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Andes: A battle over the coca

By Zoraida Portillo

Lima, April.– María Carhuavilca is a Cuzco peasant of indefinite age. She speaks broken Spanish and hardly smiles. When she does, she exposes her decayed teeth and greenish gum —the effects of years of chacchado. This is the Quechua term to refer to the action of chewing coca leaf mixed with lime.

"I chew it all day long not to feel tired, she said. I grew up chewing it, just as my mother and grandmother did", she added.

"Of course, I chew it. It is the only way to deal with height, stressed Hilda Barrera, a Lima-based agronomist who spends full days working in the Andean puna (4,000 meters high). It is just great. It numbs your tongue a bit and the taste is horrible, but fatigue and palpitation go away really fast", she noted.

Such is the rationale behind a millenary habit: chacchado makes it possible to withstand height, prevent fatigue and mitigate hunger. Coca leaf contains macronutrients like calcium, iron and vitamin A, and is 20-percent protein, scientific studies have corroborated.

The United Nations International Drug Control Board, however, does not share these criteria and considers that chewing coca leaf is a crime. Consequently, the governments of Peru and Bolivia, where chacchado is a common practice among indigenous people, are expected to ban not only its use, but also its derivatives.

Formulated in early March, the Board recommendation indicates that such a practice is harmful to human health. It includes a number of measures to ban use, sale and export of coca leaf for purposes that are incompatible with international drug-control treaties.

Without saying it explicitly, the Board has related coca leaf to drug trafficking, something that is not new because the shrub is actually used to produce cocaine hydrochloride. This led to expanded cultivation from traditional producing areas in the Andes to over 200,000 hectares in the jungle back in the 1980s.

To the Indians, coca is an ancestral crop that is sacred and used not only for chacchado, but also for traditional rituals, such as paying back Mother Earths (when planting begins). It is also utilized to tell one’s fortune, cure some diseases and socialize.

Although the recommendation still needs to be submitted for further discussion by the Board, the announcement has sparked protests in the two countries. Scientific debate over its blessings runs counter to health contraindications, anthropological considerations and political decisions that show a precarious balance in relations between indigenous growers and the rest of society, in Peru at least.

A week after the announcement was made, the regional government of Puno, a southeastern department where most inhabitants are Aymara people, issued an ordinance legalizing coca cultivation within its jurisdiction.

Lima Executive Power representatives, however, angrily reacted to it and questioned the move because it is a violation of the Constitution.

Local government president Hernán Fuentes has threatened to separate the region from the rest of the country. The debate is now being conducted at a geopolitical level and has nothing to do with the original question: whether or not coca cultivation and derivatives production should be prohibited.

A coca derivatives industry has boomed in Peru over the last 10 years and includes filtering bags (recommended to those who develop intense physical activity or visit really high places), bread rolls, tooth pastes, chewing gums, soft drinks, syrups and flour (used by menopausal women for slimming due to its energy and even hormonal qualities).

These alternative products have been developed from coca waste to prevent it from being used for drug trafficking. A few weeks before the Board recommendation was formulated, Peruvian President Alan García had suggested the idea of incorporating coca leaf (an autochthonous ingredient) into local cuisine recipes.

Nobody has been able to prove that chacchado is harmful to human health, said Fernando Eguren, director of the Peruvian Center for Social Studies. This is one of the most prestigious NGOs in the country.

"Alcohol and tobacco are much more harmful than coca is. The Board has issued sanitary warnings about them, but has not banned their use", he added.

"It is ridiculous to identify coca leaf with cocaine hydrochloride, he stressed. Ethnic discrimination against indigenous people is behind all this", he noted.

Other experts feel that banning coca cultivation to discourage drug trafficking is as preposterous as banning barley cultivation to discourage alcohol consumption.

"If we do nothing, they will take Quechua language and regional costume away from us", said Elsa Malpartida, Peruvian representative to the Andean Parliament. She has been working with coca growers in the local jungle.

An Andean Parliament meeting was scheduled for late March in Bogotá to discuss the issue and make a decision. Most people hoped that it would not accept the Board’s recommendation.

María Zavala, Peruvian permanent representative to the Organization of American States, announced that her government is carefully reviewing the Board’s recommendation, but will never go against Andean customs and the ancestral practice of chewing coca leaf.

"We undertook to respect the traditional use of coca leaf in 1998, and we will do so in the future. We will submit a substantive report to the United Nations Economic and Social Council", indicated Foreign Minister José Antonio García.

