For the past two years, Bolivian President Evo Morales has shifted drug policy in Bolivia toward a program he calls "Coca Si, Cocaina No." Though the "zero cocaine" program continues to work against illegal cocaine production and trafficking, it also allows an increase in the cultivation of coca for legal purposes.
Coca, Si! Cocaina, No!
Published April 14, 2008
Aired on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Dispatches on April 14, 2008
Visit CBC to listen to an mp3 of the program
Ruxandra's piece starts approximately 15:30 minutes in.
From CBC's Dispatches site:
The government of Bolivia would like it understood that it is NOT in the cocaine business. It's in the COCA business. Big difference. Bolivia encourages farmers to grow the plant that produces cocaine, providing they turn it into something else.
"Coca, Si! Cocaina, No!"
For all that though, the Americans claim it still churns out a hundred tons of Bolivian Marching Powder every year, and maybe some of those farmers aren't so fussy about whom they sell to.
Dispatches' contributor Ruxandra Gudi went deep into coca country, to see for herself.
Roberto (Bear) Guerra has been nominated for a National Magazine Award in the photojournalism category f
Pulitzer Center-supported documentary "La Hoya," Gabrielle Weiss' film about Bolivia's coca culture, was shown at the Philanthropy New York documentary series.
Grantee
Ruxandra is a writer and producer with experience working in radio, print journalism, and multimedia. She has reported from the Caribbean, South and Central America, as well as the U.S.-Mexico...
