Coca

The Bolivian government has responded to the International Narcotics Control Board's demand last week that coca chewing and growing be banned by publicizing plans to enlarge markets for coca products.

The International Narcotics Control Board wants the governments of Bolivia and Peru to ban coca chewing. Not happening.

As Colombian President Uribe attempts a massive manual eradication of coca plants, he is running into opposition from both angry peasants and armed rebels.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez' embrace of coca continued last weekend as he publicly chewed the leaf and thanked Bolivian President Evo Morales for bringing him some more. Coca isn't cocaine, Chávez pointed out.

For years, the Colombian government has allowed indigenous traditional coca growers to market coca products nationwide, but now it has changed course, and some are pointing the finger at Coca-Cola.

Tensions are rising in Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley coca fields, as government eradicators come under attack, growers go on strike, and the García government vows to take a hard line.

The Bolivian government is moving to "rationalize" coca production in the Yungas region.

The Peruvian government's US-backed forced coca eradication campaign is running into serious problems in the Upper Huallaga Valley. Clashes with police, roadblocks, and a general strike have all broken out in the past few days.

Peru is currently the world's second largest producer of coca and cocaine, and the coca growers' movement there is gaining steam, but it still faces many hurdles, some internal, some external.

With the release of its annual report this week, the International Narcotics Control Board has set its sights on Bolivia and that country's pro-coca policies. The US is also preparing to make a decision on whether to decertify Bolivia as not cooperating in American drug war goals. The Bolivians don't seem to care.