Coca: An Andean Tradition 0
The following document was presented to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights – Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities Working Group on Indigenous Populations in July 1993 by the “Tupay Katari” movement.
CONTENTS
Background
Andean Traditions
The Virtues of Coca
Confusion Between Coca and Drugs
Against Eradication and For Legalization
BACKGROUND
The coca plant is as old as man. The cultivation and consumption of its leaves, which were considered sacred by pre-Columbian civilizations goes back over 4,000 years. Of greatest significance is the fact that over time the shrub has become an integral part of Andean culture and today, as in the past, it represents the material and spiritual force underlying the identity of the indigenous peoples.
In the Andes no plant is more appreciated and valued by the Indians than the coca plant. The natives of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire which included Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Argentina planted it just as the vine is cultivated in Europe. Historical record has shown that the coca plant, which has been cultivated since time immemorial, has always been omnipresent in the indigenous universe and that it has not only enriched their ancestral traditions but symbolized their vigorous resistance to colonial domination and subjection.
Since the Spanish conquistadors identified it as one of the essential elements of the magical, religious and medicinal ritual of Andean tradition and as a factor that permitted the conquered Indians to maintain their cohesion and resistance, coca has always been persecuted and combated as a “diabolic weed”. Within the ethnocentric view of the European colonizers, the mysterious leaf employed in rituals and religious offerings to the Sun and Mother Earth hindered the conversion of the indigenous peoples to Christianism. The first adversaries of the coca plant appeared and proposed its straightforward eradication under the pretext of ensuring the salvation of indigenous souls.
Throughout the centuries the coca leaf has been attacked and defended from all sides. It was attacked by the colonizers as part of a process of cultural alienation and by the Inquisition, behind which hid the ferocious appetites for gold, silver and all the wealth that slumbered in the depths of the Andes. Despite the inestimable contribution by the pre-Columbian civilizations to old Europe in the form of a number of valuable plants such as the potato, maize, the tomato, okra, cotton, the chili pepper, quinoa and certain varieties of bean, paradoxically coca is singled out for discrimination. However, the aboriginal peoples identify with the coca plant – a living expression of Andean culture – and by defending it they have always defended the rights of the Andean people to preserve their millennial traditions and values.
