The New Battle for Coca in Peru

The Curent Situation

In July, the Cuzco regional government passed an ordinance that basically declares what is already legal to be legal. It is responding to the possibility that the government miht pass a law to the Congress to be approved. The law is, at its heart, an attempt at a geopolitical strategy of “coca cero” (zero coca), leaving a few thousand hectares, probably four or five thousand, for traditional consumption focused in a few areas. Faced with this, Cuzco tried to move ahead. Among the reasons for this is that Peru needs to pass laws to eliminate several ambiguities regarding the issue of the coca plant, and neither this government nor previous ones have done so. Nor have the various congresses. Their have been 17 different proposals on the coca leaf, and no in the government has felt like reviewing them. So the regional government took the initiative on the issue, and passed this local legislation. What this legislation says, basically, is that the government of Cuzco and its constitution respect the cultivation, the production, the trade and consumption of the coca leaf oriented towards traditional consumption and its possible industrialization. So there’s a summary.

History of the Conflict

Faced with this, the national government reacted by saying to things. First, that the legislation was unconstitutional because a regional government cannot legislate policies and laws that have a national character. And according to them, the coca problem is an issue of national security. Second, the national government argued that the legislation favored narco-trafficking.

The regional government, in turn, argued that it had simply passed the legislation faced with the absence of national laws and a state policy on the issue. This debate went on throughout July, August, and now September with the issue before the Constitutional Tribunal. Then a second regional government came forward, Huánco, with a very similar piece of legislation. That was in late June. It actually ratifies a previous piece of legislation that they had passed the previous June. And there is a third regional government, Ayacucho, which passed similar legislation in 2003. I think it was in late June 2003. So, there were now three regional initiatives. Each one had its differences but in general they all pointed toward the necessity of recognizing traditional use and the benefits of possible industrialization. Added to this is the possibility of another law from the regional government of La Libertad concerning coca production, in the Ongó Valley. Also, in the area around the costal city of Trujillo… these are traditional coca cultivation zones. There is a very flavorful variety grown there called tuca coca, which is traditionally used for export to Coca-Cola in the United States.

Struggle for the Coca

This is the store. Last Friday, the Cuzco regional government asked for the constitutional action against Cuzco be carried out independently from the one against the government of Huánuco. Because they did not want for a department where the majority of the coca goes to drug trafficking to get confused with a department where the majority is for traditional uses. And so, on Friday, both the Huánuco and Cuzco governments argued that their cases should be separated. Because the Constitutional Tribunal threw both pieces of legislation into the same bag…  

The regional presidents and their advisors took this on from a technical point of view, using international treaties and the constitution. There were three basic arguments. In the fist place, if the regional governments are not authorized to legislate on the issue, if it is outside their jurisdiction, then the state has a responsibility to have a clear policy on the issue and should not leave such enormous ambiguities concerning coca. The second argument is that neither of the two regional laws contradicts national legislation, because neither says that anyone can cultivate, produce, trade, or consume coca for cocaine production. They do not say this explicitly, and they do not say it implicitly either. There is just this fear that the initiatives will foment narco-trafficking and thus violate national law. And thirdly, it is not unconstitutional because, although the constitution may say that such issues can only be decided by the national legislature, the two laws say that they are merely temporary laws to be used until the congress approves a new law about coca, which they would follow.

International treaties are not being violated either. Article 14 of the 1986 Vienna thingy respects the use, cultivation, production, trade, and consumption of coca leaves, in those countries that have done so historically. In Peru’s national drug law of 1978, and in the 1988 convention… there are a huge number of arguments in favor of this. So what is the situation? The situation is that we are in a political trap that denies a political way out. But there is a political way out – that Peru write up a state policy on thte coca issue, on its production, its consumption, its administration. Unfortunately, though, that has not happened yet.

The Constitutional Tribunal should come up with a resolution on this in 15 days, so in the first two weeks of October we will see what has happened.