The Coca plant
Coca is not a drug, it’s food.  

Coca, scientifically known as Erythroxylon Coca  is a medicinal and ceremonial plant traditionally used by Andean cultures.
It is a medium height bush that grows in hot, humid climates on the lower slopes of mountains. Since ancient times coca leaves were, and still are, used due to its medicinal and ritual purposes. They are chewed, ingested or prepared in infusion. 
Coca leaves are actually an essential dietary supplement in the social and ecological conditions of the Andes. They contain a considerable proportion of the requirements of vitamins and minerals.  They also supress hunger, improving life in the jungle and mountain environments where the availability of protein may be limited by local or seasonal factors. Another property of coca, related to its alkaloid content is its stimulating effect, it also facilitates efforts in conditions of the  low oxygen content of the mountain heights.

Coca leaf tea or «mate de coca» is also consumed in Peru and Bolivia to relieve altitude sickness or «altitude sickness» and as a digestive. The medicinal properties of coca resemble to some extent the Mapuche “boldo”.
During colonial times, Spanish authorities used these stimulant and appetite suppressant properties of coca to improve workers performance in the difficult silver miners conditions.
 Coca trade provided considerable income to the colonial authorities. In 1583 more than one millon kilos of coca leaves were brought to the mines of Upper Peru.  
Pictures taken by the author in the Chapare region of Cochabamba.

Coca alkaloids

Coca contains numerous alkaloids which give its known therapeutic properties.
The best known alcaloid is cocaine that has stimulant and digestive effects. Other alkaloids contained in coca include atropine, egnomina, the pecticina, papain, hygrine, globulin, quinoline, conina, cocamine, reserpine, benzoin, inulin and pyridina. Its properties are described in Table 3.2.

Cocaine

Cocaine is structurally to Solanaceae alkaloids such as belladonna, henbane, mandrake and satura. 
Its usual formula is cocaine hydrochloride, and apparently,it prevents the absorption of certain transmitters that have been released by other means. 
 Minimum active dose of nasal application is about 20-30 mg while the lethal dose is 1 to 1.5 grams.  It has a high tolerance and some people have ingested 4-5 grams daily without lethal effects.
This alkaloid was first isolated in 1859 by Florentine Paolo Mantegaza researcher and Austrian Karl Cherence of Austria.
In those days it was considered as an almost miraculous substance.
It was at this time that Dr Frances Angelo Mariani visiting Potosí, Bolivia, observed the natives chewing coca and upon his return to France developed a product which he called Mariani Wine. This “wine” was sold with great success.
In the late nineteenth century, coca and cocaine became popular and prestigious European intellectuals and professional classes became regular consumers..
Sigmond Freud himself stated:
At present it is impossible to assess with certainty the extent to which coca can potentially increase human mental powers.
I have the impression that prolonged use of cocaine can lead to a lasting improvement if the inhibitions expressed before it is consumed only to be physical causes or exhaustion. Of course, the instantaneous effect of a dose of cocaine can not be compared with an injection of morphine; But from the positive point of view, there is no danger of damage to the body generally as is the case with chronic use of morphine. 10   .
Then Freud himself would deny such early claims.
Enthusiasm generated by coca and cocaine in Western society led to their use in medicine and to the preparation of various elixirs which achieved wide acceptance. This habit spread among the population and markets for cocaine expanded.
When the prohibitionist ideology succeeded en the United States. and arguing that cocaine had addictive character and that was potentially harmful (with prolonged administration in high doses) a political movement proposing its banning developed.
In 1906, through the Poor Food and Drug Act, this alkaloid, as well as heroin  poppy, were banned in the United States.
It was the bãeginning of a process that would continue throughout the century. Despite its illegality, cocaine consumption gradually spread. As a result, coca cultivation in their areas of origin as well as clandestine laboratories for the manufacture of cocaine grew in many Latin American countries. Simultaneously  transportation networks for its distribution were organized. The highly unsuccessful war on cocaine had started.
From: "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones.

El Alto, a key to the social stability and politics of the Plurinational State of Bolivia                           

The geographical configuration of Bolivia is strange. In particular the orographic situation of the capital of the country, the city of La Paz. The tall

La Paz is located in a valley on the margin of the Altiplano about 3,600 meters high.

In the proper margin of the Altiplano, at 4,000 meters high, where the airport is located, some neighborhoods inhabited by poor people developed.

This place is called El Alto. The land and houses are cheaper because it is a rather inhospitable arid place, where it is cold every morning and intense radiation every noon.

