Desarrollo integrado con coca en el Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia: de la erradicación a la mitigación de la pobreza

La innovadora política “coca sí, cocaína no” del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, en vigor desde 2006, aporta información valiosa sobre los beneficios de adoptar un enfoque de los aspectos del control de cultivos relacionados con la oferta que esté centrado en los medios de subsistencia sostenibles y no en la previa erradicación forzosa. Si bien esta política no está exenta de limitaciones, la atención que dedica a la asistencia social, los derechos humanos y la estabilidad económica de las familias cultivadoras de coca ha demostrado ser eficaz y sostenible para diversificar la economía y fomentar la estabilidad política y económica. La participación directa de las comunidades y las organizaciones de base, como los sindicatos cocaleros, en la búsqueda de enfoques más eficaces y sostenibles respecto del control de la droga ha sido fundamental para el éxito de esta política. Los elementos del programa clave de esta política también se corresponden con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible, aprobados por las Naciones Unidas en 2015

From Conflict to Collaboration: An Innovative Approach to Reducing Coca Cultivation in Bolivia

Upon his presidential election, Bolivian coca grower leader Evo Morales adopted a policy of promoting consensual coca reduction through social control, a sophisticated coca monitoring system, and economic development. That strategy is paying off. In 2011, coca cultivation decreased by 13 per cent according to the U.S. government. The Morales administration has also made significant progress facing the ongoing challenges of drug production and trafficking. Seizures of coca paste and cocaine and destruction of drug laboratories have steadily increased since President Morales took office. Despite continued tensions in bilateral relations, U.S.-Bolivian counter-drug cooperation continues and the signing of a new framework agreement in 2011 should lead to an exchange of ambassadors. Internationally, Bolivia has successfully gained acceptance of the right to the traditional use of coca within its own territory. But Bolivia’s efforts must be carried out in tandem with effective demand reduction strategies to shrink the global cocaine market

Habeas Coca: Bolivias Community Coca Control: Spanish

With significant pressure and earmarked funding from the United States and other demand-side countries, the Andean countries of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru have struggled for decades with the question of how to limit the growth of coca and the export of cocaine and comply with UN drug conventions. Tactics such as forced eradication, criminalization, and marginalization of coca farmers have not only failed to significantly reduce cocaine production, but have had disastrous consequences for the economies and communities in the region.In 2004 the Bolivian government, despite international pressure to maintain the status quo, gathered the political momentum to try something different. Bolivia established the cato accord that allowed farmers to legally grow a limited and regulated quantity of coca leaves, a mainstay of Andean life for 4,000 years.The Bolivian model's simple concept is supported at the local, national, regional, and international levels by a complex network of growers, unions, organizations, government agencies, and police and military forces.Habeas Coca: Bolivia's Community Coca Control explains how the community control system works and shows its effectiveness in decreasing violence, increasing citizen engagement, limiting corruption, stabilizing and diversifying local economies, and reducing coca cultivation. It also explores the areas where the program and its evaluation can be improved.Countries where legal and illegal drug markets coexist, or can be developed, can benefit greatly by exploring and adapting the community control model to their unique circumstances. And, by better understanding the possibilities and constraints placed on those on the supply-side, countries on the demand-side of the global drug market will learn from Habeas Coca how critical their own policies, domestic and foreign, are to the success of limiting cocaine su

Integrated development with coca in the plurinational state of Bolivia: shifting the focus from eradication to poverty alleviation

The innovative “coca yes, cocaine no” policy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, in place since 2006, provides valuable insight into the benefits of a sustainable livelihood approach to supply-side drug crop control without prior forced eradication. While the policy has inevitable limitations, its focus on the social welfare, human rights and economic stability of coca-farming families has proven effective and sustainable in diversifying the economy and fostering political and economic stability. The direct participation of communities and grass-roots organizations, such as the coca grower unions, in finding more effective and sustainable approaches to drug control have been crucial elements in its success. The elements of the policy’s key programme also correspond with the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations in 2015

