Word: cocas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...President, Morales is now forced to compromise with his old foe, because U.S. economic support is vital for South America's poorest nation. And nowhere is compromise more difficult for Morales than on the issue of coca itself. The leaf has a centuries-long tradition in the Andes, where it is chewed to stave off hunger and where its tea made is served everywhere from fancy hotels to rural homes. But export of the leaves beyond the region has been banned since 1961 by a United Nations anti-drug convention, because they also contain the base product for cocaine...
...Whereas past Bolivian governments followed U.S. eradication orders to the letter, Morales was elected on promises to transform coca policy. "We want rationalized production," he told TIME in a May 2006 interview. "We want to industrialize the coca leaf, but we understand there can't be unlimited cultivation because the coca leaf does get diverted into cocaine...
...Instead, Morales advocated state-initiated industry to mass produce and export healthy coca-based products (cookies, pasta, shampoo, wine, lotions) already manufactured on a small scale in Bolivia. The first of three state-run coca processing factories is currently under construction, with a view to turning 4,000 tons of coca into tea each year. At the same time, his government pledges ongoing eradication of excess coca, and strengthening of controls on narco-trafficking...
...However, what's rational for Bolivia doesn't necessarily fly for the United States: "There's really only one good use for the coca leaf in economic terms, and that's cocaine," the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, told the Associated Press late last year. Bolivians denounce this stance as hypocritical, since the largest legal market for coca leaves is actually the United States...
...Coca-Cola has always used coca leaves for flavoring," says Luis Cutipa, Bolivian Director of Coca Industrialization, explaining that until 2003, Illinois-based Stepan Chemicals, which imports coca leaf under license from the U.S. Department of Justice and is reported to supply a narcotic-free derivative to Coca-Cola, bought leaves from Bolivia. Now, it buys from Peru. (The Peruvian government disclosed in 2005 that 115 tons of leaves are sent annually to Stepan...