Weekly Report - 28 January 2016 (WR-16-04)

The general director of Bolivia’s coca control and industrialisation agency (Digcoin), Ricardo Paniagua, was forced to step down this week in order to be investigated for the unauthorised transportation of coca leaves. The resignation of Paniagua – the latest senior anti-drugs official to go over alleged corruption – is an embarrassment for the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) government led by President Evo Morales whose drugs policy distinguishes between the raw coca leaf (an important symbol of Bolivian indigenous culture) and cocaine, the illegal narcotic.