LA PAZ (Reuters) – Thousands of coca growers marched through the Bolivian capital of La Paz on Thursday and set fire to what they said is a new illegal leaf market.
The producers, who marched for five days from the Yungas region north of La Paz, crossed police lines and attacked with dynamite, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails. There were no serious injuries.
The market was established in October 2021 in addition to two existing coca wholesale markets authorized by Bolivian law in La Paz and Cochabamba. In those markets, coca quantities and buyers are regulated.
The country’s politicized coca grower sector is at odds over the La Paz market.
Agustin Mamani, one of the leaders of the march, said there were more than 10,000 protesters. There is no official estimate available from the crowd.
Esar Apaza, the indigenous leader of an organization calling for the closure of the new coca market, blamed the government of President Luis Arce for allowing it to open.
“The government and its ministers are for this,” Apaza said.
The coca leaf has long been cultivated in the Andes for its nutritional and medicinal benefits, as well as being the raw base of cocaine.
The coca growers said they would return to their spaces until the government resolved the conflict.
(Reporting through Daniel Ramos; Editing via Cynthia Osterman)
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