A bad day for Evo

09.30.2006

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Evo's government has just had its first direct casualties. Two cocaleros were killed by government military & police forces after about 200 cocaleros ambushed (w/ small arms & dynamite) a task force engaged in illegal coca eradication. The confrontation also left nine members of the anti-coca task force held hostage. They've since been released in a prisoner exchange.

MABB has an interesting short post asking if the Bolivian state fits the Weberian definition of a state.

What I find interesting about the whole incident, is that Evo's cabinet — particularly Alicia Muñoz (Government) & Walker San Miguel (Defense) — are describing the cocalero ambush as the work of "narcotraficantes". This, of course, was the claim by previous Bolivian governments, who argued that the illegal coca was used for drug-making (cocaine) & that the confrontations w/ local cocaleros was a product of drug cartels. Evo, during his time in the opposition as leader of the cocaleros syndicate, regularly denied. Is MAS now going to claim (or admit?) that the illegal coca grown in the Chapare is connected to international drug cartels?

Either way, coming on the heels of a recent slump in the polls, an unresolved strike by unemployed miners from Oruro, tensions w/ the media luna regions, and a threats of massive foreign investor pullout, this is not a good day for Evo Morales.

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NOTE: There is a distinction in Bolivia between "illegal" & "legal" coca. Most of the coca in the Yungas is legally grown. Even in Chapare, every family is allowed a certain quota of coca for personal, domestic use. Fields that exceed that are illegal coca. Those — and only those — are the fields subject to forced eradication. In particular, the coca eradication effort of this incident was grown not only illegally, but in a national forest reserve. And since the coca used for cocaine is actually quite toxic for the soil (it leads to massive soil erosion), growing it in a forest sanctuary could be an ecological disaster.

Posted by Miguel at 09:45 AM

Comments

Will our friends at the Democracy Center and other assorted leftie orgs start calling this "the coca wars" ala the "water wars" and call for trials like they do with Goni?? I don't think so.

Posted by: galloglass at September 30, 2006 12:45 PM

I expect that the MAS government will be reasonably adept at handling this first incident. After all, it was only a matter of time. Nevertheless, it puts them in a delicate position. Previous governments determined which coca was legal and which was illegal. All Chapare coca was illegal, to include Evo’s. The Chapare cocaleros protested and murdered police and military. We saw the coverage of the wounded and the dead being brought in on helicopters. Now the MAS government is on the other side and has to decide how to respond.

The answer is obvious; they must draw a clear distinction between what they have determined to be legal and illegal coca. They must count on their main constituency not seeing the hypocrisy of it all. And they must vilify those bad cocaleros in the national forest. Those were not the honest, hard-working cocaleros of the peaceful Chapare. Those were evil narco-traffickers bent on perverting the sacred, green coca leaf in order to produce the Devil’s own cocaine. The answer is obvious. The question is will Bolivia fall for it.

Posted by: Norman at October 2, 2006 04:39 PM

I just don't think many will buy the hypocrisy of it all. And one wonders whether all Evo is doing is consolidating a monopoly of coca production w/ the help of the military. I don't think it's that simple, but one wonders. Either way, he's going to start losing support from the cocaleros (his original coalition) and the middle class (which dislikes military interventionism in the news). We'll see how it plays out.

Posted by: mcentellas [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 2, 2006 07:35 PM