Coca farmer turned saviour of the left promises wind of change in Bolivia

[Clara T]

Coca farmer turned saviour of the left promises wind of change in Bolivia

Barring mishap, Evo Morales could soon become Latin America's first wholly indigenous leader

Dan Glaister in La Paz
Thursday December 8, 2005
The Guardian


High up on the Bolivian altiplano near Lake Titicaca, an Aymara priest holds a green plastic lighter to a carved wooden cup containing strips of paper. Despite the fierce gusts of the early morning wind, the paper catches and smoke billows forth. The priest, dressed in traditional, brightly coloured robes, holds the smoking vessel before the presidential candidate.

"We have lost perhaps 500 years," says the priest. "Mother moon, mother earth, we ask you in this place to support us." The candidate, smoke blowing in his face, looks deferential.

It is a symbolic moment in an extraordinary campaign that has seen this impoverished country of almost nine million take faltering steps to recovering control of its destiny. Wracked by unrest, uncertainty, external interference, the IMF and a corrupt elite, Bolivia faces an election on December 18 that could see the ascension of Latin America's first wholly indigenous leader.

Barring mishaps, Evo Morales, a former coca farmer and union chief turned leader of the Movement to Socialism (MAS), seems certain to win the biggest share of the vote. It is a prospect that has the US scrambling to label him a narco-terrorist and pawn of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. For many on the left, Mr Morales is the poster boy of anti-globalisation, an iconic figure who will chart an independent course for Bolivia, setting an example to others.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1661925,00.html

[mike_c]

1. viva Morales!

That's going to be a very hard presidency.

[confludemocrat]

2. You know, if the US screws and perverts this movement w/CIA terrorism, it

will deserve whatever bad comes to it.

[Vidar]

3. Bravo, Moarales!

[expatriot]

4. i Viva El Evo ! nt

[dutchdemocrat]

5. Who Wants a Coke?

Who Wants a Coke?


Peruvian Drug Control Agency: Coca Cola Buys Coca Leaves

We’re not here to talk about the Peruvian coca growers, at least not right now. This is about our beloved Peruvian drug czar, Nils Ericsson, president of the National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs (shortened to DEVIDA in Spanish). This man, who swears that narco-trafficking is “the financial arm of terrorism,” is still talking and writing aimlessly, as we reported last March, when the great coca growers’ march arrived in Lima. It seems that Ericsson has not learned his lesson, and keeps blabbering on. But he has said a few very interesting things lately, such as confirming that the Coca Cola company does indeed buy coca leaves to produce its beverage… but have patience, as this story deserves to be told in detail.

In his previously cited December 10 column, Nils Ericsson closed the text with a surprising phrase: “Acabemos con toda la ‘coca con cola’ que en forma sibilina nos quieren contrabandear.” (“Let’s get rid of this suspicious coca, that want to regulate in a hypocritical way.”) It was a bizarre choice of words – “coca con cola” roughly translates to “suspicious coca,” but it is hardly a common way to say it. Was he attacking the companies in Peru that make soft drinks based on the coca leaf? Doesn’t he like Coca Cola? We’re going to have to go over everything he has said lately… as well as some official information from DEVIDA. Let’s take a look.



Wednesday, January 26, is a date that our readers should remember. That day, DEVIDA released a ten-point official statement that clarified its position on the industrialization of the coca leaf in Peru. It says many things. Among other data, point #5 in the statement says that Peru produces 52,000 tonnes of coca annually..If figured alongside DEVIDA’s statistics that there are 36,600 hectares (94,400 acres) of coca under cultivation in the country, the claim would not be very surprising… if it weren’t for the fact that not even the gringos have been able to come up with such precise estimates on the amount of coca cultivated here, as they have been able to do in Bolivia. Could it be that Peru has better systems in place than Washington?

SNIP

http://www.narconews.com/Issue35/article1159.html

[AlamoDemoc]

6. Please read this book on the subject...

Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World

BY: Mark Pendergrast

[Judi Lynn]

7. Bush and his State Department minions have tried hard to smear him

already for several years, at least. This was BEFORE many people had ever heard of him in the U.S.

Any Latin American or Caribbean leader who doesn't promote American right-wing agendas first, before the interests of his/her own people, is someone they'll try to destroy.


_Bush and his father are both connected with Bechtel, the company which tried to hijack Bolivia's water, and failed.

From "A New Day for Bolivia:"

Bolivia’s political system is notoriously corrupt. Transparency International rates it among the most dishonest in Latin America. When local corruption meets big international conglomerates looking for a way to pipe away natural resources at rock-bottom prices, the result is usually a sweetheart deal that leaves the dealmakers happy and the public in the dust. "First let’s get a political system that we believe will actually sell the gas in the people’s interests," many Bolivians have said, "then we can sell the gas."

The gas issue may have been the spark, but there was enough tinder of discontent at hand to ignite the revolt into a full-scale inferno of public rebellion. The nation’s extreme inequalities and miserable poverty are in and of themselves sufficient factors to fuel broad resentment towards what is seen as an uninterested and incompetent government. While the vast majority in Bolivia struggles for basic survival, a tiny, wealthy elite intent on protecting its privileges runs the country. The stark social divisions in the country, as in much of the world, are marked with racial and ethnic overtones.
(snip)

Bolivia’s fight against these policies first caught world attention three years ago -during the city of Cochabamba’s now -famous revolt against water privatization — considered by some analysts this century’s first battle over water (http://democracyctr.org/waterwar/index.htm). Under coercion from the Bank, the government privatized the city’s water system and gave a 40-year sweetheart lease to Bechtel, the California engineering giant. Within weeks of taking over the water, Bechtel imposed huge increases in water rates, triggering a regional uprising that kicked Bechtel out of the country. Bechtel is now suing Bolivia for $25 million in a secretive trade tribunal operated by the World Bank.
(snip/...)

http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0402/040206.htm

[DrunkenMaster]

8. Legalize It!

Yeow, legalized coca production!Arrrrriba!

[Bacchus39]

9. coca production is not necessarily illegal, at least not in Peru

the trees are everywhere and they sell the leaves like candy. I imagine Bolivia is the same. I think its great he was a coca farmer soon to be president.

[High Plains]

11. Legal coca production is strictly limited in Bolivia...

to the Yungas region. That is supposed to supply all "legitimate" demand for coca. But thousands of farmers are growing it in the Chapare, too, and have been fighting the Bolivian and US governments over this for years. Evo comes out of the Chapare coca grower unions.

His election will be a real blow to Washington's Latin American drug policy.

Legal production is also limited in Peru, where a state monopoly buys it up. But like Bolivia, there are lots of Peruvian's growing illicit coca. Some goes for "legitimate" uses, some no doubt ends up as cocaine being snorted or smoked in the US, Brazil, and Europe.

[WhiteTara]

10. Oh the beauty of hope

let's see Evo Morales surrounded in blue light and safe from all harm. The world is desperate for change.