Bolivia: in La Paz, producers clash for control of the coca market

Clashes in La Paz around the coca market, September 27, 2021. REUTERS - CLAUDIA MORALES

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Bolivia, coca, which allows the manufacture of cocaine but which is chewed in the country, is legal.

But a conflict has been going on for months between the various producers of the so-called “sacred” leaf.

And it has intensified in recent weeks to cause very violent altercations in the city. 

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With our correspondent in La Paz,

Alice Campaignolle

Tear gas, throwing stones, fires, dynamite ... On Monday, the neighborhood of Villa Fatima in La Paz looked like a battlefield, like the previous week.

This is where the legal coca leaf market for the Yunga region is located.

And this market, which is also the seat of the main producers' union, is under attack.

He was "taken" as one takes a fortress a week ago by a faction of coca growers close to the government and with the help of the police.

Rivalries

The new president of the union, elected according to some, self-proclaimed according to others, is not unanimous and the divisions within the producers are worsening. Today the groups opposed to the government do not recognize the new leadership of the union and want at all costs to regain possession of the coca market, as one of the demonstrators explains. “

The intention of the whole union is to get our seat back, our house,” he

says.

The government seized it, appropriated the Adepcoca union. And in addition he began to arrest us, we deplore more than 30 detainees at the moment. 

"

Discussions with the government to resolve the conflict were unsuccessful this weekend, protests continue.

For the moment no solutions in sight and the measures of the producers could still be radicalized. 

► To read also: In Bolivia, power and coca producers are no longer on the same line

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  • Bolivia

  • Unions

  • Social issues