Coca Leaf, Participatory Democracy, and Critical Drug Pedagogy in Bolivia: Lessons from an Ethnographic Journey

Transcript Abstract

Coca leaf has been cultivated for a millennium on the eastern slope of the Andes in Bolivia and remains deeply embedded in the region’s cultural identity. In the highland Yungas of La Paz—where primarily Aymara campesinos organize their communities around the democratic principles of agrarian sindicalismo—coca is part of a diversified semi-subsistence rural economy and supplies most of Bolivia’s domestic markets for medicinal, nutritional, and ceremonial uses of the leaf. Historically, coca served as the central factor in Yungas social relations, belief systems, agricultural labor exchange, gender roles, and political organization. However, through a variety of “alternative development” programs facilitated by both the United Nations and the United States from the 1980s until the early 2000s, coca was targeted for eradication under the “war on drugs” paradigm that created far more harm than benefit. The symbolic force of the “sacred leaf” combined with cultural memories of Aymara heroes provided an especially potent impetus for campesino advocacy in the Yungas, placing the sindicatos at the center of civil society efforts to counterbalance the power of the neoliberal state and international bodies, eventually helping to elect President Evo Morales in 2005. Since then, Yungas sindicatos and Bolivian politics in general have become increasingly divided, and coca cultivation has spread far beyond the traditional zones.

This presentation will illustrate the unique cultural, historical, and political context of coca leaf in the highland Yungas region of Bolivia based on 25 years of ethnographic research. The Yungas is quite distinct from the more well-known Chapare coca-cultivation area in the lowlands of Cochabamba, where the “war on drugs” was much more violent and the sindicatos became more powerful. The presentation will also highlight the benefits of bringing university students on Study Abroad programs to learn about coca and the ancient indigenous cultural traditions that persist even amidst rapid political and economic changes.