Interview
Date: January 14th 2016
Yanoff: Could you
explain your role in the Six Federations of the Cochabamba Tropics (Chapare) and
in coca policy?
Loza:
I’m Leonardo Loza. I belong to the Intercultural Federation of the Chimore as
the executive of this federation. I am also the Vice President of the Six
Federations of the Cochabamba Tropics known as the cocaleros.[1]
I am also the Departmental President of the Movement Towards Socialism
(MAS) Party of Cochabamba. I am also the National Executive of the
Confederation of Intercultural Indigenous Communities of Bolivia.
In
terms of community coca control, which we implement here in the Cochabamba
Tropics, it is more communitarian, social, organic, and union-oriented. We
don’t need a repressive force, worse if it is an external force. It is
internal, between colleagues, person to person, member to member. They tend to their
catos of coca and if anyone commits
any infraction or doesn’t respect their cato
of coca he/she is sanctioned by the coca union; organic sanctions. First by
drawing their attention to the issue, then eradicating the cato of coca. There are
definitely also cases of expulsion [from the unions], for the colleagues that
are absolutely undisciplined.
Yanoff: Could you
describe a bit more what social changes are most evident since the cato agreement and the coca reforms? How
have conditions changed in the Chapare?
Loza:
Since 2006 pretty much everything has changed around here. Before 2006 during supposed
coca and narcotics control, [they] sowed death in the Cochabamba Tropics. [They]
sowed tears, pain and mourning. There were many prisoners, many people unjustly
persecuted, accused of being terrorists and drug traffickers. There was not
only coca eradication in the Chapare, but there was a definitive policy to
exterminate the producers of the coca leaf; to displace them from their land.
This was the Cochabamba Tropics of the past. We had more than 100 deaths from
our marches, blockades and activities.
Thank
God we made a political decision, with our brother, the current President Evo
Morales leading us. It cost us almost twenty years of struggle in the Chapare,
and at the national level. We transformed our local struggle into an electoral
one.
We
built a political mechanism and ran for office in less than ten years. Our party
has grown enormously across the country. And then in 2006 we won the elections
for the first time with a political instrument built in the streets, in
mobilizations, in syndical struggles…After this, we implemented the cato of coca. [This was] obviously an
organic decision, a syndical decision, but also a political decision, because
until then coca was penalized, demonized, sanctioned by different laws not only
on a national level, but also internationally.
We
have had a huge assignment since 2006. First we began with the Constitution…In which
we included our coca leaf so that it is constitutionally respected, so that no
neoliberals or political party can reverse it or talk about zero coca in the
Cochabamba Tropics or in Bolivia.
Our
cato of coca is 40 by 40, 1600 square
meters per union member in the Cochabamba Tropics. Throughout the country we
are trying to consolidate 20,000 hectares of coca.
Out
of the 20,000, 7,000 are in the Cochabamba Tropics. We internally respect this
quantity as an organization. If a community member plants a parcel, he has the
right to renew it or move it to another place, but there is a huge level of
community control. In every union we have formed a committee of community
control. Every month this committee goes around to check the plots and observe
which colleagues are respecting the cato and
which are not. This has been a great policy.
Another
one of the best practices in all of Latin America that Bolivia has found is in
the fight against drug trafficking. We do not need any uniformed American to
come and help us anymore. We have created a policy against drug trafficking that
belongs to the Bolivian people, between our government and the coca leaf
producers, in which we monitor ourselves without deaths, injuries,
persecutions, orphans, or widows. Today the cato
of coca is respected in peace. Before, the neoliberal governments left us
with more than 30,000 hectares of coca. Imagine that without the American DEA,
without the U.S. embassy, now we have less…
This
is the work and the fruit of the Bolivian people. And we will continue with this type of control. We will
continue implementing community control and disciplining ourselves so that we
create a social consciousness about having to industrialize and commercialize
the coca leaf. Not only within Bolivia, but our idea is to consolidate big health
industries so that from here, from Bolivia, we can export products derived from
coca leaf to the United States and the whole world.
Unfortunately, the United States thinks that [growing]
coca is drug trafficking. So we will introduce them to how our industrialized
coca leaf can save lives. It is not what they think: that coca destroys lives.
We are now developing a new General Coca Law,
and after our electoral conjectures we will meet with our brothers in the
Yungas of La Paz and we will develop a law to present to the national congress,
and congress will create an explicit law on coca: how to produce it, how much
can be produced, how it should be industrialized, how it should be
commercialized, what will be the system to control the catos of coca.
One of the most harmful aspects of the old
Law 1008 was combining coca with drug trafficking. We absolutely will separate
a law clearly for coca and a different law clearly for controlling drug
trafficking, which is something illegal and we do not support such activities
that some community members unfortunately carry out. So I feel that on the coca
issue, not only for the producers of coca leaf, but also for the Bolivian
people overall, it is important to develop a consciousness that coca leaf was
for years stigmatized, and that it should be definitively freed under
industrialization.
Yanoff: In the Law 1008 reforms, in making this distinction between coca
and drug trafficking, how do you think that will change the process of
penalizing drugs? As the current Law 1008 ambiguously classifies different
sentences, will reforming this law have a more hardline effect on drug
trafficking?
