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Although cocaine is consumed in every part of the world, its base, the coca plant, is mainly cultivated in three Latin American countries: Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. The latter made headlines in the fall of 2023 due to a report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) claiming that the area used for coca crop in 2022 grew to 230,000 hectares, a 13 percent increase compared to 2021, according to Reuters reporting. As our chart shows, this further cements Colombia's spot as the top coca producer in the world.According to figures by UNODC and the Peruvian...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A white powder found inside the White House late on Sunday was identified by Washington's fire department and emergency services as cocaine, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The source said the powder was found in the West Wing, but gave no further details. The West Wing is attached to the executive mansion where President Joe Biden lives. It houses the Oval Office, the cabinet room and press area, and offices and workspace for the president's staff.

Good morning everyone. I drank a Coca Cola after church services this past Sunday at our get together and it tasted funny. I was wondering if my encounter with Covid some months ago had affected my taste. Then, wifey bought some coke yesterday and it tasted the same as it did Sunday. It doesn't taste like Coke used to taste. Anyone else notice the change? Other things taste normal to me so was wondering what is going on with Coca Cola. Anyone know if they changed the formula? Is it now Biden Cola?

Anonymous alleged “U.S. and congressional officials” told the Wall Street Journal this week President Joe Biden is planning to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a nearly 60-year-old terrorist organization responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, from America’s list of designated foreign terrorist groups. The FARC, a communist group, has been responsible for a wide variety of human rights atrocities in Colombia since its founding in 1964 that include mass killings, kidnappings, child rape, forced abortions, the use of child soldiers, and one of the world’s most lucrative drug trafficking operations. The government of then-President Juan Manuel...

Shortly after Hugo Chávez won his first election as Venezuelan president in December 1998, a lawyer from the western state of Barinas, which was then governed by Chávez's father, delivered a prescient warning to Newsweek magazine: "Venezuelans are dreaming of a savior, but Chávez is a dictator. People don't know what they are getting."  More than 14 years later, a cancer-stricken Chávez is reportedly near death, but his autocratic legacy is very much alive. Venezuela long ago ceased to be a real democracy: The ruling regime effectively controls the Supreme Court (which in 2004 was expanded and packed with Chávez allies), the National Assembly...

The ingredients of the drink, founded by John Pemberton, a medicinal pharmacist in 1886, have always been a mystery. However, Thisamericanlife.org claims to have discovered a list in a photograph in a newspaper article giving the ingredients and exact quantities to make the drink.

LA PAZ (Reuters) – A pale green energy drink made from coca leaves has given Bolivian President Evo Morales a boost as he tries to persuade the United Nations to scrap a ban on the traditional Andean practice of chewing the leaves. Coca is the raw material for making cocaine, but Bolivians have chewed the leaves for centuries for it mild stimulant that reduces hunger and altitude sickness. The coca leaf was declared an illegal narcotic in the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, along with cocaine, heroin, opium and morphine and a host of chemical drugs. Tuesday's launch...

LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Evo Morales has been re-elected as head of Bolivia's largest coca-growers union, a post he has held for more than two decades. Morales was sworn in late Monday as head of the Six Federations of the Tropic of Cochabamba, which represents more than 40,000 growers. .. Morales called his leadership of the union largely "symbolic" but promised regular meetings. His re-election was criticized by opposition members, who said it was inappropriate given an apparent rise in drug trafficking violence.

President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending "indefinitely" the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia.Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September. He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca- growers have been pressing him to do. Bolivia's first indigenous president once served as the leader of the country's union of coca-growers.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez switched from coffee to another stimulant during a speech on Saturday -- he popped a coca leaf into his mouth and chewed it while defending the use of the plant. Bolivian President Evo Morales, an advocate of the Andean nation's indigenous coca growers, brought Chavez coca leaves while in Caracas for a summit of Latin American leaders allied with Chavez. "I knew you wouldn't let me down, my friend, I was running out," Chavez said as he received the leaves from Morales during the televised summit. He broke one in half and chewed...

Venezuela intends to purchase the whole Bolivian industrial coca production, some 4,000 tons, for medicines and infusions, from the two plants Caracas is funding in two lavish Bolivian coca areas, said Venezuelan Ambassador in La Paz Julio Montes. The diplomat said Venezuela expects to buy the whole production of the two plants where Caracas has invested USD 1 million. The facilities are based in Yungas, a valley east La Paz, and Lauca Ñ, a village in Chapare, Cochabamba, central Bolivia, AFP reported. The plants funded by Venezuela and operating with Cuban scientific aid will be fully operational in three-six months....

