- Title: POPE-BOLIVIA/COCA-REACTION Bolivians prep organic coca leaves for papal visit
- Date: 30th June 2015
- Summary: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (JUNE 30, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INDIGENOUS WOMAN CHEWING COCA LEAVES CLOSE UP OF COCA WOMAN SURROUNDED BY BAGS OF COCA WAREHOUSE WHERE COCA IS SOLD CLOSE UP OF WOMEN WITH COCA IN MOUTH
- Embargoed: 15th July 2015 13:00
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- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4W3NVRH69NPSHE9428TQQSUVD
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- Story Text: After a Bolivian minister announced on Sunday (June 28) that Pope Francis had personally requested coca leaves for his visit next week to the vertiginous country capital of La Paz, many Bolivians, including the country's coca producers were overjoyed by the pope's alleged support of the controversial leaf.
Situated at around 3,650 meters (11,975 ft) above sea level, La Paz is one of the world's highest capital cities and for centuries local people have chewed coca leaves to ward off the effects of altitude.
Although it is the key ingredient in cocaine, the unprocessed leaf is legal to use and still widely chewed in Bolivia and other Andean countries. Many indigenous people, including Bolivian President Evo Morales, defend its use and consider it a sacred plant.
"For this visit Francis the Holy Father has asked to chew coca, literally, he wants to chew coca. We wanted to give him coca tea or some more traditional things but the Holy Father has specifically asked for this [coca leaves]. It will surely be coca from the Yungas [region in Bolivia]. We believe this is the most delicious and most flavourful coca," said Bolivia's Culture Minister, Marko Machicao.
Coca is used to make cocaine but Morales, a former coca farmer, has long defended its legal use as an "ancestral rite" for tea, sweets and medicines, going so far as to pull coca leaves out of a small plastic bag during a UN anti-drug meeting in Vienna in 2012 and chew on a wad of them.
Coca farmer leader Jesus Quisbeth said they had been busy preparing thousands of bags of coca leaves to distribute, free of charge, during the pope's visit.
"We produce organically, as such, our pope, the Supreme Pontiff, will consume organic coca or coca tea. We as producers of coca from Yungas from La Paz, we are going to prepare more than 20 thousand bags of coca and give them to all who are accompanying the pope and participants in the ceremony as a gift," he said.
Quisbeth explained how the pope's alleged coca request was a form of divine justice against what he considers an unfairly maligned plant.
"We the Yungas coca growers feel very happy about this event and this act of justice the Father is doing, the one [pope] sent by the Creator is doing justice - the pope has come to make justice and is going to try our coca and he is going to show that coca is not poison but rather a medicine, a food," he said.
The Vatican has said that Pope Francis will decide for himself if he chews coca leaves in order to ward off altitude sickness when he lands in La Paz - the highest international airport in the world - next week.
"The pope will do that which he thinks is right. I understand there is a popular use, in order to help you against mountain sickness and high altitude, some people drink a kind of mate [coca tea] and others chew coca leaves. What the pope will do we will have to wait and see. He hasn't told me how he has decided to confront this situation, maybe he will get involved in these local customs which are often quite efficient," said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.
For health reasons, the 78-year-old Francis, who lost part of one lung to disease when he was a young man, will be in La Paz for only about four hours before moving on to the city of Santa Cruz as part of his Bolivia tour next week.
In his second official visit to Latin America since his 2013 election, the Argentine pope will be in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay between July 6 and 12. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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