Likely Bolivian president backs coca-farming

Evo Morales, the leftist claiming victory in Bolivia’s presidential race, stayed true to his coca-growing roots yesterday by repeating promises to stop the US-backed eradication of coca, saying the crop that provides the raw material for cocaine is part of Bolivian culture.

Initial results showed Morales with a smashing victory over seven opponents that would make him the first Indian president in the 180-year history of independent Bolivia and solidify a continental shift to the political left.

Morales – himself a coca farmer who played an important role in protests that unseated two governments – also pledged yesterday to respect private property, apparently seeking to reassure investors despite plans to assert state ownership over Bolivia’s vast natural gas reserves.

With almost 25% of the official votes counted, Morales had 46.7% of the vote, while conservative rival Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga had 36.2%, according to the National Electoral Court. Quiroga has conceded defeat.

Morales was congratulated by Venezuela’s self-proclaimed revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez and by the more centrist Socialist president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos. No early call came from the US.

Morales said: “Neither was I expecting one.”

But a US State Department spokeswoman, Jan Edmondson, later congratulated Morales on his apparent victory.

She said the US has had good relations with Bolivia in the past and “we’re prepared to work to build the same relationship with the next government”.

Apparently trying to reassure foreign investors, Morales said he would respect property rights and that multinational companies would be paid to help in exploration and to develop the industry, he said.

A governing Movement Toward Socialism party “is not only going to respect, but is going to protect private property”, although “vacant, unproductive land” would be turned over to farmers with no land or very little, he said.

The site of his news conference – the offices of the coca growers union where Morales rose to political prominence – showed that the apparent victory did not mellow his stance against US coca-eradication efforts.

“We are betting on an effective fight against narco-trafficking because neither cocaine nor drug-trafficking is part of Bolivian culture,” Morales said.

He has not said how he will stop illegal drug exports, complaining instead that “the fight against drug trafficking has been a pretext for the US government to install military bases … and these policies will be revised”.

Morales defended the coca leaf as an integral part of Bolivian culture.

“It’s not possible that the coca leaf can be legal for Coca Cola and not for us. It’s hypocritical,” he said.

In Atlanta, Coca-Cola spokeswoman Kirsten Watt declined to say this month whether cocaine-free coca extract is part of the drink’s secret recipe. It has been widely reported that cocaine-free extract derived from coca is part of the drink’s secret recipe.

Coca remains an important cash crop for poor farmers, who also grow food for their own consumption. The leaf is easier to grow and transport than other cash crops such coffee or bananas.

No candidate in decades has won by such a landslide, marking a turning point in a country traditionally governed by the non-Indian elite. Like most Bolivians, Morales grew up in extreme poverty. Only two of his six brothers and sisters survived childhood in the bleak Andean highlands.