Cocalero

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As Cocalero in the broad sense those are growers referred to the Cocastrauch in the South American plant lowlands.

The Cocalero movement in the narrower sense is located in the Chapare and Yungas provinces in Bolivia .

The coca bush has been grown in Bolivia for thousands of years and coca leaves have been consumed as a traditional product. The chewing of coca leaves, and thus the consumption of intoxicants, made it possible for the people in the highlands of Bolivia, the Altiplano , during the colonial period and up to the present, to live a life full of privation and the rigors of work in the tin and silver mines withstand at 4000 m altitude. The cultivation and harvest of coca bushes are therefore an integral part of the national culture and identity in Bolivia.

The Bolivian military governments of the 1980s were increasingly exposed to foreign policy pressure from the US to curb the production of the drug cocaine by small producers in their country and to stop the cultivation of coca bushes. However, since both the cocaleros in the lowlands and the consumers of coca leaves and coca tea in the highlands are dependent on the cultivation of coca plants, the Cocalero movement in Bolivia quickly gained influence in the 1990s .

The most important representative of the Bolivian Cocaleros today is Evo Morales , one of the leaders of the Cocalero movement after the turn of the millennium, party chairman of the MAS and in the elections on December 18, 2005, was elected President of Bolivia with more than 54% of the vote.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evo Morales, el líder cocalero que partió la historia de Bolivia aa.com.tr, accessed on April 5, 2020 (es)

literature

  • Robert Lessmann : Sindicalismo the Cocaleros . in: Ders .: The new Bolivia. Evo Morales and his democratic revolution. Zurich 2010. ISBN 978-3-85869-403-4 . Pp. 123-129.
  • Robert Lessmann: 'La hoja de coca no es droga'. Cocaleros as a social movement in the Andean region . In: Jürgen Mittag / Georg Ismar (eds.): El pueblo unido? Social Movements and Political Protest in the History of Latin America . Münster, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89691-762-1 , pp. 463-495.