ABSTRACT
Coca leaf has been of great significance to Andean identity, cosmology, and reciprocal exchange for centuries, becoming a drug trafficking commodity when it is processed to produce cocaine. Through a historical perspective, this chapter examines the meanings and uses of coca leaf for Andean indigenous peoples, the extraction of cocaine alkaloid for scientific uses in the nineteenth century, and the subsequent entry of cocaine into the drug trafficking market, making it a target for the War on Drugs declared in the 1970s by the United States, conflated in Colombia and Peru with the counterinsurgency war. It analyzes the policies of each of the Andean countries regarding the legality or illegality of coca leaf, demonstrating their similarities and differences. Finally, it compares the militarized Colombian model of aerial spraying with glyphosate with the Bolivian model that bolstered community control under the slogan of “Coca yes-cocaine no,” decriminalizing coca leaf and promoting the marketing of its derivative products.
