BOLIVIA-COCA/UN REPORT Coca cultivation in Bolivia at lowest level in past 12 years, says UN report

Record ID: 143708

  • Title: BOLIVIA-COCA/UN REPORT Coca cultivation in Bolivia at lowest level in past 12 years, says UN report
  • Date: 17th August 2015
  • Summary: EL CHAPARE, BOLIVIA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COCA ERADICATION TASK FORCE DESTROYING COCA CROPS
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0GRO8WN6LLN4S7KP6HI9OJGG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Monday (August 17) lauded Bolivia for achieving a 12-year low in coca cultivation as measured by total crop surface area.
    President Evo Morales and UNODC representative Antonino de Leo held a news conference in La Paz highlighting the report's findings.
    "We can see that between 2013 and 2014 there was a registered decrease in coca crop cultivation from 23 to 20,400 hectares. It is important to note that the surface area for coca crops in 2014 was the lowest since UNODC started monitoring coca in 2003. That is to say, in 2014 the surface area cultivation of coca was the lowest it has been in the past 12 years," said de Leo.
    Morales, a former coca farmer, has long defended coca's legal use as an "ancestral rite" for tea, sweets and medicines.
    People in the Andean region traditionally chew on coca leaf as a source of energy or as an antidote to altitude sickness.
    For Morales, the drop in coca cultivation is due to successful domestic policies as opposed to forced eradication and U.S. involvement.
    "We have a war on drugs with the participation of the people. A war on drugs without external interference. I support this shared responsibility. Since 2010 Bolivia has not received financial resources from the United States. Of late we salute Europe which is contributing unconditionally to the fight against drug trafficking," he said, in reference to ongoing funding the country receives from the European Union to help combat illegal drugs.
    In 2008 Morales expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from Bolivia after accusing some of its anti-drug agents of spying.
    Instead of relying on U.S.-backed forced eradication programs to control coca production, Bolivia's coca program involves providing economic alternatives for coca farmers and allowing small-scale cultivation for traditional use of the leaf.
    Farmers permitted to grow coca are closely monitored using a biometric registry to ensure that crops are not being used for illicit products such as cocaine.
    "Simple eradication by way of military bases is not the solution. The report shows how there are some Andean countries where there are military bases, where there are American officials who work in the fight against drug trafficking and, in addition, provide millions of dollars, not in the form of cooperation, but as a shared responsibility and in those places there has been an increase in coca cultivation," said Morales.
    The UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs banned coca leaf in 1961 along with cocaine, heroin, opium and morphine.
    Bolivia withdrew from the convention in 2012 to protest against the criminalization of the chewing of coca leaves.
    Subsequently the UN granted Bolivia a special dispensation recognising the traditional practice as legal in Bolivia and Bolivia was re-admitted to the convention.
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