Loza: First of all, our coca leaf has to be legally
and technically recognized and respected. Not only on the national level, but
also around the world. Because the coca leaf in its natural state has never
hurt anyone, has never drugged anyone, has never made anyone crazy. On the
contrary, the person who chews coca leaf is a colleague who thinks better. For
example, for President Evo Morales, if we are developing a general law on coca
it is so that the rest of the world legally recognizes that coca leaf in its
natural state is not harmful and should be commercialized like any other
product. This is our political and legal intention.
For drug trafficking, we will of course pass a law
to address this… But we want the law against drug trafficking to involve many
national organisms as well as countries around the world. Even if Bolivia or parts of Latin America produce
coca, even if some community members malignantly use coca to traffic drugs,
this drug trafficking can’t only be combatted at home. If here there is drug
trafficking it is because someone outside is consuming it.
So
we want to get consumers, users, those that pay millions for drug trafficking
involved. These countries that are part of the problem have to invest economic
resources to fight drug trafficking. So that they don’t just criticize,
observe, disparage, and disqualify, as they have done thus far. If the demand
for drugs disappeared, I am sure that there would be zero drug trafficking…
Yanoff: Following the expulsion of the DEA how has Bolivia worked with
other international forces in the implementation of these policies, such as the
UN or the EU?
Loza: Expelling the U.S. embassy, the CIA, and the
American military was one of the best policies of our government. There are plenty
of other regions and other organizations, such as the United Nations and the
European Union. What is our understanding with the European Union? First, that
Bolivia has to be respected. Just because they give us funding does not mean,
like in the past, that they can dictate the policies that should be implemented
by the Bolivian people. In this sense, we have had a good understanding with
the European Union.
The European Union cooperates with us
economically, but the policies are decided in Bolivia, transparently, with
sovereignty. Resources from the European Union are converted into policies,
social programs, productive [diversification] programs, programs that improve [industrial]
production in coca growing regions, but also in surrounding areas near where
coca is produced to ensure that coca production does not expand…
Yanoff: You spoke of the commercialization of coca, how is this project
advancing. Is there more international support for this or not yet?
Loza: We have made progress…We were very
pleased and celebrated that our brother President [Evo Morales] lifted and
showed the coca leaf in the United Nations. Maybe many countries thought that a
tree directly produced drug trafficking. But our brother, the President,
publically showed to the world that the coca leaf is a natural renewable
resource that can be especially beneficial to poor people around the world.
Our President, and international officials,
spread the word about exporting coca leaf in its natural state as well as in
industrialized form, obviously following all of the norms of the international
community…We are prepared for national control, and international control, as
long as each person’s dignity is respected.
Q: Do you think community control
has changed international prohibitionist norms? How has Bolivia been a part of
a new movement for alternatives to prohibitionism and questioned longstanding
norms?
A: Yes, absolutely. It has been an alternative
and a unique example…Because the classic War on Drugs imposes policies, imposes
funding, imposes arms, and deaths. This kind of fight against drug trafficking is
gone and has accomplished nothing. If we look at Peru, if we look at Colombia:
they [U.S.] invest so much money, they send millions of dollars, and how is the
fight against drug trafficking going in Peru and Colombia? Production of coca
is rising. In Bolivia we don’t have support from the U.S., we don’t have
support from the International Monetary Fund and how is our fight against drug
trafficking? A shining example. We have another form of fighting drug
trafficking. In Bolivia we have set a great example for the rest of the world
that you can fight drug trafficking with cooperation and participation, without
any imposition…
I hope that our brother countries like Peru
and Colombia obtain what we have adopted in Bolivia. To rid themselves of
foreign policies in the interest of a group, of a country, of some politicians
in the empire [U.S.] that will not solve anything. The fight against drug
trafficking can change with a policy based on the participation of my fellow
coca growers, who know and express what they think, not only in Bolivia where
we are advancing, but also in the rest of the world.
Q: So you do not think that tensions still exist with armed forces in
the Chapare or in the rest of Bolivia? Even with the implementation of
eradication and interdiction measures?
A: No. In the past, coca producers and
uniformed officials were like water and oil, we could not trust each other and
we hated each other. It was a very troubling situation. Today, the control
comes from the state: the military and national police. And we are like
brothers in the union, in the federation, in all of Bolivia. We plan in a
cooperative way how we will intervene if a community member has exceeded
his/her cato of coca. We organize
between producers, the government, the police and the military. We plan with
these four or five state institutions how we can intervene, in peace and
tranquility, with consensus…Today we are very happy that we have found this
kind of fight against drug trafficking that no one imposes, but rather, works
together.
Q: My last question: how do you think the system of community control
could be improved? What are the next steps to make it better?
A: I am sure that as time passes, new things
will come up. Things always change, time passes, time progresses, and in this
sense I am sure that we will continue to perfect community control, and will
continue to implement new things…We are not all the same, we don’t know
everything, there will always be something missing. But as necessary, we will
keep thinking in the fight against drug trafficking, keep thinking of Bolivia,
and we will keep perfecting it.
*Interview conducted for NYU Senior Honors Thesis "Between Drug Control and Human Rights: Bolivia's Alternative to Prohibitionism." Full interview originally published on Andean Information Network website.
[1] In January 2016, Loza
was the Vice President of the Six Federations of the Chapare. He no longer
holds this position, but is still a leader of MAS and a coordinator of the Six
Federations.
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