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Andean Group - November 2013 (ISSN 1741-4466)

SECURITY: Long-awaited coca report makes difficult reading for the Morales government

The Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) government of President Evo Morales has finally unveiled the results of the European Union (EU)-funded study on the legal uses of coca in Bolivia. The study, which began in 2009, has been hotly anticipated given its importance to conferring legitimacy on President Morales’ ‘Coca sí, Cocaína no’ drugs policy, which distinguishes between the raw coca leaf – an important symbol of indigenous culture – and the illegal narcotic. However, the report’s findings undermine the government’s claim that 20,000ha of coca cultivation is necessary to satisfy the current legal demand for the leaf. That will fuel the existing concerns about the amount of legal coca being diverted to the illegal drugs market.

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