Suchergebnisse

The rise of the coca unions -- The lowest rung of the cocaine trade -- Self-governing in the Chapare -- From class to ethnicity -- Community coca control -- The unions and local government -- The coca union's radio station

ABSTRACTBolivia is a centre for drug production and trafficking and yet it experiences far less drug‐related violence than other countries in Latin America that form part of cocaine's commodity chain. Drawing upon more than three years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2005 and 2019, this article presents evidence from the Chapare, a coca‐growing and drug processing region in central Bolivia, to consider why this is the case. Building from the literature on embedded economies and the subsistence ethic of peasant communities, the article demonstrates that the drug trade is part of a local moral order that prioritizes kinship, reciprocal relations and community well‐being, facilitated by the cultural significance of the coca leaf. This has served to limit possibilities for the violence that is often associated with drug production and trafficking. In addition, coca grower agricultural unions act as a parallel form of governance, providing a framework for the peaceful resolution of disputes and working actively to exclude the state and criminal actors.

In Bolivia's Chapare coca growing region, the union structure (sindicato) is the cornerstone of social and political organization. The type of democracy practiced by coca growers' unions, has been portrayed by the media and opposition politicians as illiberal, anti-democratic, and even authoritarian. But yardsticks rooted in western democratic traditions do not readily apply as there is a substantively different form of democracy at work. The union leadership's use of force and sanctions is the result of a negotiated process, made with the consent of all members. But what evolved as the government of coca grower leader Evo Morales remained in power for three terms was a more top-down approach, as union executives increasingly disengaged from the grassroots. Union-led action against excess coca cultivation and cocaine paste production has impacted on some peasant households negatively and criticism that the amount of coca legally sanctioned was insufficient is ubiquitous. Thus, even among loyal followers, growing numbers of coca growers came to see Morales as increasingly authoritarian in failing to heed the principle of "leading by obeying. In telling this story this article contributes to debates on how state-level interventions intersect with the goals of the social movements that put them in power.

This article first examines the ways in which coca leaf acquired an important symbolic value in forging a counter‐hegemonic discourse that wove together various strands of class and cultural identity struggles in the Chapare province, Bolivia. The second line of enquiry that runs through this article deals with the conflicts that arose when the coca union mutated into a governing political party. Now that the coca growers' leader, Evo Morales, is President of the Republic he is obliged by the international community to reduce the amount of land under coca cultivation. To do this President Morales has had to rhetorically pull coca leaf apart from Andean tradition. This presents a challenge to the integrity of indigenous‐peasant based movements in the Chapare because it brings attention to their constructed nature and thus questions the authenticity of the originario identity.

Abstract
A key element in the historically unprecedented advances in indigenous women's political representation under Bolivia's Evo Morales's administration (2006–2019) was the influence that women coca growers played in the rural women's indigenous organization known as the Bartolinas. Driven in no small measure by their resistance to the US-financed War on Drugs in the Chapare region, the cocaleras became both Bolivia's strongest indigenous women's organization and its most dedicated advocates for indigenous women's rights. This article contends that intersectionality—of gender, class, and indigenous identities—is at the heart of understanding indigenous women's transformation from "helpers" of a male-dominated peasant union to government ministers in the space of ten years. Not only did they effectively deploy chachawarmi, the Andean concept of gender complementarity, to advance their rights in a way consistent with their cultural identity and political loyalties, but they also benefited from the gains of a predominantly urban middle-class feminist movement even though they formally rejected the feminist movement's composition and perceived orientation.

For over two decades the US has funded repressive forced coca eradication in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia to reduce the illegal cocaine trade. These policies have never met their stated goals and have generated violence and poverty. In 2006 Bolivia definitively broke with the US anti-narcotics model, replacing the militarized eradication of coca crops with a community-based coca control strategy. The program substantially reduced the coca crop while simultaneously respecting human rights and allowing farmers to diversify their livelihoods. This article outlines the elements of the Bolivian initiative that ensure its continued successful functioning. It explores to what extent this model can be translated to other Andean contexts.

For over two decades the US has funded repressive forced coca eradication in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia to reduce the illegal cocaine trade. These policies have never met their stated goals and have generated violence and poverty. In 2006 Bolivia definitively broke with the US anti-narcotics model, replacing the militarized eradication of coca crops with a community-based coca control strategy. The program substantially reduced the coca crop while simultaneously respecting human rights and allowing farmers to diversify their livelihoods. This article outlines the elements of the Bolivian initiative that ensure its continued successful functioning. It explores to what extent this model can be translated to other Andean contexts.