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A positive signal was that the transitional government named Franz Asturizaga as Vice Minister of Coca. However, within a few months, Asturizaga was replaced by a bureaucrat with no links to Yungas; the new government argued that there was no regulation that stipulated that this post had to be occupied by someone from that region. In any case, this hardly mattered, because a few weeks later the Covid pandemic arrived and with it, a lockdown. Longread by. Although the rural communities never observed lockdown and went on working their coca fields as usual — indeed, they had to, they were not going to let the crops just shrivel and rot — monetary circulation came to a standstill for three months. From July , some relief came with a system of quotas. Two local community representatives escorted the lorries, took charge of sales and distributed the proceeds to the individual producers who remained in the countryside. Some problems occurred. One community split into two opposing factions due to earlier political problems. However, most buried the hatchet and let everyone send one or two bundles, relieving the worst economic hardship. New national elections were held in October , resulting in another majority win for the MAS due to the disorganization and feeble campaigns of the opposition coalitions. They then moved from one improvised location to another, ending up in another building belonging to ADEPCOCA, constructed to serve as a hospital for members of the organization but which has never functioned as such, in Calle 10, Villa el Carmen, a suburb neighbouring Villa Fatima, also quickly abandoned. In , they resumed operations in a building of a transport syndicate, heading out of the city to Yungas, Qalajawira. As before, the government obliged wholesalers to purchase coca at this site by setting up an office there to authorize transport of coca for sale in the rest of the country, and refusing to stamp documents if the coca in question had been purchased in Villa Fatima. The Legal Coca Market was occupied only by those few producers who retailed coca by the pound to private consumers. Although the government did not admit to public negotiation with the organization headed by Lluta, they gave the impression that they would recognize the committee named in such an election. Lluta's good faith was soon shattered. To this end, Flores announced that she would hold an assembly in Coripata to name an electoral committee. Other sectors also turned out to block access to Coripata from Sud Yungas in case some provincial carpeteros should also wish to attend. The Flores supporters, as usual, had police escorts, and were able to pass a first road block. There they disrupted the few Flores supporters who had been able to meet and swear in an electoral committee. An official report followed, indicating that he had been wounded and died during his evacuation to La Paz. There has never been any attempt to count the votes. The election began in the first week of September On the morning of election day, the media dismissed the circulating news that proof of having voted would be necessary to go to the bank for the next three months — as is the case in national elections. All this led the head of the electoral committee, shortly after midday, to declare the suspension of the election, but in some regions voting continued. The only region where a count was actually declared was in Asunta: the local candidate won with just over 2, votes, followed by Alanes with around 1,, but the supposed winner shortly afterwards rejected the result, indicating that the ballot boxes had been loaded into a car and taken off to a distant community. He had not witnessed the count and did not believe the numbers. No other region published how many votes had been cast or for whom. Nevertheless, Alanes proclaimed himself the winner on the basis of the total sum of all the regions. There they attempted to hold an election by acclamation, but supporters of Alanes and of his closest rival, Fernando Calle, started to fight, and their police guard — supposedly there to protect them from possible attacks by the majority — resorted to tear gas to put an end to the riot. The disputants dispersed; the Calle faction later returned and elected him, but meanwhile Alanes and his supporters, with another supporting police contingent, set off for Villa Fatima. This was on a Sunday, the day that there is least movement in the market, and with help from the police they were able to charge in and take over the building. The rest of the Yungas responded with fury. All the shops and offices had to shut down each time the march came by. Local residents had to submit to being searched by the police in case they had dynamite in their bags and sometimes got tear gas bombs through their windows, as the police shot the bombs off any which way. After two weeks of this violence, the Self Defence Committee finally designed a strategy, sending the Sud Yungas provincial contingent off by an avenue that skirts Villa Fatima up on the hillside, while Nor Yungas and Inquisivi, the other two coca growing provinces, went down the main avenue as usual to distract the police. They summoned all of the coca growers to come to the city that day. No one took an exact count, but estimates suggest there were at least 20, and probably more. There were rumours that the government would send 2, police from all over the country to confront them, although in the end only were assigned. On the same day, 20th October , Alanes held an assembly in the square just down from the Market. About people turned out and a fair number judging by their regional dress were not from Yungas. The event began, but it was evident from the shouts and explosions that there was a huge river of people descending the hillside behind the Market and the police could not contain them. Alanes left, claiming that he had to go and look for some papers he had forgotten, and his supporters retreated, along with the police who could no longer resist the flood of producers pouring in from two directions. The producers kicked in the doors of the Market and recaptured it, easily overcoming the few Alanes supporters and police inside. It might be thought that this would be