The problems have been accustomed to the lack of oxygen and many must travel daily to La Paz to work and sell their products. Peace

So many people have settled in El Alto that today it has more population than the city of La Paz itself. El Alto has 800,000 inhabitants and La Paz itself 700,000.                                                              La Paz

A curiosity of La Paz is that it is only accessed from above, to get to the center of the city you have to go through El Alto. Even if you arrive by air you must pass through El Alto, which is where the airport is located.

It should be noted that there are roads that reach La Paz from the mountains and valleys at a lower height, from the region known as “the yungas” but are impracticable, limiting access to La Paz by the highland routes and therefore So much going through El Alto.

The roads to the yungas are very difficult to travel due to steep slopes. For that reason it is called the "road of death" is disabled for older vehicles.

From an ethnic point of view, the alterations are predominantly Aymara and are very socially and politically organized. It is not possible to control La Paz, and consequently to govern Bolivia, against the will of the alter population.                                              Road to the yungas

For that reason any government that tries to install has to negotiate with the alterations.

If they wish, the organizations of El Alto can paralyze the city of La Paz, both because of the need for travelers to pass through El Alto to reach the capital, as well as the possibility that alterations have of blocking access to products and even of the workers of La Paz, who in large numbers come from El Alto.

That is, sooner or later this situation has to be resolved, the raw fascism that is being imposed in Bolivia will have to deal with a large, ethnically homogeneous and politically organized opposition, the population and organizations of El Alto.

Martyred Bolivia

I knew Bolivia through several projects more than 2 decades ago: in the Quechua valleys of Cochabamba and Chapare cochabambino, in the Aymara Highlands of La Paz and Oruro, in the basin of the Titicaca and Coipasa lakes and along the Desaguadero river.
I also learned the testimonies of the ancient civilization of Tiwanako, the sacred island of the Sun in the great lake, the potato and quinoa crops, the paths of the llamas, the coca plantations in the Chapare. And finally, the agricultural business expansion in Santa Cruz, a department strongly influenced by the proximity of the Brazilian giant.
At that time Bolivia was a poor country. Organized and hardworking people but very poor.
Above all the indigenous communities were poor. The towns of the barren highlands, the Quechua populations of the Sierra, the coca growers of the Chapare and the indigenous immigrants who had been arriving in Santa Cruz due to the lack of work in the mountains.
All that changed with the MAS and with Evo.
The country began to grow, it stopped being poor. The natural gas was nationalized and channeled to the homes to Bolivian cities.
The Pachamama, banned for centuries, re-entered the Presidential Palace. The Aymara, Quechua and Guarani communities were able to govern themselves.
The quality of life improved substantially.
It was another Bolivia.
But it could not be, a new mestizo and European Creole oligarchy could not allow it. Nor could the Creole oligarchies of neighboring countries allow it, it was a bad example.
And finally, the pressure of the North American empire that relocates the mining resources, the maneuvers and manipulations of the multi-income officials of the Washington OAS, the so-called Lima Group, in short all of them.
Bolivia's resources had to be recovered, now in state and popular hands.

But above all it was necessary to expel Pachamama and bring the bible, along with the burning of union and indigenous headquarters, the persecution and indiscriminate arrest of leaders, dismissal of authorities and officials.
Quasi-colonial authoritarianism has returned,
Tupac Amaru will be dismembered again.
D.A.

2019 fires in tropical South America

During the winter season of 2019 in South America, particularly in Brazil, Bolivia, Perú and Paraguay, many fires were detected related to the improper exploitation of land resources in tropical rainforests.

A recent satellite image shows the number and intensity in many fire in those countries..

This enclosed satellite image shows that the main fires are occurring in Brazil, along the Purus and Madeiras rivers, in Bolivia (departments of Beni and Santa Cruz), in Peru and Paraguay. In these 4 countries the policies of occupation of tropical forests are depredatory.

In the case of Brazil, the process may have been intensified by some policy changes in relation to protected areas and demarcation of indigenous lands, aggravated by unhappy statements by President Bolsonaro.

In Bolivia, Evo Morales mistakenly authorized burning, while in Peru a similar process is seen. In Eastern Paraguay (where mostly forests have already been burned or felled) fires appear to be due to stubble burning preparing soils for planting soybeans or other crops.
It is also seen that there are few fires in the Amazon River area, due to the fact that it is a less intervened and very humid area with rains throughout.

The Coca plant
Coca is not a drug, it’s food.  

Coca, scientifically known as Erythroxylon Coca  is a medicinal and ceremonial plant traditionally used by Andean cultures.
It is a medium height bush that grows in hot, humid climates on the lower slopes of mountains. Since ancient times coca leaves were, and still are, used due to its medicinal and ritual purposes. They are chewed, ingested or prepared in infusion. 
Coca leaves are actually an essential dietary supplement in the social and ecological conditions of the Andes. They contain a considerable proportion of the requirements of vitamins and minerals.  They also supress hunger, improving life in the jungle and mountain environments where the availability of protein may be limited by local or seasonal factors. Another property of coca, related to its alkaloid content is its stimulating effect, it also facilitates efforts in conditions of the  low oxygen content of the mountain heights.

