Post date: Jan 12, 2013 7:40:19 PM
Bolivian President Evo Morales celebrates a diplomatic victory after Bolivia is re-admitted into a UN drug convention with a special dispensation recognizing the Andean tradition of chewing coca leaves as legal.
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (JANUARY 12, 2012) (REUTERS) - Bolivian President Evo Morales expressed "enormous satisfaction" on Saturday (January 12) after a United Nations drugs convention re-admitted Bolivia while recognizing the practice of chewing coca leaves in the country as legal.
Chewing coca leaves is a traditional practice among indigenous Bolivians. The practice led to Bolivia's withdrawal from the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs last year to protest the classification of the coca leaf as an illegal drug.Following the withdrawal, Bolivia launched a campaign to convince the treaty's member countries to accept the tradition as legal.
"We were obligated to call this news conference to express our enormous satisfaction regarding the results of the national government's campaign - including the Foreign Ministry, the technicians and the social movements - for the recognition of the legal consumption of the coca leaf, known in Bolivia as the "acullico", "pijcheo" (referring to the Aymaran word for chewing coca leaves), which is known in international legislation as "chewing of coca". It is known in Peru as "chajcheo" and in Colombia as "manbeo," Morales said on Saturday.
Morales said the coca leaf was classified as illegal when the Convention was first signed in 1961, due largely to the influence of the United States.
"In 1961, the first convention on narcotics was held in Vienna, Austria, convened by theUnited Nations and imposing all the politics of the government of the United States. And from there, the coca leaf has been penalized, demonized, criminalized on the international level," he said.
Fifteen countries opposed the dispensation making chewing the coca leaf legal, including the United States, the UK, Russia and France. Morales decried the opposition and thanked the other countries that voted in favor of the measure.
"And it was only 15 countries - led by the United States, England, Canada, Israel and other countries - that objected. But the other 169 countries supported us, and it is a great recognition of the international community of our identity, of our coca leaf and the corresponding chewing," he said.
The coca leaf has been chewed in the Andean region for centuries. Although coca is the raw ingredient for cocaine, the indigenous people of the region see it as a mild stimulant and sacred herbal medicine.
Morales announced that Bolivia would hold a festival next week to celebrate the tradition and the diplomatic victory.