sufficient to convince the government to stop favouring a group in such an evidently minority position. Alanes disappeared from view for a few months. ADEPCOCA held an election in November , won — by acclamation, of course — by Freddy Machicado, representing Chamaca, a region that had never before held the presidency, breaking the monopoly of the traditional zone. His vice president was from Inquisivi, which likewise had been excluded by the Coripata-Chulumani pact. However, his board opted to avoid political disputes in favour of a technocratic option, naming two professional administrators to handle the finances of ADEPCOCA. The proposal to establish a formal administration had been widely circulated and supported, but the accountancy protocols applied by the administrators were incomprehensible for most of the grass roots, while their assistant personal were widely accused by grass root members of nepotism. In , Alanes reappeared and continued his efforts to establish an alternative coca market. Law of only recognizes one legal coca market in La Paz, but does not mention where it is situated, only that it belongs to ADEPCOCA, which provided Alanes with a legal loophole to claim that his market was the real legal one. He secured the use of a peasant market in the city of El Alto, but when some of his supporters took their coca there, they found no buyers and had to load it back on the buses and go down to Villa Fatima. He then announced that he had purchased a hangar in Urujara, next to the control point on the highway arriving from Yungas, and was going to build a five storey building there. But the real owner of the site, a Chinese businessman, appeared and announced that he had not sold the site and was cancelling the rental contract. Finally, Alanes transferred operations to a former private school in Calle 1 of Villa El Carmen, right next to the Yungas bus terminal, which he again claimed to have purchased. They were repressed with tear gas. They aimed to expel Alanes, but once again the government provided a police cordon to protect the illegal market, apart from declaring that it was not illegal because it did not have a permit as a market but only as a point of sale, similar to any individual coca retailer. On the 8th they entered in the same pincer movement as the year before, but this time directed to Calle 1, overwhelming successive police cordons in the avenues and surrounding the former school, which Alanes had repainted with a huge ADEPCOCA logo. They were met with Molotov cocktails and dynamite thrown from the roof terrace, which only infuriated the marchers more, until they finally stormed the building, sacked its contents and beat up several of the men found inside, demanding to know where Alanes had got to, before handing them over to the police. Two women were also captured and had their outer clothing removed to shame them, but were not beaten like the men. It was expected that the males would be held in custody and charged with using explosives, but they were released almost immediately. The marchers also discovered dynamite, prepared with fuses, firearms and a sort of home made cannon 1 , which they also removed before nightfall, when someone lit a fire on the ground floor of the building. According to the marchers, this was done by an infiltrator, as they had only lit a fire outside on the road before breaking down the door, but it was attributed to them. Testimonies later emerged that Alanes had been able to escape over the roof to the next building, where he disguised himself and was able to sneak out a back door under the cover of darkness. These events turned out to be the point of inflexion where the government changed its tactics from direct confrontation and police repression, to judicial persecution. Orders of arrest were issued for all the members of the ADEPCOCA administration, peasant federation leaders, the Self Defense Committee, and any other grass roots member, man or woman, who had been spotted heading a march or using a megaphone. In all cases, the accusing party was the Ministry of Government. Plain clothes police circulated constantly between the Villa Fatima market and the Yungas bus terminal, picking off the cited members one by one, starting with the president Freddy Machicado. Those arrested were not taken to the central police station but instead taken up to El Alto to make it more difficult for others to find them. The most notorious case is Cesar Apaza, former Executive Secretary of the Chulumani peasant federation from to and subsequently head of the Self Defense Committee. He was brutally beaten up before being committed on remand to San Pedro prison, and thence transferred to the high security Chonchocoro prison in the Altiplano on the outskirts of El Alto. There he suffered a stroke, in all probability a consequence of the beating, and was hospitalized for two weeks, but, still in a paralysed condition, was then taken back to prison to continue awaiting trial. Bolivian justice is notorious for making excessive use of preventive detention, usually justified on the grounds that the accused is likely to flee the country or will try to manipulate evidence or intimidate witnesses, but Apaza still suffers paralysis of one side of his body and is unable to move from his bed without assistance. It is difficult to imagine how he could run away or intimidate anybody. The second in command of the Self Defense Committee, Rosalba Vargas, was put under house arrest in Yungas but without the right to go out to work, which is a ridiculous abuse when the accused is a peasant farmer who cannot work from home. Meanwhile various political authorities accused of corruption — who are members of the MAS, who could carry out their work on line from their homes - were put under house arrest with the right to go out to work every day. During all this time, from onwards, ADEPCOCA sent repeated requests to the government for meetings to resolve the conflict with Alanes, but according to their public declarations, these were never answered. He, meanwhile, attempted to revive the constitutional demand previously presented by Elena Flores to be recognized as the legal president of ADEPCOCA and, consequently, merited a legal order for the Legal Coca Market to be handed over