A Video Question about Coca

No issue has been more contentious between the Bolivia and U.S. over the past decade than the issue of coca. The coca leaf has been a part of Andean civilizations for millennia, from medicinal use to rituals. It is also, when altered through an elaborate chemical process, the raw ingredient to manufacture cocaine.

The U.S. “War on Coca’ in Bolivia has left a stark trail of human rights abuses – from violent forced eradication efforts to the jailings of thousands of innocent people, courtesy of special anti-drug police and prosecutors paid by the U.S. government. Yet illegal drug use in the U.S. continues with little change.

Last November, we submitted a question on the coca issue to the You Tube Republican Presidential Debate. You can see it by clicking on the screen here, or via this link. We encourage readers to share the video with their friends, which you can do by clicking on the small envelope icon below.

The video was created by The Democracy Center staff in Bolivia and filmed and edited by our friends at the School for International Training, Ismael Saavedra, Michael Steiner and Talya Hernandez-Ritter.