The local legislation, however, is contradictory. A decree law adopted under General Francisco Morales' dictatorship in 1978 established that chacchado was a drug addiction.

Some experts believe that coca leaf chewing is toxic due to the number of alkaloids (over 20) and pesticides it contains. As a result of it, most indigenous people have no teeth, they emphasize.

Mirko Lauer, a noted political analyst, stressed that the there is a contradiction between saying that chacchado is an ancestral practice and a key element in Indian identity, and arguing that it was the main instrument for domination in the Andean world.

Social scientists have in the last few decades held this view because coca leaf chewing helps mitigate fatigue and hunger.

Coca had been seen as a mechanism used to control indigenous people, he wrote in an article for La República daily newspaper. When indigenous exaltation of autochthonous elements started, indigenous attributes (including chacchado) followed a similar course. "This practice was no longer considered as something bad because it helped survive in high ecosystems", he added.

And he is right. Nobody can object to the fact that social evolution continues: coca has moved from a main drug-trafficking input to an indigenous-identity banner. Lauer considers it as “an anti-imperialist leaf”.

The next few battles over chacchado, coca use and new products will certainly be waged in the political arena. The decision of the regional government in Puno is a clear indication of it.

Uruguay: "Abambaé", a piece of land bearing fruit for the community

By Cristina Canoura

Montevideo, March.– Alda Rodríguez, a 41-year-old agronomist, is said to be tied to the land by a golden thread.

She was born and raised in Tacuarembó, one of the 19 departments making up the country. She has four children, was trained in Uruguay and obtained a Ph.D. from the Agricultural University of Havana.

The natural wealth of my hometown should not go unnoticed or be under-utilized. There are families living in 40-hectare farms, who can not even meet their basic food needs, she indicated.

She founded Batoví-Uruguayan Organic Institute (knows as Bio-Uruguay) in 2003. This is a non-profit organization seeking to promote sustainable organic production systems.

The Institute puts its principles into practice at "Abambaé”, an ecological farm that is 12 kilometers away from Tacuarembó, a distance Rodríguez covers on her bike every day.

“Abambaé” is a Guarani word that means piece of land giving fruit for the community. This indigenous group arrived in Río de la Plata between 1400 and 1500.

Growers, teachers and experts work together at the farm to boost sustainable production modalities. They raise animals, produce cheese and yogurt, and grow fruits and vegetables for local consumption, she told WNS.

Surplus production is distributed among 130 partners who pay a monthly fee to cover expenses.

Meetings on ecological and organic agriculture are often organized in the area, and Chilean, Swiss and American students have come here for practical training courses.

Programs include cultural activities like tango nights and visits to places of historical interest.

"Academic knowledge is great, but there should always be an interaction with local people who have empiric wisdom", she noted.

In an effort to bridge this gap, we have brought students and teachers here for field work, she recently told a reporter at El Espectador radio station.

"Other courses have to do with the establishment of organic vegetable gardens and are intended for teachers and professors, people living in rural and urban areas, and technicians. “Abambaé” covers 80 square meters where organic fertilizers and practices are shown at their best", she stressed.

"The aim is to promote healthy productions, use local resources including organic matter, build capacities and generate revenues for the poorest people", she remarked.

Originally developed by Spanish and Italian immigrants, the country has over the years seen household agriculture disappear.

The experiment at Tacuarembó has been replicated in different regions under partnership agreements with social organizations that aim to improve human diet, provide training and supply fresh products to people canteens.

Supported by agricultural production companies, they conduct research into bio-pesticides, especially for ants. Biological pest control is 100-percent natural, Rodríguez recalled.

Experts at Bio-Uruguay have been developing insecticides from pathogen fungi. Laboratory tests have shown that they are 80-percent effective.

Export companies have been interested in these products because they are FSC- certified. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, an international, independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization established in 1993 to promote environmentally friendly, socially beneficial and economically feasible forest management techniques all over the world.

Rodríguez has worked as a consultant for the FAO Organic Production Program in five countries of the region.

"All I want is to live and work in Uruguay", she concluded.

Chile: The only public service utility in the country

By Ángela Castellanos

Santiago de Chile, March.– Maipú, a district in the capital city, has the only public water supply and sewage service utility under operation in the country. Although the current economic model gives priority to public service privatization, the company in question has managed to offer the lowest rates in the metropolitan area.

On March 22, the International Water Day will be commemorated and the International Year of Sanitation will be launched. The idea is to promote the Millennium Development Goals, especially the one related to reducing the number of people with no access to drinking water and basic sanitation by half by 2015.