to him. At the same time, one member of the organisation was briefly imprisoned and then released following a request for an expedited trial. In Bolivian law, this corresponds to the accused admitting guilt, in exchange for an express trial and a reduced sentence. Alanes crowed victory, declaring the man in question, Gabriel Mamani, had admitted to the entire list of fifteen crimes and this meant that all the others accused of the same list were guilty too. In fact, the deal with Mamani was that he only had to admit to bodily harm and grievous bodily harm, but many grass roots members also think that his confession implies guilt on the part of all others charged with the rest of the crimes. As in Urujara, it turns out that Alanes never actually bought the building but was only renting it, supposedly with a promise to purchase; it was to have been valued with a view to finalizing the sale on 15th September , that is, a week after it was taken over and wrecked. Given that he has made so many false statements in the past 4 , many grass root coca growers consider that this is not to be believed, while others argue that the Market is the property of the institution, not of the individuals who happen to be occupying the leadership and so could not be confiscated even if the legal procedure rules favourably. However, the strategy of legal persecution has had worse repercussions in the Yungas. Arguably, it has been more successful for the government than direct confrontation and repression, in that it has caused a general crisis in leadership at all levels of the peasant organization. Very few people now dare to stand for election in the peasant federations and at the level of the agrarian Centrals and Subcentrals, unless they are MAS sympathisers and prepared to obey government orders, because they fear that if they oppose policies designed for Yungas, they will be accused of trumped up charges and imprisoned, given that the judicial system is totally lacking in independence. This is part of a long term strategy that the MAS has been carrying out ever since Evo Morales secured his third term in Under the new Constitution which his government approved in , a president is only allowed two consecutive terms. But Morales and MAS argued that his first term was under the previous constitution and therefore did not count, so in he was starting his second term. The same has occurred with the peasant federations and agrarian Centrals in a large part of Yungas, and with the Regionals of ADEPCOCA, provoking many local conflicts which ranged from beatings, destruction of property, harvesting the coca fields of members of the rival organization, and even deaths. Municipal authorities and government agencies collaborated with the divisions by recognizing the minority parallel organizations and channelling development projects and public works through them, ignoring those who continued to support the majority organizations. After Morales resigned, most authorities ceased to manipulate projects in such a direct way, but still recognize the parallel organizations, although most of these have few or no grass roots support and the same leaders remain in office for years having long since overrun their terms. The divisions were particularly active in the municipality of La Asunta, where they had already appeared before when leaders favoured coca eradication campaigns see below. At times division occurred within the same community. In other cases a whole agrarian Central was associated with one or another band, as happened with La Calzada, fiercely anti government, versus the neighbouring town of Santa Rosa, unconditional supporters of MAS. In March Evo Morales, now without any position in government but exercising influence as President of the MAS party organization, honoured Santa Rosa with a personal visit. He planned to travek on to the municipal capital of La Asunta to meet his supporters there, but when he travelled from Santa Rosa to the main road, people from Calzada, together with the anti government peasant federation of Asunta, had blocked the highway and refused to let him pass. He was forced to do an about turn and stage an unplanned visit to Irupana, a MAS-supporting municipality. The car he was travelling in turned out to have been stolen in Santa Cruz and was recovered by the police, though not returned to its owner, and instead was handed over to the governing political party. In addition to its murky links with the government, the actual ADEPCOCA leadership shows signs of promoting divisions at the regional level, in cases where this had been overcome with much effort because of the resentment created by previous conflicts, for instance, in Regional Arapata. In April , this Regional elected a new board of directors, but the departmental leadership did not turn up to swear them in. They were sworn in by the same electoral committee that had organized the election, by acclamation, supposedly because they did not have funds to print ballot papers for a secret vote. ADEPCOCA argued that this was not a legitimate procedure 6 , did not recognize the newly elected board or directors when they presented themselves in Villa Fatima and a few weeks later, swore in a new electoral committee of notorious MAS sympathisers to carry out another election. It remains to be seen what the consequence of these actions will be. In the end, the only thing that really interests most coca growers is the possibility to sell their coca in peace and in a comfortable setting. In Yungas, this is generally attributed to a supposed overproduction 7 , blamed on Law for having legalized coca growing in various regions where until it was illegal, hence the demand for this law to be abrogated and replaced with another which establishes severe limits on the areas where coca is allowed, and imposes total eradication of plantations everywhere else. This demand has never even been considered by the government. Law replaced the section on coca in Law , promulgated in the larger part of that law, which deals with controlled substances, that is illegal drugs, remains unchanged. From , successive governments began negotiations with a view to changing the law on coca, which is such a troubled topic on the national and international level that it took