King Coca

Latin Trade, April, 2006

Growing small amounts of coca for national consumption is still legal in Bolivia, and powerful unions represent some 30,000 coca farmers in the Chapare and Yungas region near La Paz. During municipal elections in December, coca farmers were elected mayors of several towns in the Chapare under the slogans "Vote for Coca," and "Coca is not cocaine." However, nearly all the coca grown in the Chapare is indeed turned into cocaine.

"Probably 99 percent of the coca in the Chapare is for the cocaine industry. That's a fact that almost everybody in the Chapare realizes," says a U.S. State Department official.