Bolivia is widely recognized as a leading world producer of coca, but the government has long maintained production of consumption-ready cocaine was limited.
A view shows coca growers waiting for customers during the reopening of the coca market of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers after the organisation's building was partially burned down following months of protests against the market, in La Paz, Bolivia October 10, 2022.LA PAZ, Sept 2 - In a break with the past, Bolivia's government has acknowledged that the country is becoming a production hub for cocaine rather than a mere transport hub and grower of raw coca leaves.
In a shift of tone this week, the government said it had destroyed a large number of laboratories, mostly in the tropical Chapare region, one of the main coca growing areas and a stronghold of former leftist President Evo Morales. "They are trying to turn our nation from being a drug transit country to a drug-producing country," he added and presented a drug trafficking map of some 1,804 drug factory busts since 2020, the "vast majority" in Chapare, he said.
The government has been prodded to act domestically, including by allies of Morales - president from 2006 until 2019 - who suggest the government has been soft on traffickers.
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