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 News from Around the Americas | February 2007 
Chavez to Back Bolivian Coca Growers
 Chris Kraul - LATimes
| | Bolivian President Evo Morales wears a coca leaf necklace at a rally in La Paz last month marking his first year in office. (Dado Galdieri/AP) |
Caracas, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez has found a novel way to dispense foreign aid: promising to underwrite coca production in Bolivia.
Officials here confirmed Wednesday that Venezuela will buy whatever legal products Bolivia can make from coca leaf, as part of that southern Andean nation's attempt to wean farmers from the cocaine industry.
Chavez's promise could finance the production of some 4,000 tons of coca leaf in Bolivia, Venezuelan officials say.
Possible coca-based products include soap, bread, toothpaste, medicines and cooking oils. No dollar amount for Venezuela's support has been announced. Three factories are under construction in Bolivia with Venezuelan financial and Cuban technical support.
Promises of aid
First announced last month by Venezuela's ambassador in Bolivia, Julio Montes, the deal is being completed this week in Caracas during meetings of the countries' foreign ministers.
The pledge is the latest in a series of foreign aid promises in Latin America as Chavez tries to expand his influence and promote his "Bolivarean Revolution." Among his aid programs is a promised refinery for Nicaragua, cut-rate fuels for Ecuador and continuing bond purchases from Argentina.
Chavez's promise is a big step in Bolivian President Evo Morales' efforts to legitimize the production of coca leaves, a crop Morales once grew.
The announcement came as the U.S. government is scaling back its anti-drug enforcement funding to Andean nations, including Bolivia and Ecuador.
Chavez has long supported Morales' efforts to find commercial markets for coca-based products. Indigenous communities in Colombia and Peru, who claim the leaf is sacred, have attempted to promote commercial, noncocaine uses of coca in soft drinks, cookies and anti-arthritic ointments. Botanists have extolled the nutrients that the leaf contains.
Production expanded
Morales in December announced he was expanding legal production of coca in Bolivia to 50,000 acres from 30,000 acres by 2010. The United States protested, saying Bolivia needed only a fraction of that acreage for domestic needs.
The coca deal will do nothing to lessen the continued hostility of the Bush administration toward the Chavez regime. That hostility was evident at a Wednesday congressional hearing when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said democracy and human rights were under attack in Venezuela.
"I do believe that the president of Venezuela is really, really destroying his own country, economically, politically," Rice told lawmakers. |
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