International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2018/Spring 2019 | Page 11

International Journal on Criminology
putsch orchestrated by General Celso Torrelio, but this did not prevent the eventual
return of democracy on October 5, 1982, when Hernán Siles Zuazo was elected
to office, remaining in power until 1985. In May 1983, Cochabamba hosted the
first meeting of ANAPCOCA [Bolivia's National Association of Coca Producers],
attended by no fewer than 5000 delegates!
Its aim was to transform the coca leaf into a food product and develop leafbased
alcohol products . 19 Then, in August 1985, came the return to power, via the
ballot box, of Víctor Paz Estenssoro (Conservative). He applied the recommendations
of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and added the logical corollary
measure of closing the country's major mining operations. Thousands of workers
lost their jobs and had nowhere else to turn: they moved to the tropical region of
Chapare to grow coca.
On July 16, 1986, President Ronald Reagan sent 160 US Rangers and six
combat helicopters to Bolivia. The Rangers landed at Santa Cruz in a giant C5 Galaxy
cargo plane. Local people did not feel reassured. In May 1987, eight law-abiding
coca-producing Bolivian peasant farmers, who were campaigning peacefully
against the proposed Law 1008 20 were killed by US and Bolivian anti-drug units.
Almost 500 others were arrested. A month later government forces killed a further
eight farmers. 21
In 1988, the United Nations published the Convention against Illicit Traffic
in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, drawn up by the International
Narcotics Control Board. Bolivia expressed reservations regarding the application
of the measures proposed in the new legislation and then, on December 29, 1988,
voted through a Bolivian Special Decree (No. 22099), Article 8 of which defines
geographically three types of coca-production (traditional, surplus, and illicit). 22
Evo Morales and the Diplomacy and Politics of Coca
In April 1992, the Universal Exposition opened in Seville, Spain. Bolivia, at that
time under the 1989-1993 presidency of Jaime Paz Zamora, was not permitted
to present coca leaves in its pavilion. Around the same time, Evo Morales, a
33-year-old coca farmer was named General Secretary of the Chapare coca producers'
federation. 23 Then he was elected to represent the region in the National
Congress. Early in 1994, he was arrested and held in detention, along with David
19 Alain Labrousse, "Drogue et politique internationale: le bouc émissaire bolivien," La revue nouvelle
1 (1987).
20 This law was enacted July 19, 1988.
21 Mayarí Castillo Gallardo, "Movimiento cocalero en Bolivia. Violencia, discurso y hegemonía,"
Gazeta de Antropología 20 (University of Chile, 2004).
22 Fernando Rojas Farfán, La economía de la coca (La Paz: Université catholique bolivienne,
2002).
23 He remains today President of the six cocalero federations.
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