La Paz, Sep 12 (EFE) . – Producers sold coca leaves on Monday at the door of the so-called parallel market of La Paz, which destroyed last week, asking the Bolivian Government to claim their assets as “unique” legal for this activity, and announced marches to demand justice.
On Monday morning, coca growers from the Arnold Alanes block arrived at the parallel market in the community of Villa El Carmen, in northern La Paz. The market violently assaulted last week thousands of coca growers from the Los Yungas region, led by the head of the Departmental Association of Coca Growers (Adepcoca), Freddy Machicado.
While the services were closed for research, Alanes suggested enthusiasts sell their products outdoors in the marketplace via a video posted on social media.
Posters on the walls of the burned work allude to calls for justice for the wounded and imprisonment for Machicado.
“They who came here to attack our heritage,” Armin Aliaga, secretary of the Alanes bloc, told EFE.
Meanwhile, in the classic market of Adepcoca, in the community of Villa Fátima, also north of La Paz, coca growers marketed the coca leaf as usual.
Alanes announced monday at a press conference that in the face of the “humiliations” suffered last week, they will hold a rally and a “peaceful” march from Villa El Carmen to the offices of the Ministry of Rural Development and Lands.
“All the partners will lead our assembly, a non-violent march for justice and in the commercialization of the coca leaf,” Alanes said.
For September 19, the march is announced in which they will ask the government of President Luis Arce to allow the operation of the parallel market and that justice be done for the attacks on its infrastructure.
The Deputy Minister of Communication, Gabriela Alcón, said that the other residents of Machicado tried to threaten the lives of other coca growers and that “criminal and criminal” photographs of how they took the houses last week were noticed.
“The discussion is not positioned by threats, but by a predisposition to go down and pay attention and locate answers, that is what the country wants,” Alcón said.
Meanwhile, the ruling deputy Gladys Quispe said that the coca growers were “afraid” of triumphing in the Adepcoca market because of the stage and that 70% of the producers had not participated in the Machicado protests.
The Adepcoca clash has dragged on since September last year, when an organization chose Alanes to lead the organization, which later won the recognition.
After several days of protests, the opposition bloc, which claims to be in the majority, expelled Alanes from the headquarters of Adepcoca. A few days later the parallel market near the classic market opened, which triggered the protests that led to the burning of the construction and without any view of discussion between the parties.
Before the violent takeover, thousands of industrialists led by Machicado traveled more than 116 kilometers for five days to ask for the closure of this company. Then they marched to the seat of government to record a petition and ask Arce to meet with them and claim the Villa. Plaza de Fátima as the only coca leaf market square in La Paz.
Meanwhile, citizens of the community took to the streets on Monday to demand that the coca growers leave the domain to more violence and destruction.
Bolivian law recognizes two legal markets for the sale of coca leaf: one in Sacaba, department of Cochabamba, and in Villa Fátima, La Paz.
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