Septiembre 21, 2005
If Elected...
Campaign promises are starting. Candidates are ratting off actions that they would take if elected President. The AP Wire has picked up the story that Evo Morales may possibly reject the U.S.' policy on coca eradication, as well as push to have the coca leaf legalized worldwide.
During a campaign stop in the city of Sucre, Morales said that United States government's policies have the sole objective of "eliminating coca" and "tormenting the cocaleros," the people who grow coca. Currently, the Bolivian government permits the cultivation of 29,600 acres of coca leaf for traditional uses.
But recent United Nations estimates say more than twice that amount is actually grown. In 2004 the Bolivian government forcibly eradicated 20,800 acres with help from the U.S. government.
The former state telecommunications company, ENTEL, may be up for sale according to various newspapers. Morales has hinted that the government should nationalize this company too.
Nationalizing natural resources is one thing, but I don't think anyone wants to go back to the days where political cronies were controlling telephones and the ability to call loved ones around the world, when it was a state corporation.
Posted by eduardo at Septiembre 21, 2005 05:10 PM
Comments
I thought I saw something in La Razon where Evo said he *might* be willing to consider continuing the eradication? Or that Chapare campesinos said so? Or something? Or not?
Also, from an ecological standpoint, legalizing coca worldwide would be disastrous. It's a plant that grows in the worst environments, strips the soil quickly, and drives out other plant life. Soil erosion and acidity is a huge problem in the Yungas now, in places where the soil has gotten very bad because of overgrown coca.
Posted by: miguel (ciao!) at Septiembre 21, 2005 09:04 PM