
With no DEA in sight, Bolivia keeps reducing coca fields - gruez
http://en.institutomanquehue.org/countries/bolivia/with-no-dea-in-sight,-bolivia-keeps-reducing-coca-crops.html
======
tempodox
It's in the interest of the U.S. to have expensive drugs be illegal, so they
can use them to raise money on the black market for black ops or whatever else
they won't fund publicly.

~~~
cryoshon
Not sure why you're being downvoted, considering that this is a well
documented phenomena that goes back decades and frequently grabs international
attention when problems crop up.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_traffi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking)

[1]:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_coca...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking)

[2]:
[http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/2012721152...](http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/2012721152715628181.html)

[3]:
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/...](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/cia.html)

This is the stuff Gary Webb was killed by the US government over.

~~~
atom-morgan
It has too much of a conspiracy tone to it so people downvote.

~~~
silveira
I remember when massive dragnet government surveillance was a conspiracy
theory.

~~~
atom-morgan
It reminds me of a boiling frog.

------
mariocesar
I'm embarrassed about the comments that are mention that this is something is
happening "just now" and annoyed about the article giving credit just to the
government.

The issue for most Bolivians is simple. Coca is not cocaine, for other is a
more complex and is also related with bad economic incentives also a long
history of an absent government in poor regions.

In all cases La DEA was always pretentious, bad managed, with several news
about prepotency and abuse. However that was not the main case to Bolivians to
start despise them, it was about his media message about Coca about being
essentially evil that chocks most of us, in the 80` and 90` that was so
subtle, sometimes clear. (Our American President say "Coca is cocaine") Months
before I saw in newspapers "USA University leads chewing coca to bad digestion
in long term consumption" ... This attempts to change a core cultural aspect
was the main fuel for all social movements those years, and the current
government is just result of one of this movements. The main misunderstanding
from foreigners about social and politics in Bolivia is that they "feel" there
is just one movement, one thought and that is represented by the current
government; people still marches in the street, block avenues, shouts in the
media and are not the opposition are indigenous movements that are looking for
the same goals that the government but don't agree on the methods.

Anyway, here is a music video with most of the common Bolivian arguments about
La DEA and Coca:

> "Don't let DEA see me, because that cause me stress"
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAGT5OxrYcE#t=116](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAGT5OxrYcE#t=116)

------
joesmo
It would help even more if we kicked out the DEA here in the US. In fact,
banishment to an abandoned island wouldn't be too harsh a punishment at all
for their crimes.

~~~
cryoshon
I'm with you, to a point. I'd much prefer if the DEA was stripped of its
militarization and instead shifted to act as a quality/safety testing body for
"illicit" drugs. Maybe enforcing certain purity standards and proper labeling
of narcotics.

You know, something that would actually help the people using drugs-- "this
batch of heroin in city X is actually 50% rat poison so don't use it" or "this
stuff the dealers in city y call molly is actually MDPV and 25I-nBOME, be
aware".

That'd help cut down a lot of the deaths and injuries from drug use. Imagine
if you had a government agency looking out for you rather than trying to fuck
you up for once.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
The alternative is to not use unregulated non-FDA-approved substances. But
that would require self control. So yup, we need a nanny government to make us
safe...

~~~
icebraining
Your argument makes no sense - the FDA is itself an example of the government
testing and issuing recommendations on drugs! How is that any less "nanny
government" than having the DEA do the same for illegal drugs?

~~~
merpnderp
Because the FDA also makes drugs illegal for sale if they haven't been
approved. And probably recommends cases to the DEA when someone is selling
unapproved pharmaceuticals.

------
arca_vorago
Look people, you need to understand something. The British pioneered this in
the Opium Wars (1 and 2).

As far as the CIA/DEA go, they are some of the biggest drug and gun runners
around. Does anyone remember Iran Contra? When you are an agency that congress
is supposed to have financial oversight on, following the money can reveal
things you don't want revealed. What you want is to find a way to make money
off the books, so you need a black market. If there isn't one, you create it.
Then you operate it, run a few stings against competition if they get too
powerful, and suddenly you have a huge black bag money coffer. No oversight!
Yay for unaccountability!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is a Company man behind every
other cartel man.

Afghanistan and the new heroin epidemic is a perfect recent example. Opium
production was almost nill until we invaded, and suddenly even with the
country occupied most of the heroin in Us cities is from Afghanistan? It's
just Vietnam on repeat...

~~~
user_0001
I don't think the situation is as black and white in Afghanistan as you make
it out to be. The issue now is there is chaos. Before when poppy cultivation
was reduced to (a reported) a near zero, the Taliban maintained a level of
order (albeit brutal).

Or you could take the other approach, they hadn't sold their previous supplies
of opium due to bumper crops in previous years, so wanted to limit supplies a
bit to raise the price before selling over stock then plant again the
following year.

------
spikels
How did expelling the DEA help? I can understand that the DEA would be
ineffective but why would they be counter productive?

~~~
rincebrain
The article insinuates that the DEA branch was accused of conspiracy and
espionage - other articles seem to imply that the President at least believed
that the DEA was following him around and spying on his romantic life, as well
as implying that the US DEA branch attempted to contract killers to hit
Bolivian gov't officials.

I can't imagine that the grounding of the President's plane under suspicions
of housing Snowden warmed him up, either.

Further reading:

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia%E2%80%93United_States_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia%E2%80%93United_States_relations)

[2] -
[http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1856153,00...](http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1856153,00.html)

[3] - [http://www.cepr.net/blogs/the-americas-blog/remember-when-
ve...](http://www.cepr.net/blogs/the-americas-blog/remember-when-venezuela-
and-bolivia-kicked-the-us-dea-out-of-their-countries-accusing-it-of-espionage-
looks-like-they-were-right)

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Psshhh! That's crazy talk. Our government wouldn't do anything like that.

------
jakeogh
Costa Rica Will Stop Sending Cocaine to Miami (2013):
[http://news.co.cr/costa-rica-will-stop-sending-cocaine-to-
mi...](http://news.co.cr/costa-rica-will-stop-sending-cocaine-to-miami/24277/)

------
kelukelugames
less blogspam link:

[http://en.institutomanquehue.org/countries/bolivia/with-
no-d...](http://en.institutomanquehue.org/countries/bolivia/with-no-dea-in-
sight,-bolivia-keeps-reducing-coca-crops.html)

~~~
dang
Quite. URL changed from [http://theantimedia.org/cocaine-production-plummets-
after-de...](http://theantimedia.org/cocaine-production-plummets-after-dea-
kicked-out-of-bolivia/), which points to this.

