International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2018/Spring 2019 | Page 10

Coca and Cocaine: Looking Ahead
glowing terms. Reading the report, it quickly becomes clear that the main intention
is no more and no less than to eradicate coca leaves from South America. 17
The four authors even took the time to include an accusatory paragraph aimed at
Ange-François Mariani (the Corsican promoter of coca-growing in Europe), who
died in 1914, and whose commercial arm, based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was then
still in operation under his grandson, Angelo Mariani (1914-1978). Above all, with
the man himself no longer of this world, and his family having no possibility of a
right of reply, this rather unseemly act used the imprimatur of the UN to provide
the coup de grâce to a Corsican family business, while simultaneously producing
a corresponding and contrastingly positive impact for a certain large American
drinks company.
Meanwhile, in Bolivia ...
Following the revolution of April 1952, the Bolivian people gained the right to
vote and instigated a number of agrarian reforms. The redistribution of land
from large haciendas to small family farms became official policy in August
1953. This had the immediate effect of reducing coca cultivation. On March 30,
1961 came the Single Convention on Narcotics, produced under the aegis of the
UN, representing a turning point in the global history of drug control. With this
legislation, coca became illegal around the world. The plant was henceforth to be
classed as a drug. 18 Chewing it, growing it, selling, buying and exporting it were
all prohibited, although traditional consumption in Peru and Bolivia was given
a reprieve, and was only to be phased out over a 25-year period. The Coca-Cola
Company, specifically, received authorization for the legal use of "decocainized"
Peruvian and Bolivian leaf.
The Convention was adopted by 77 delegations and its entry into force
was agreed on December 13, 1964. The Bolivian President, Víctor Paz Estensorro
(President from 1960-1964) signed it. In 1971, General Hugo Banzer Suárez,
who came to power by force of arms and remained in power until 1978, reached
an agreement with President Richard Nixon's National Security Adviser, Henry
Kissinger, to undertake the eradication of all coca cultivation. That same year saw
the signing of the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, devised by the
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) with the aim of achieving a worldwide
ban on coca.
In June 1980 came the military coup led by Bolivian General Luís García
Meza, who was in power until 1981. Financed by drug money channeled through
his aide and Minister of the Interior, Luís Arce Gómez, it became known as the
"Cocaine Coup." García Meza was removed from power on August 4, 1981 by a
17 Worst of all is that this damaging 1949 report remains, to this day, the UN's only point of reference
in the matter.
18 Johanna Lévy, "Une petite feuille verte nommée coca," Le Monde diplomatique, May 2008.
7