Bolivia

Coca eradication es futile

Three NGO’s argue that the United States sponsored coca eradication programs in Colomiba and the rest of the Andes do not work. Coca is compartively much easier to grow than alternative cash crops – requiring much less labor. Because it is more lucrative as well, it doesn’t make sense for a poor Andean farmer to …

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From Reuters:

Fragile Bolivia Unites, for Now, on Chile Sea Spat For 120 years, Bolivia has demanded neighboring Chile give back coastline seized in a 1879-1883 war, saying that this landlocked Andean nation needs access to the sea, and therefore an easier route to world markets, to escape centuries of poverty. The issue historically resurfaces in Bolivia …

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Unrest lingering in Bolivia

Marches and protests continue in La Paz and look to be spreading to other cities in Bolivia. Elsewhere in the capital, long lines formed outside grocery stores over worries of food shortages as demonstrators continued to block roads, choking off the city from the rest of the country. We talked to my Dad and Aunt …

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Unrest in Bolivia

Looks like my dad picked a bad time to visit the motherland: Thousands took to the streets in the capital, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding the president resign despite his announcement Monday that he will shelve controversial plans for natural gas exports. The plans to sell gas to the United States and Mexico had already …

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Coca != Cocaine ?

Interesting article forwarded to me by my cousin from the WSJ on Coca Eradication failing in Bolivia. Unfortunately you need a subscription to view it online but you can get a lot of info from Google News too. And from Erythroxylum: The Coca Plant The Andean culture and the coca plant have thrived for centuries. …

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