With disputes that translate into rifts in Bolivia’s high politics, the power struggle between the country’s coca leaf producers, the so-called coca growers, reached a new level of tension this week, after an escalation in hostilities that began in 2019.
On Monday (4), coca growers opposed to a leader who supports the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, regained control of the headquarters of the association that represents them and the legal market for the sale of the plant in La Paz after a new confrontation with the police.
Thousands of coca growers who had gathered in the Villa El Carmen neighborhood marched to the headquarters of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers of La Paz (Adepcoca), in Villa Fátima, also in the Bolivian capital.
As in previous days, the demonstration ran into barriers set up by riot police from the local police, which until Monday prevented participants from entering Adepcoca headquarters, where the market for the legal sale of coca also operates – according to data from the United Nations, about 90% of the legal leaf market in Bolivia, worth US$ 173 million per year, passes through the place.
This time in much larger quantity, the producers managed to advance throwing stones and detonating small bombs. The police responded with tear gas, but ended up retreating along with another group of coca growers, led by Arnold Alanes, the leader recognized by the national government and who was in control of the entity.
Two wings of coca growers identified as supporters of the ruling Movement to Socialism (MAS) party and a third, linked to opposition leader Armin Lluta, are vying for control of Adepcoca.
On the 20th, Arnold Alanes proclaimed himself the main head of the entity, despite the rejection of the coca growers led by Lluta, and took control of the headquarters. Lluta reported that he was allegedly held hostage for hours and beaten by members of the group that supports the current Bolivian government.
Alanes claimed to the Bolivian press at the time that his presidency was legitimate and guaranteed that Adepcoca would be “depoliticized”, despite his critics pointing to him as a supporter of the government of President Luis Arce and of Evo Morales’ Movement to Socialism (MAS) party .
This Tuesday (5), Lluta left the post of president of Adepcoca, arguing that his decision aims to guarantee the “unity” of the organization. “Many brothers told me to leave, others to stay, I go out through the unit, through the front door. We have to fight, brothers, for the government to keep this message, that it must never interfere in Adepcoca again”, said Lluta.
An electoral commission was formed and within 30 days the coca growers will choose a new president, in a election in which Lluta, Alanes and Fernando Calle, leader of the other group linked to Luis Arce, will not be able to stand.
The conflict between coca growers who support or oppose the MAS dates back to 2019, when a ward elected Elena Flores, who was supported by the party. A year later, a block of coca growers arrived at the headquarters of the coca market in La Paz and elected Lluta as its top representative, removing Flores, who then filed an appeal in court, which ruled in his favor.
The Adepcoca market in La Paz and the market in the city of Sacaba, in the department of Cochabamba, are the only two recognized by a law that governs the trade in coca leaves in Bolivia, where they have traditional and medicinal uses, albeit a part be diverted to drug trafficking, to the production of cocaine.