Habeas Coca: Bolivias Community Coca Control

With significant pressure and earmarked funding from the United States and other demand-side countries, the Andean countries of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru have struggled for decades with the question of how to limit the growth of coca and the export of cocaine and comply with UN drug conventions. Tactics such as forced eradication, criminalization, and marginalization of coca farmers have not only failed to significantly reduce cocaine production, but have had disastrous consequences for the economies and communities in the region.In 2004 the Bolivian government, despite international pressure to maintain the status quo, gathered the political momentum to try something different. Bolivia established the cato accord that allowed farmers to legally grow a limited and regulated quantity of coca leaves, a mainstay of Andean life for 4,000 years.The Bolivian model's simple concept is supported at the local, national, regional, and international levels by a complex network of growers, unions, organizations, government agencies, and police and military forces.Habeas Coca: Bolivia's Community Coca Control explains how the community control system works and shows its effectiveness in decreasing violence, increasing citizen engagement, limiting corruption, stabilizing and diversifying local economies, and reducing coca cultivation. It also explores the areas where the program and its evaluation can be improved.Countries where legal and illegal drug markets coexist, or can be developed, can benefit greatly by exploring and adapting the community control model to their unique circumstances. And, by better understanding the possibilities and constraints placed on those on the supply-side, countries on the demand-side of the global drug market will learn from Habeas Coca how critical their own policies, domestic and foreign, are to the success of limiting cocaine supply.

Développement intégré et coca dans l’État plurinational de Bolivie: l’éradication cède le pas à la réduction de la pauvreté

La politique novatrice consistant à dire « oui à la coca, non à la cocaïne » que l’État plurinational de Bolivie a mise en place à partir de 2006 montre bien les avantages que présente, en matière de contrôle des cultures servant à fabriquer des drogues exercé du côté de l’offre, une approche fondée sur des moyens de subsistance durables qui ne suppose pas au préalable d’éradication forcée. En dépit des inévitables inconvénients de cette politique, le fait qu’elle mette l’accent sur la protection sociale, les droits fondamentaux et la stabilité économique des familles de cultivateurs de coca a montré son efficacité et sa viabilité du point de vue de la diversification de l’économie et de la promotion de la stabilité politique et économique, et son succès doit beaucoup à la participation directe des communautés et des organisations locales, telles que les syndicats de cultivateurs de coca, à la recherche de méthodes plus efficaces et durables de lutte contre la drogue. De plus, les éléments du programme principal mis en oeuvre dans le cadre de cette politique rejoignent les objectifs de développement durable que l’Organisation des Nations Unies a adoptés en 2015

From criminals to citizens: the applicability of Bolivia’s community-based coca control policy to Peru

Between 2006-2019, Bolivia emerged as a world leader in formulating a participatory, non-violent model to gradually limit coca production in a safe and sustainable manner while simultaneously offering farmers realistic economic alternatives to coca. Our study finds that not only has this model reduced violence, but it has effectively expanded social and civil rights in hitherto marginal regions. In contrast, Peru has continued to conceptualise ‘drugs’ as a crime and security issue. This has led to U.S.-financed forced crop eradication, putting the burden onto impoverished farmers, generating violence and instability. At the request of farmers, the Peruvian government has made a tentative move towards implementing one aspect of Bolivia’s community control in Peru. Could it work? We address this question by focusing on participatory development with a special emphasis on the role of local organisations and the relationship between growers and the state. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, focus group discussions and secondary research, we find that for community control to have any chance of success in Peru, grassroots organisations must be strengthened and grower trust in the state created. The study also demonstrates that successful participatory development in drug crop regions is contingent on land titling and robust state investment, which strengthens farmer resolve to participate so as to avoid a return to the repression of the past

Desecuritizar la 'guerra contra las drogas'

This chapter makes use of Colombian-US bilateral relations as a window to trace the evolution of the US-designed ‘war on drugs’, highlighting the role of securitization in the development of counternarcotics activities in Colombia and discussing the process through which the shortcomings of this policy have created opportunities to engage in desecuritization and to design alternative strategies. It explores the principles that have sustained the ‘war on drugs’ and the evolution of Colombian-US relations since 1998, providing an overall assessment of the anti-drug strategy that helps to analyse the possibilities of desecuritization in the light of the Copenhagen school’s securitization theory. Finally, the chapter identifies the challenges that drug policy reform currently faces in Colombia and Latin America more generally