Coca leaf tea or «mate de coca» is also consumed in Peru and Bolivia to relieve altitude sickness or «altitude sickness» and as a digestive. The medicinal properties of coca resemble to some extent the Mapuche “boldo”.
During colonial times, Spanish authorities used these stimulant and appetite suppressant properties of coca to improve workers performance in the difficult silver miners conditions.
 Coca trade provided considerable income to the colonial authorities. In 1583 more than one millon kilos of coca leaves were brought to the mines of Upper Peru.  
Pictures taken by the author in the Chapare region of Cochabamba.

Coca alkaloids

Coca contains numerous alkaloids which give its known therapeutic properties.
The best known alcaloid is cocaine that has stimulant and digestive effects. Other alkaloids contained in coca include atropine, egnomina, the pecticina, papain, hygrine, globulin, quinoline, conina, cocamine, reserpine, benzoin, inulin and pyridina. Its properties are described in Table 3.2.

Cocaine

Cocaine is structurally to Solanaceae alkaloids such as belladonna, henbane, mandrake and satura. 
Its usual formula is cocaine hydrochloride, and apparently,it prevents the absorption of certain transmitters that have been released by other means. 
 Minimum active dose of nasal application is about 20-30 mg while the lethal dose is 1 to 1.5 grams.  It has a high tolerance and some people have ingested 4-5 grams daily without lethal effects.
This alkaloid was first isolated in 1859 by Florentine Paolo Mantegaza researcher and Austrian Karl Cherence of Austria.
In those days it was considered as an almost miraculous substance.
It was at this time that Dr Frances Angelo Mariani visiting Potosí, Bolivia, observed the natives chewing coca and upon his return to France developed a product which he called Mariani Wine. This “wine” was sold with great success.
In the late nineteenth century, coca and cocaine became popular and prestigious European intellectuals and professional classes became regular consumers..
Sigmond Freud himself stated:
At present it is impossible to assess with certainty the extent to which coca can potentially increase human mental powers.
I have the impression that prolonged use of cocaine can lead to a lasting improvement if the inhibitions expressed before it is consumed only to be physical causes or exhaustion. Of course, the instantaneous effect of a dose of cocaine can not be compared with an injection of morphine; But from the positive point of view, there is no danger of damage to the body generally as is the case with chronic use of morphine. 10   .
Then Freud himself would deny such early claims.
Enthusiasm generated by coca and cocaine in Western society led to their use in medicine and to the preparation of various elixirs which achieved wide acceptance. This habit spread among the population and markets for cocaine expanded.
When the prohibitionist ideology succeeded en the United States. and arguing that cocaine had addictive character and that was potentially harmful (with prolonged administration in high doses) a political movement proposing its banning developed.
In 1906, through the Poor Food and Drug Act, this alkaloid, as well as heroin  poppy, were banned in the United States.
It was the bãeginning of a process that would continue throughout the century. Despite its illegality, cocaine consumption gradually spread. As a result, coca cultivation in their areas of origin as well as clandestine laboratories for the manufacture of cocaine grew in many Latin American countries. Simultaneously  transportation networks for its distribution were organized. The highly unsuccessful war on cocaine had started.
From: "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones.

After 500 years
First Guaraní self-government

News that did not appear in the media. 
For the first time, in recent times a Guaraní community was able to choose its authorities democratically. 
It did not occur in Paraguay, where most of the Guarani communities live (Ava Chiripá, Pai Tavytera, Mbya Guaraní). Nor in Brazil or Argentina, where there are some dispersed Guaraní groups. It took place in Bolivia. 
The Ava Guaraní, also known as Chiriguanos, that inhabit the skirts of the mountain ranges of Santa Cruz and adjacent plains, have been able to choose their authorities.

At the end of the 19th century. the Ava Guarani revolted against the Bolivian government. The fighting was bloody and finally the rebels were massacred in Kuruyuki and their buruvichá (leader), Apiaguaiqui Tumpa (or Tüpa) captured, tortured and executed. 
It is estimated that more than 6,000 Ava Guarani died in those battles. 
On January 28 of the present year (2017) 125 years after the massacre, for the first time, a Bolivian President went to the Ava communities. Evo Morales attended and paid homage to the martyr of the Chiriguano struggle against the cruel Creole elites of Bolivia.

https://latinta.com.ar/2017/06/asume-el-primer-autogobierno-indigena-en-bolivia/

D.Anton