permitted for legal uses
of coca leaf, including
customary forms of
consumption and
traditional rituals.
The UNODC report
indicates that there is
an excess of 15,500
hectares of cultivation
deemed to be illegal,
located primarily in the
semi-tropical region of
Chapare in the province
of Cochabamba, in the
centre of the country,
where coca plantations
have expanded by 1,300
hectares between 2005
and 2006.
Such an expansion "will
probably be a future
source of tension with
Brazil and Europe, and
not just with the United
States," political
analyst and former
congressman Hugo
Carvajal told IPS.
Brazilian diplomatic
sources, quoted in La
Paz by the newspaper La
Razón, say that 80
percent of the cocaine
produced in Bolivia is
marketed in Rio de
Janeiro and São Paulo.
Drug trafficking in São
Paulo is controlled by
the violent illegal
organisation Primeiro
Comando da Capital (PCC).
Brazil has also become a
transit country for
Bolivian and Peruvian
drugs on their way to
Europe, according to
information from
anti-drug police.
The increase in coca
cultivation has been
detected at a time when
the Bolivian government
is backing a move to
expand the legal coca
cultivation area from
12,000 to 20,000
hectares. But recent
larger cocaine seizures
will require the
government to take
vigorous action to cut
supplies of the raw
material, Carvajal said.
In the year 2000, 23,300
hectares were under coca
cultivation, the
smallest area since
anti-drug trafficking
efforts began in the
1990s. This was a result
of forcible eradication
and voluntary crop
reduction in areas where
coca was
non-traditional,
according to the Latin
American Scientific
Research Centre (CELIN-Bolivia).
Soon after he became
president in January
2006, coca producers
leader Evo Morales gave
in to the demands of
small farmers' unions in
Chapare and authorised
cultivation of 1,600
square metres (known as
a "cato") of coca per
affiliated member in
that area. During the
Carlos Mesa
administration
(2003-2005), pressure
from the coca growers'
unions had already
achieved flexibilisation
of the regulations and
won authorisation for
each family of small
farmers to cultivate one
cato of coca.
The UNODC report says
that the 27,500 hectares
of coca grown in Chapare,
the traditional area of
Los Yungas in La Paz
department, and to a
lesser extent in
protected national
parks, produce 48,000
tonnes of dry coca leaf
a year.
It also says that some
33,200 tonnes are used
to manufacture cocaine
paste, a process under
the control of drug
traffickers who have
moved their laboratories
from tropical
cultivation zones to the
cold Altiplano, or high
plateau, and to shanty
towns in impoverished
cities like El Alto, an
enormous suburb of La
Paz at an altitude of
4,000 metres.
One kilogramme of
cocaine hydrochloride
can be chemically
extracted from 370 kilos
of Chapare coca leaf.
Coca from Los Yungas has
a higher yield: 315
kilos of leaf produce
one kilo of cocaine, the
UNODC report says.
Production of other
prohibited substances,
like marijuana, has also
increased, according to
the Special Anti-Drug
Trafficking Force. Last
year 139 tonnes of the
substance were seized,
compared to 46 tonnes in
2005.
In the first five months
of 2007, drug seizures
totalled 266 tonnes.
Cocaine paste seizures
increased from 10 tonnes
in 2005 to 12 tonnes in
2006, while cocaine
hydrochloride
confiscation rose
slightly from 1,300 to
1,309 kilos, according
to the UNODC report.
Interior Minister
Alfredo Rada called for
a more balanced analysis
of Bolivia's record,
taking additional
factors into account,
such as the eradication
of 5,000 hectares of
coca in the last year,
and the police efforts
to combat drug
trafficking rings.
Santiago Gutiérrez, a
farmer and coca leader
in the semi-tropical
town of Coroico in Los
Yungas, 96 kilometres
north of La Paz, was not
surprised by the
conclusions of the UNODC
report, because it
reflects "the rightwing
policies of the United
States," he told IPS.
Reports by international
organisations go on
repeating the same talk
about increases in coca
cultivation, but they
fail to mention the
contribution that coca
makes to the development
of communities by
generating employment
and income for the
people engaged in this
activity, he said.
Gutiérrez, who is also
an official at the town
hall of Coroico and a
member of the governing
Movement Towards
Socialism (MAS) party,
is convinced that more
coca leaf is being
consumed in traditional
ways: it is chewed in
the Andean and highland
valley regions, and used
in indigenous medicine.
The price of a 23-kilo
sack of legal coca
increased from 50 to 93
dollars from 2006 to
2007, and the demand in
Los Yungas for coca is
higher than in Chapare,
Gutiérrez said.
The UNODC report says
that the legal and
illegal markets for coca
were jointly worth 180
million dollars in 2006,
representing nearly two
percent of the annual
gross domestic product
(GDP), which is
estimated in the report
as 8.7 billion dollars.
"These figures suggest
that, for the country as
a whole, coca production
still has an impact on
the Bolivian economy,
and continues to play an
important role within
the coca producing
regions," the U.N.
office recognises.
|
