Forbidden sacred plant

1997/09/01 Barriuso, Martin Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna
• Ingurumena

The coca leaf has been used for centuries in the Andean villages as food and medicine. But the success it has had in the Cechua and Aimara villages and their cultural roots have lost precisely the coca leaf. Despised since the time of the colonizers, the current elites also consider the use of this plant as a shameful custom of poor and unknown citizens. In Bolivia or Peru, in the highest groups and levels of society no one will publicly accept that it is customary to chew the leaf and, in any case, will act covertly. That is why, because it is a thing of the low level, because it is an important part of the traditional culture of the Spanish dominated, it has been so slow the origin of the striking characteristics of coca and the investigation of its possible applications.

I'm going to give a clear indication of what has been said: the first sessions to prevent the use of the coca leaf began in 1950 with a special commission from the United Nations. At that time, cocaine from its derivative barely existed in illegal markets, since it is the boom of amphetamine, for its strongest effect and for its cheapest price. Therefore, more than for health reasons, for ethnic and cultural prejudice, research on the coke has been almost paralyzed for a long time. Moreover, as a result of the international harassment suffered by this plant, much more money is spent destroying the plants than analyzing their benefits.

And, as the British anthropologist Anthony Heman denounces, in the budgets of the U.S. Department of Agriculture there is always a heading to “promote specific diseases of the coca plant.” In the eradication of the plant special herbicides and parasitic butterflies of malumbia have been used. And it seems that the epidemic caused by the Fusarium Oxysporum fungus in the Upper Huallaga region in 1991 was the cause of a new variety created expressly in some US laboratory. This epidemic, although it seems ironic, destroyed the citrus and avocados that were introduced in the substitution of coca, causing serious problems to the peasants. The sacred plant of the Incas has become a curse for the indigenous.

The initiative against the coke driven by the rich countries of the North and, especially, by the United States is an authentic war. In addition to insects and fungi, helicopters and tanks are also used in this tough fight. The governments of Peru and Bolivia have special police groups to eliminate the plants, since economic aid from the United States depends on the value shown in the war on coca. Consequently, this conflict has caused many deaths in recent decades. And do not think they are ancestral things: in a special operation carried out by the Bolivian army this spring there have been many dead, wounded and detained. Against this absurdity, voices have been raised. Paz Zamora, former president of Bolivia, also called for the promotion of research on the beneficial applications of coca, but in vain. The newly elected President Banzer, who has Paz Zamora among his ministers, has again bet on the total elimination of coca. There is no research.

But these attitudes in favor of elimination are not true. Only plants are burned in certain places. And it is that corruption is spread around cocaine and governments do not intend to completely ban this product that gives such good performance. However, they will always be against legalization, because illegality gives them the excuse to increase prices and crush opposition. Those who dare to denounce this situation have faced the recent death of three people from the CINEP (Center for Research and Popular Education) by Colombian paramilitary groups. The main theme that the dead were dealing with at this time was the debate on legalization. He was preparing a seminar on the subject that was invited to Nero. They were killed for their support for legalization, since the promotion of the debate is contrary to the interests of the famous government-supported posters.

Meanwhile, a scientific committee of the United Nations continues to apologize for such irrational persecution and hinder true scientific research. While some try to offer an alternative to the peasants of Andeta, while trying to sell the coca leaf outside the countries of origin, others, some with white robes, are hindering all attempts to know better the beneficial characteristics of the plant. The question is where are the sages who claim the sacred freedom to investigate in other areas? Where have proponents of the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge entered into other controversial issues of less clear application? The development of science is conditioned by great interests. This is even clearer in the case of illegal drugs. So that we cannot give more scientific weapons to this dirty war that is destroying the jungle, massacring the peasants, enriching the corrupt mafias and poisoning the consumers.