Coca has been cultivated in medium-altitude parts of the Bolivian Andes since at least the Inca era,[1] primarily in the Yungas north and east of La Paz. Cultivation expanded substantially in the 1980s into the Chapare region of Cochabamba and some production flowed into the international cocaine market. The US-backed efforts to criminalize and eradicate coca (outside the Yungas) as part of the War on Drugs (as coca is used to make the stimulant, anaesthetic and illegal recreational drug cocaine) were met by the cocalero movement's growing capacity to organize. Violence between drug police and the Bolivian armed forces on one side and the movement on the other occurred episodically between 1987 and 2003. The cocaleros became an increasingly important political force during this period, co-founding the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples party. Coca growers from both the Yungas and the Chapare have advocated for policies of "social control" over coca growing, maintaining a pre-set maximum area of cultivation as an alternative to drug war policies. In 2005, cocalero union leader Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia. Morales has pursued a combined policy of legalizing coca production in the Chapare and Yungas and eradication of the crop elsewhere.
The UN Office of Drug Control estimated that 30,900 hectares of coca were planted in Bolivia in 2009, making Bolivia the third largest producer of coca after Colombia (68,000 hectares) and Peru (59,900).[2] The UN estimates that 35,148 of 54,608 metric tons produced in Bolivia is sold in unauthorized markets dominated by the cocaine trade, most of it from coca production in the Chapare.[3] Sales of coca leaf amounted to approximately US$265 million in 2009, representing 14% of all agricultural sales and 2% of Bolivia's GDP.[4] Coca is legally sold in wholesale markets in Villa Fátima in La Paz and in Sacaba, Cochabamba.
^Brewer-Osorio, Susan (2021). "The Coca Leaf in Bolivian History". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.989. ISBN 978-0-19-936643-9. Archived from the original on 2021-09-03.
^UN Office on Drugs and Crime (June 2010), Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia: Monitoreo de Cultivos de Coca 2009(PDF), p. 11
^UN Office on Drugs and Crime (June 2010), Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia: Monitoreo de Cultivos de Coca 2009(PDF), p. 36
^Note that the source claims 14% of agricultural production based on incorrect division. UN Office on Drugs and Crime (June 2010), Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia: Monitoreo de Cultivos de Coca 2009(PDF), p. 11
Coca has been cultivated in medium-altitude parts of the Bolivian Andes since at least the Inca era, primarily in the Yungas north and east of La Paz...
There are two species of coca crops, each with two varieties: Erythroxylum coca Erythroxylum coca var. coca (Bolivian or Huánuco Coca) – well adapted to the...
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growers of coca are named Cocaleros and part of the coca production for traditional use is legal in Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Plots denuded of coca plants...
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Narcotics inBolivia, South America, is a subject that primarily involves the coca crop, used in the production of the drug, cocaine. Trafficking and corruption...
of coca cultivation inBolivia began in 1983, when Bolivia committed itself to a five-year program to reduce coca production and created the Coca Eradication...
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peoples inBolivia, or Native Bolivians, are Bolivian people who are of indigenous ancestry. They constitute anywhere from 20 to 60% of Bolivia's population...
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Erythroxylum coca is one of two species of cultivated coca. The coca plant resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 2–3 m (7–10 ft). The...
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Mobile Unit) troops in response to a protest by coca-growing peasants (cocaleros) in the town of Villa Tunari in Chapare Province, Bolivia. The cocalero movement...
FlagsoftheWorld.com: BoliviaBolivian.com: Reformas y Deformaciones del Escudo de las Armas de la República de Bolivia (in Spanish) Bolivia could put coca leaves on...
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former Bolivian soldiers engaged in counternarcotics activity and management of protests by the coca growers' movement in the Chapare region of Bolivia from...
harvesting coca leaves had been a relatively small-scale business in Colombia. Though Peru and Bolivia dominated coca-leaf production in the 1980s and...
financial architecture," sanction for maintaining the legal status of cocainBolivia and the rejection of the Cuban embargo by the U.S. United States President...