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Headlines : InternationalBolivian president brandishes coca leaf at U.N.
The leftist Morales said he was determined to reverse injustices such as the “pillaging” of natural resources at the expense of indigenous people and the sale of state oil firms and other national assets to international companies, which he said was a violation of human rights.
“There’s another historical injustice — criminalizing coca, the coca leaf,” said Morales, a former leader of coca farmers in Bolivia who has been accused by the United States of doing too little to combat drug trafficking.
[Posted By Agustina]Republished from Reuters
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 19 (Reuters) – From Khrushchev’s shoe to Arafat’s gun and olive branch, the history of world leaders pulling out props at the United Nations is a colorful one — and on Tuesday Evo Morales joined the list with a coca leaf.
Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Morales brandished the small, pale green leaf during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly accusing the United States of using the war on drugs as a pretext for colonizing Latin American countries.
In 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev hammered a desk with his shoe to show his rage at criticism by a Filipino delegate. Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, pulled out a gun and an olive branch in 1974, saying “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand….
Posted by Agustina
From a 2000 article in The Guardian :
Andean peoples were using this hardy plant for a variety of ritual and health purposes for thousands of years before white men first learned to extract cocaine from it. Rich in vitamins and minerals, the leaves have traditionally been used to treat ailments ranging from dysentery to altitude sickness. The vast majority of Bolivians still chew them daily, mixing them with ash to create an anaesthetic effect on the stomach to ward off hunger. Death, marriage, and almost any other social or religious ritual here will include an offering of coca.
In case you didn’t follow the link to the rest of the Reuters article, I suspect that Reuters, actually mostly a financial consulting firm, is counting on your not getting past the third paragraph) here’s the last one :
“I invite the government of the United States to form a real alliance to combat drug trafficking and not just have excuses and pretexts to dominate us, to humiliate us and to try to establish military bases in our country under the pretext of combating drug trafficking,” Morales said.
Evo also gave Condi a traditional Bolivian Guitar with embossed coca leafs and Hugo a picture of Simon Bolivar made out of coca leafs.