The Voice of America has a critique of Bolivian drug-war policy, saying that the country hasn't done enough to combat cocaine production. Well, as the graphic here (from the VoA's website) says, it's an editorial representing the "views of the U.S. government," which should set off anyone's B.S. meter. Now, according to the United Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime, Bolivian coca cultivation was up 5% in 2007. Peru's was up 4% and Colombia's was up 27%!!!!!! So what gives? Is it that Bolivia does not murder trade unionists? What the hell is wrong with mmy country? (Oh yeah, that would be George Bush. Dear God, only a few more months of this lunacy.... I hope.)
Oh yeah, canceling trade deals is not a good way to reduce coca cultivation:
The UNODC survey shows that in Bolivia, coca cultivation has mainly increased in regions such as La Asunta and the Yungas de La Paz, where, to date, investment in development has been scarce. Conversely, regions that have benefited from support for licit livelihood schemes, like Alto Beni, have been able to limit coca cultivation.
1 comment:
Folowed your link. Did you bother to read on to say paragraph #4?
Even with the significant increase in coca cultivation, cocaine production in Colombia (the world's biggest producer) remained almost unchanged in 2007 (at 600 mt). Lower yields are caused by exploitation of peripheral coca plots - smaller, more dispersed, in remote locations. "In the past few years, the Colombian government destroyed large-scale coca farming by means of massive aerial eradication, which unsettled armed groups and drug traffickers alike. In the future, with the FARC in disarray, it may become easier to control coca cultivation" , said Mr. Costa.
Meanwhile, as I stated in an earlier comment, while Bolivia's cultivated land rose modestly, it did continue to rise as it has every year since morales came into office. The real numbers worthy of interest are not cultivated land; they are crop production and potential cocaine production. In the first two years of morales term (the only years reported to date), potential coaine production has risen 30%! Read the report!!!
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