Of Note: Coca Populism and U.S. Drug Policy

hen Evo Morales, a former coca grower who ran an anti-globalization campaign to win Bolivia's presidency, recently brandished a coca leaf while speaking the UN and declared "the fight for coca leaves took me to the presidency," it became quite clear that the United States faced a unique challenge to its "War on Drugs."¹ The new face of populism in South America—represented by Morales and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela—is increasingly vocal in its opposition to Washington's international drug policy.

Coca, the plant from which cocaine is derived, is grown extensively in the Andean region. The crop is not only vital to the economic survival of the coca leaf growers, or cocaleros, who constitute part of these populist leaders' political base, but also has long held a key cultural and religious role for indigenous societies in the region. In addition, the leaf can be used in a wide variety of products, from toothpaste to wine. As part of the longstanding War on Drugs, the United States has spent around $5 billion since 2000 to eradicate coca cultivation in the Andes. However, overall coca production levels have remained steady as production shifts between countries from year to year, and cultivation in Bolivia and Peru has increased in recent years.²

Chávez's efforts to expand his "Bolivarian Revolution" into a continent-wide anti-Washington block have helped solidify opposition in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia to U.S.-led coca eradication efforts. While Venezuela is not a major producer or consumer of cocaine, the country is an important link in the transportation chain from Colombia to the U.S. and Europe.³ The Bush administration has criticized Chávez for failing to make significant inroads in the anti-drug campaign, despite statistics from the U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report that showed Venezuela taking positive steps to seize drug shipments, including the disruption of two major drug trafficking cartels. Nevertheless, the United States recently decertified Venezuela as a cooperative partner in the War on Drugs after Caracas, alleging that officials within the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had been spies, decided to disband a number of enforcement units in the country that were supported by the DEA.

Despite U.S. pressure to penalize coca farmers, Morales—an Aymara indigenous leader and former coca grower—insists on decriminalizing the production and non-narcotic use of the leaf. Morales has renamed Bolivia's Coca Control agency the Coca Development agency and adopted a "zero cocaine—not zero coca" policy. As a result, Washington is threatening to decertify Bolivia as a fully cooperative partner in the War on Drugs, which would disqualify the country from preferential trade tariffs and around $100 million in U.S. aid. However, threats from Washington have an unsuccessful record of influencing behavior in the country, and new nationalist leaders have been particularly successful at utilizing these threats to rally Bolivians. Furthermore, despite USAID-funded alternative crop substitution programs, Bolivia's cocaleros have little incentive to switch to cultivation of another crop since coca thrives in the country's harsh terrain and there are established markets for the profitable leaf.

The intransigence of Chávez and Morales to Washington's drug policy appears to be encouraging other aspiring populist leaders in the region. Ecuador's failed presidential candidate Rafael Correa declared his friendship with Chávez and announced that if elected president, he would not extend a treaty with the U.S. military that is scheduled to run out in 2009 regarding the use of the Manta air base for drug surveillance flights. In Peru, despite the recent electoral loss of Chávez-ally Ollanta Humala—a populist who campaigned against U.S-funded coca eradication programs and sought to "industrialize" coca production to keep it out of the hands of drug traffickers—hundreds of thousands of the country's cocaleros recently have threatened to revolt if President Alan García pushes ahead with a U.S.-supported coca eradication plan. Peru is the world's second largest cocaine producer after Colombia, and this opposition could have major...