Local public services began to be restructured in the late 1980s, when service concessions started to be granted. An institutional change made room for the establishment of 13 regional companies, and the government authorized foreign capital investment on state-run health-related enterprises in the mid 1990s.

As Maipú had a drinking water supply and sanitation service managed and operated by the municipal authorities, the central government never got involved. The former have sought to keep the water supply and sewage services running, said Iván Aranda, general advisor to the Municipal Drinking Water and Sewage Service Utility (SMAPA).

SMAPA serves 670,000 people in Maipú, Cerrillos and Estación Central (all of them in the metropolitan area or Wider Santiago). Water supply covers 100 percent of the urban population and sewage facilities, 99.8 percent.

Considering number of clients and sales volume, SMAPA is currently ranking fifth on the list of major providers. The local market is dominated by Aguas Andinas (under Aguas de Barcelona) and Suez (France).

"SMAPA is subject to the mayor’s office and to health-related company standards. Although we are not a company, we operate as such", he added.

Unlike private companies whose aim is to make profits, SMAPA plays two roles: supply water to the population and generate revenues for the municipality. This helps cover investment costs and operation expenses. "A surplus goes to local social programs", he commented.

"SMAPA is like a small gold mine and is actually an increasingly efficient provider. It is considered a private company by the Superintendent’s Office", he stressed.

"As we generate around 100 billion pesos (225 million dollars) a year, no mayor would want to get rid of us. If it is sold, the money will be spent one way or another. We guarantee profits every year", he emphasized.

Fixed by the Superintendent’s Office for five-year periods, SMAPA rates are based on a complex equation.

Over 67 percent of the local population belongs to the middle class, but 6.8 percent is currently living below the poverty line and can not always afford such rates. Average water consumption per household is 20 cubic meters and the cost is around 8,000 pesos (16 dollars).

The State gives subsidies in some instances and SMAPA provides the opportunity to reschedule debts without charging interests.

There are two environmental organizations actively working in the district. Marcela González, executive secretary of the local Environmental Committee, told SEMlac that the community highly assesses the service provided by SMAPA.

Today, the company uses underground water that is 100 to 150 meters deep, and has 98 out of 123 wells under operation.

"We work jointly with the central government on water protection. Major projects like fillings and wastewater treatment plants should always be appropriately studied to avoid damaging the environment", he explained.

Service privatization has been promoted in Chile and other Latin American countries seeking to increase efficiency and reduce public spending. The advantages that most private companies originally promised, however, have not been seen to date.

Argentina: Esquel mine

By Norma Loto

Buenos Aires, March.– Someone once said that plunder does not only change the final use of wealth, but also destroys a part of it. The wealth that foreign investors are trying to loot in southern Argentina involves gold and silver mines, and will eventually lead to local habitat destruction.

A gold and silver mine in Esquel, a Patagonian city in Chubut province, 1,404 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, is likely to be operated by a Canadian multinational corporation. Cyanide will be used to separate gold, and arsenic to separate silver.

The open-cast system to be applied will destroy both the surface and the landscape, and create huge, polluted craters all over the area, which will certainly collapse at some point in time, a report of the National Network on Environmental Action (RENACE) indicated.

Wind erosion and rain will do the rest: sediments usually get polluted and run off in the form of solutions. Acid drainage will destroy water life and cause irreversible damage to water reserves, the document added.

Open-cast operation consists of removing the superficial land layer to accede to extensive mineral ore deposits. RENACE experts estimate that the hole will be 2.7 meters long, 500 meters wide and 180 meters deep.

It will be located six kilometers away from the city and over the watershed of two lagoons: Willimanco (supplying drinking water to Esquel) and Esquel itself (one kilometer away from the local airport).

The experts also announced that huge amounts of cyanide will be used for mineral ore processing. Around 6,000 kilograms of sodium cyanide and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) a day and 1,400 kilograms of lead monoxide a month will be required. None of these elements can be completely removed or recycled.

The current dispute involves the provincial government, some foreign investors and the local population. Two Canadian companies have been part of the controversy (Meridian Gold first and Yamana Gold later).

Attempts are being made to turn the province into a low-cost business-operation site where internationally rejected extraction techniques would be applied. Advocates promise to generate new jobs and boost development, a recent communiqué by Self-Convened Neighbors Opposing Mine Operation said.

While Provincial Law No. 5001 bans open-cast and cyanide-use operations, mining companies seem to ignore it, in connivance with the local government.

