Now the cocaleros are rejecting the agreement, and the government is calling them "deal breakers." But while the deal was supposed to address the demands of the cocaleros, the decree published Friday instead called for forced eradication of new coca crops.
 |
|
Baldomero Cáceres |
"The cocaleros are furious and feel tricked and lied to once again by DEVIDA [Peruvian anti-drug agency] and Prime Minister Solari," said former DEVIDA adviser turned critic Hugo Cabieses. "The Supreme Decree published last week is not the product of an agreement, as Solari and [DEVIDA director Nils] Ericsson portrayed it, but a manipulative and authoritarian imposition," he told DRCNet. "We all thought the Supreme Decree would have the agreements reached with the cocalero leaders, but that is not the case."
But in an attitude akin to that of feudal peasants petitioning the king to overrule his cruel ministers, the cocaleros still retain faith in their "Cholo [Indian] Toledo," Cabieses said. "They believe that President Toledo will address their Platform of Struggle because 'he has been poor and he is in the presidency thanks to us.'" Still, that faith is tempered with a bit of political hardball, said Cabieses. "They are asking for a direct dialogue with Toledo, and they are giving him 30 days before they renew their protests."
Some aren't waiting that long. On Tuesday, confederation leader Marisella Guillen held a Lima press conference to criticize the Supreme Decree as "benefiting only the non-governmental organizations [who administer alternative development programs]" and to announce that supporters will introduce two bills in the Peruvian parliament to address cocalero demands. And according to Cabieses, coca growers in other regions are already rejecting the decree and preparing to mobilize again. In Monzon, Cabieses reported, cocaleros are preparing a new "march of sacrifice" to Lima, while in Quillabamba, angry cocaleros Wednesday rejected the confederation's leadership for having been taken in by the government.
For its part, DEVIDA rejected any questioning of the decree and issued a statement calling Guillen's press conference "an attempt to break the agreement that both parties had arrived at." The DEVIDA statement did not address the discrepancy between the agreements reached through negotiations and the text of the published decree.
"Solari and DEVIDA are regrettably trying to divide the masses by trying to negotiate separate regional agreements -- for 'technical reasons,' they say -- and are trying to de-legitimize their proposals by saying they are being manipulated by politicians, terrorists and narcos," said Cabieses.
 |
|
Hugo Cabieses, cocalero |
Morales has led Bolivian coca growers to substantial political power, and the conflict between the peasants of the Chapare and President Sanchez de Lozada over US-backed eradication policies, along with other simmering social issues, has shaken the government. Indeed, Andean governments are caught between two irreconcilable forces: substantial numbers of their own citizens who depend on coca, and an administration in Washington that demands its eradication. Perhaps President Toledo was listening this week as US drug czar John Walters issued dire warnings to Andean leaders thinking of heeding the demands of their own people.
"Naturally, we are concerned amount political events in the Andes," said Walters Wednesday at a press conference presenting a Spanish version of the US anti-drug strategy. "If the drug traffickers and growers take power some place, that country will be converted into an international pariah where there will be neither national nor foreign investment, nor the creation of legal jobs," Walters warned.
See http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article747.html for a recent interview with Hugo Cabieses by Karine Muller.