fifteen years to finally win new legislation. Moreover, the newly legalized areas of production, in the provinces of La Paz such as Larecaja and Caranavi, do not produce significant quantities of leaves; much more significant quantities come from the colonization zones in Yungas, above all La Asunta. There is no doubt that much of this — as well as coca from the traditional zone — is also used for cocaine, with the only difference with respect to the Chapare being that this industrialization is carried on in the interior of the country, with coca that arrives there by legal channels, and not in the same areas where it is produced. Ever since intermittent campaigns of destruction of plantations continue to be carried out, subject to much political manipulation and episodes of violent confrontation. Outside the traditional zone, where there are no legal limits on the size of plantations, the fields remain limited in practice because there is no longer any space to extend the agricultural frontier. Plantations which go over these limits are also liable to be eradicated. In addition, the agreement includes a list of all the communities and the number of producers in each one who were legally registered with ADEPCOCA at the time. Since then, many more have joined the association, from the traditional and other zones, and new communities have appeared, either through colonization or because established communities divided into two or more within the same territory. If the letter of the agreement is strictly interpreted, all this new coca that appeared since ought also to be eradicated. Apart from the unknown destiny of all of this cash assumed by many Yungas inhabitants to have gone into the pockets of Cordero and who knows which other members of the then leadership the legal status of the then recognized new communities on the ADEPCOCA computerized register has never been made clear. Within the traditional zone, producers privately support the elimination of the red zones within Yungas, although on the public level they only demand eradication of the aforementioned newly legalized zones and production within national parks, which has always been illegal; however, this is a potential source of conflict, not only with the government but within the organization itself, which may flare up at any time if the government should decide to intensify eradication campaigns. Although the coca war is currently at a low intensity, it is not likely to end any time soon. A former teacher from the school later declared that this was not really a cannon but just a mockup for the pupils to march with in the 23rd of March annual parade, commemorating when Bolivia lost its sea coast in the War of the Pacific. If this was so, they must have been well muscled pupils, as it was a very solid metal construction, not the usual cardboard mock-ups that schools prepare for such parades. The nurse visits Apaza in his cell each day, but all he does is take his blood pressure. It is certain that, unlike the departmental level, the Regionals are accustomed to carrying out a secret ballot, but the only Regional that actually has a written statute establishing this procedure is Chulumani. The rest do not have any statute at all and proceed on the basis of oral custom, so the departmental secretary of acts, Erlin Pari, had no basis for declaring illegitimate an election by acclamation. It is generally assumed that his real reason was that the elected directory did not sympathize with the government. Various other factors are involved. Over the last decade, processes of post-production have become considerably more sophisticated, with various forms of selection to produce diverse qualities of coca, based above all on the size of the leaves, with highly differentiated prices; thus, the largest selected leaves actually sell for or Bolivianos for a fifty pound bundle in Villa Fatima, whereas the tiniest leaves are only worth to Bolivianos per bundle. To obtain two or three bundles of the top selected quality, one requires around pounds of unselected coca as it comes off the field. Few producers harvest more than to pounds in the course of a week to be sold fresh; those who operate the selection are the wholesale dealers who bulk the coca of several individual producers, to whom they pay the farm gate price which works out at the equivalent of to — at best — Bolivianos per bundle. The producers have the option of taking their small quantities to Villa Fatima in person, but being unselected, their leaves will not get a significantly higher price there. Another factor is specifically related to the Covid pandemic. Travel restrictions to limit contagion led to lifting the legal limit of 10 bundles a month for each individual trader, permitting group licenses where one or two people traveled with the coca of ten or more individuals. The restricted group of holders of these permits established an oligopoly within the coca market and fixed low prices for the coca coming in from Yungas, something which had not been possible when purchases were carried out by thousands of individual traders limited to ten bundles each. From travel restrictions have been lifted, but it would appear that these clandestine oligopolies continue to function on a certain level. Production of coca in this region took off in the s during the cocaine boom in demand, and is not being consumed traditionally. Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter. Regions Bolivia. Publication date: 26 July 16 minutes read. Authors Longread by Alison Spedding Pallet. Pien Metaal. Alison Spedding Pallet. Authors Alison Spedding Pallet. Notes and sources A former teacher from the school later declared that this was not really a cannon but just a mockup for the pupils to march with in the 23rd of March annual parade, commemorating when Bolivia lost its sea coast in the War of the Pacific. Article: Newsletter banner Do you want to stay informed? Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Subscribe now. Producers of Crops Coca Leaf. Longread by Alison Spedding Pallet. Primer by Tom Blickman. About drug law reform in Bolivia Drug Law Reform. Hundreds of social struggles. Countless ideas turned into movement. Support us as we celebrate our 50th anniversary in Make a donation.