It all began in 2003

On March 23, 2003, a referendum was organized by Self-Convened Neighbors Opposing Mine Operation. Over 81 percent of the local population did not favor the idea of operating the mine under such conditions.

Local women pioneered the struggle because most men trusted the mining company and its promises.

Chuni Botto, a member of the organization, told WNS that local women had realized that they could live without gold, but not without water. "Wives and daughters managed to convince men in their families to say no to mine operation", she added.

This was the beginning of a long struggle that is still being waged because the company's intent remains the same.

"Municipal, provincial and national leaders are supporting the company because they will make profit out of it, but our people are putting pressure", she stressed.

"When we began struggling, the price for gold was 300 dollars an ounce and it is over 1,000 dollars today, she emphasized. The harmful effects of mining on water, earth, air and living organisms can no longer be silenced", she commented.

Those who opposed mine operation in 2003 were considered crazy, fundamentalist people. Time has shown that they were not. There are today more than 80 communities in 15 provinces opposing mining operations all over the country.

"We are still committed. We want to close relations with other provinces through the Patagonian Regional Assembly and the National Union of Citizen Assemblies (UAC), and with other countries like Chile. We have already organized several bi-national meetings", she said.

If Yamana Gold starts up operations in the area, drought conditions all over the Patagonian plateau will be aggravated and poverty will further grow.

Water supply to coastal areas will be cut off because mine operation licenses include watershed sources. We must protect water because it is indispensable to life and sustainable economic development, Chuni told WNS.

"Organization members have been harassed, threatened and persecuted", she added.

"Present governor Mario Das Neves is trying to get open-cast mining operations approved for some areas, but local organizations are reacting very strongly because what is not good for Esquel is not good for any other region or province", she concluded.

Mexico: Pollution kills

By Alicia Yolanda Reyes

Mexico City, March.– Eight-year-old Miguel Ángel used to play with other kids on the banks of Santiago, one of the most heavily polluted rivers in the country. One day, he fell in the water and was quickly taken out by his friends.

Shortly afterwards, he began to throw up and have diarrhea. Although his mother gave him oral rehydration salts, he did not get better. He was referred to the Occidental General Hospital, which is under the umbrella of the Health Secretariat in the state of Jalisco. There, he convulsed, suffered from delirium, fell into a comma and died a few weeks later.

Clinical tests showed that his blood contained heavy metals and arsenic in high concentrations.

The river gets 10,000 liters of excrement per second every day from the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, as well as industrial wastes including lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium.

Proposals have been made to undertake a river sanitation project. The cheapest one involves the use of a long tube or pipe, but experts do not find it feasible because it would cause damage all along the area, including Chapala Lake, one of the most famous in the country and a main water supplier to the city.

Arturo Ballesteros, director of the Communications and Education Division at the World Wildlife Union, and professor of the University of Guadalajara, indicated that sanitation works have been successfully conducted at other rivers in Mexico (Tehuacán Basin in Puebla) and foreign countries (Chao Phraya in Thailand and Seine in Paris).

The local population has, for over 50 years, complained about Santiago river pollution. The authorities have always minimized the problem arguing that harmful effects on humans have never been proven.

An Environmental Preservation Committee in El Salto, one of the municipalities most seriously affected by the river situation, set out the task of visiting all households in the area and prepared a list of 477 people aged two to 77 who have got ill due to Santiago pollution.

The list includes over 50 cancer patients (mostly women aged 17 to 22), seven leukemia patients (mainly girls aged two to 17) and very poor people suffering from difficult-to-cure dermatitis, and renal and respiratory diseases.

The river pollution has reached wells that local people have built for consumption and irrigation.

Studies have shown that the federal government has been aware of the situation since the early 1990s. A National Water Commission investigation had found high concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chrome, lead, zinc, copper, mercury and nickel at 11 different points.

A claim filed in 2003 at the Federal Attorney’s Office for the Environment has been never considered.

The river pollution has also killed fowl, hogs and pets (cats and dogs). A neighbor told WNS that her dog had drunk water from the river, suffered from vomit and diarrhea, and died a few days later.

Governor Emilio González Márquez visited the area last year. Reporters took pictures of him and his entourage covering their noses because of the fetid smell coming from the river. No effective measures have been adopted so far.

Residents in the area, who are either ill or annoyed, announced that they will organize protest demonstrations very soon. They have filed a claim at the State Committee on Human Rights to make the authorities put an end to a situation that is killing people, mainly children and senior citizens whose immune systems are poorly developed or extremely deteriorated.

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean (SEMlac), International News Agency, offers this weekly service.

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