Evo Morales takes the coca leaf to the UN and defends it After unexpectedly wielding a green coca leaf in his right hand, Bolivian President Evo Morales demonstrated Tuesday before world leaders one of the many injustices which he came to raise before the United Nations. Before the initial surprise and reserved applause immediately afterwards, Morales said that to criminalize the coca leaf was an "historic injustice." "This leaf represents the Andean culture, the environment and the hope of the people," said Morales, who before being President was the leader of the Bolivian coca growers. "It is not possible...

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — The sun sets golden on the small town of Anzaldo, deep in the Bolivian countryside. On a recent evening, Lolita Antezana took a 90-minute taxi ride from Cochabamba to Anzaldo, her freshly purchased table and 10 chairs lashed atop the roof. With its dusty streets, quiet tenor and predictable routines, the town has always been her home. At 79, Antezana said she's "too old to get involved in politics." But even she finds herself excited about Bolivia's new president, Evo Morales. She saw him on television, playing soccer with some kids in La Paz, a decidedly unpresidential...

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales visited a coca-growing region on Saturday to open a Venezuelan-funded factory where coca leaves will be made into legal products such as tea and soft drinks. Morales rose in politics as the leader of Bolivia's coca farmers and part of his anti-drug policy is to encourage licit uses for coca -- the plant used to make cocaine, which is also revered by Andean peoples for its medicinal properties. "Manufacturing coca (products) doesn't do any harm because coca isn't a drug," Morales told hundreds of coca farmers gathered in a stadium in...

SHINAHOTA, Bolivia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who often accuses the U.S. of plotting to overthrow him, warned Bolivia's president Friday he could be facing the same prospect. Chavez spoke during a visit to the heart of Bolivia's coca-growing region with Bolivian leader Evo Morales and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage — a trip designed to bolster trade ties among three leftist governments. Chavez responded to President Bush's comment Monday that he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Bolivia and Venezuela. "If the U.S. president says he's worried the democracy is eroding in Bolivia, this simply means that...

If Willy Sutton were alive today, he’d be eyeing the oil industry. Sutton, you’ll remember, was once asked why he robbed banks. “‘Cause that’s where the money is,” he replied. According to our sources, Evo Morales may be doing a Willy Sutton number. As candidate for President, he promised the Bolivian peasants a big pay increase. Then, when he got into office, the mean people at the national treasury had a little talk with him. “Where was the money going to come from?” they wanted to know. Evo looked around. He was losing popularity fast. What did the country have...

Bolivia urges UN to defy Washington and legalise coca By Sophie Arie in La Paz (Filed: 20/03/2006) Bolivia is leading a Latin American campaign to legalise coca plants despite them being vilified by the United States as the source of the world's cocaine industry. Coca leaves: fans claim it aids digestion and contains more vitamins and nutrients than most vegetables Under the slogan "coca is not cocaine", politicians, consumers and growers across the Andes are promoting the leaf's qualities and calling for coca-based tea, yoghurt, bread, toothpaste, shampoo and soap to be mass produced and exported. Its fans claim it...

<p>SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca has recommended that school children be fed coca leaves instead of milk for breakfast. The official's comments are part of an effort by the government of President Evo Morales to remove coca from international lists of toxic substances.</p>

Coca leaf has more nutritional value than milk and should replace it in school lunches, Bolivia's new Foreign Minister has suggested. "Our children need calcium, and the coca leaf has more calcium than milk," David Choquehuanca said. In past interviews, Mr Choquehuanca said he stopped reading books when he discovered his Aymara heritage, and claimed to get his knowledge from reading the wrinkles of his ancestors. "Our children need phosphorous, and the coca leaf has more phosphorous than fish," he said. "Perhaps instead of milk in school lunches, we should be giving coca leaf to our children." Mr Choquehuanca said...

Just weeks ago, Bolivian Army troops swooped down on Seberino Marquina's farm and, one by one, ripped his coca bushes from the ground. But after President Evo Morales's inauguration on Jan. 22, the army conscripts assigned to eradicate coca leaves here as part of the United States-financed war on drugs instead spend their days lolling