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Should we help him? At that present moment all I could think was that I knew exactly how the poor fella must feel, I felt something similar just hours ago. In fact, I was quite envious he was sleeping it off while I was lethargically shuffling along the streets of La Paz. In Chile we saw one guy walk straight into a massive billboard sign that he surely would have seen had he been sober enough. He knocked himself right to the ground. It was hard not to immediately laugh but also very sad considering it was eleven in the morning. Our guide told us that people in La Paz bury their dead here, paying a yearly fee, for the first five years after their death. During this time Bolivians believe that the dead are still with them. Seems like quite a nice philosophy to me. After this period burial plots are served eviction notices, which we saw plastered to the little windows of some graves, and eventually evicted. The remains are then buried in a common mass grave keeping only the skulls which are then adopted by families. These are known as natitas. People believe the skulls represent the souls of the dearly departed and that giving them offerings and treating them with respect will protect their houses and businesses. The skulls are from random people and not the skulls of their loved ones. I absolutely love the idea of a day of the dead festival, a day for everyone to come together and remember their deceased loved ones with a big party. It was much more of a busy, bustling vibe rather than a subdued and peaceful one like at the cemetery in Sucre. After the cemetery we took the cable car up to El Alto , a separate town to La Paz and where the very poor people live. I hate cable cars. The cable car in La Paz, however, is perhaps the most modern looking thing I have seen throughout the whole of Bolivia. It was built by socialist President Evo Morales to connect the richer South part of the city with the poorer North and is actually a fantastic idea. The cable cars float above the city bypassing traffic, endless steep hills, and reducing pollution. They are not for the faint-hearted though, they go incredibly high, almost vertical at some points as they climb the lofty edge of the city to reach El Alto. Disembarking at El Alto after a 15 minute journey where I avoided looking down the entire time there was a line almost a kilometre long to get on the cable cars and back down to the city. I love markets but even this one was too much for me. People cajole and hustle trying to get past each other. I saw one cart peddling only plastic spray bottles and another hair clips. Everything can be bought here. I was quite glad to get out the market even if it was onto a dirty, dusty street lined with mini-bomb fires. This street was dedicated to Aymara shamans who read coca leaves. They reside in little wooden huts lined up one by one. The bonfire outside each hut is for burning offering such as sweets and other things to Pachamama mother earth for good luck. According to Aymara beliefs to become a shaman you must be struck by lightening and have survived. According to our guide, some people come here daily to have their future told or to seek direction and guidance by the coca leaves if they have a big decision to make. Mostly there were just men chatting and drinking beer by bonfires. I noticed one of the men offered some beer to an American guy in our group who politely declined. The Bolivian man insisted but still the American refused and the Bolivian man was very offended by this, throwing the beer aggressively on the floor. In the ancient past offerings of mostly girls and children would be made to the mountain gods when building a new structure or road, for example, as they believed the mountains to be very powerful. Our guide said there are suspicions that sacrifices still happen, that bodies of people have, years later, been found under modern buildings. This is all speculation of course. Finally, to end our tour it was time for some afternoon Cholita wrestling. It all gets a bit raucous when the wrestlers come off the stage and into the arena threatening to spray fizzy drinks over those who boo them. They never actually do this to the tourists but the locals certainly get fizz in their face. The audience throw meat bones and fruit in return. I nearly got hit by a couple of T-bones a few times. Old men wrestling young men also takes place following the same pretence. The cutest thing, though, is how the children idolise the young wrestlers , clinging onto them as they leave the stage and asking them for autographs. You can also read about Death Road just outside of La Paz here. You can read more about La Paz here. For a blog on Sucre, Bolivia click here. For a blog on Uyuni and the Bolivian Salt flats click here. If you enjoy reading my blogs or find them useful please like and share! Also, please feel free to ask me any travel questions you may have or to share your own travel experiences. Skip to content The cable car to El Alto. An interesting and rather sexy mural at La Paz general cemetery. Lady selling offerings. Cholita Wresting Finally, to end our tour it was time for some afternoon Cholita wrestling. Cholita wrestling. Locals watch the wrestling. As part of the ticket tourists get a free drink, a little souvenir and a bag of popcorn. And that was the end of the tour! Like Loading Secondary navigation Search. Post navigation. Search for: Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel. Comment Reblog Subscribe Subscribed. Heidi Vella. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website.

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