Abstract
This paper argues that a peculiar form of colonization developed during the 20th century in Bolivia's antinarcotics policy, comprised of features that resemble both external and internal colonialism. On the one hand, international institutions and the United States were able to impose a system of control and prohibition on the growing and consumption of coca leaf in the country. On the other hand, the governing elite supported by the US imposed their power and domination over coca farmers, introducing US-sponsored prohibition of the growing of coca leaf and promoting forced coca eradication, severely jeopardizing coca farmers’ rights. In contrast to previous administrations that passively accepted decisions taken in international forums regarding coca leaf classification as an illegal drug, and rigorously followed instructions issued by the US with respect to eradication of coca, the government of Evo Morales is acting to change this situation in a twofold effort in both international and national arenas. Through the analysis of policies issued by this government between 2006-2014, this paper argues that in its management of antinarcotics policy is pursuing a particular process of decolonization to defend traditional uses of coca leaf, protect social, economic and cultural rights of Andean indigenous peoples involved in its production and/or consumption, and promote economic development of areas where coca is grown.
Highlights
This paper argues that a peculiar form of colonization developed during the 20th century in Bolivia's antinarcotics policy, comprised of features that resemble both external and internal colonialism
The analysis of Bolivia’s antinarcotics policy under the colonization/decolonization framework provides a useful lens to observe the content of the national and international regulations that for decades prevailed in this policy area, and the complexity of the context amid which these were formulated, characterized by international and domestic structural relations of power and domination fueled by the discrimination and inequities pervading within the Bolivian setting
External and Internal Colonialism in Bolivia’s Antinarcotics Policy. Taking into account both the submissive stance adopted by Bolivian administrations regarding US foreign drug policy, and the national and international antinarcotics regulations applied in Bolivia during 1971-2005, it is possible to identify in this policy area features typical of external and internal colonialism
Summary
In the 1960s, social scientists began to use the concept “internal colonialism” to describe the paradoxical situation in some “independent” states where ample sectors of the population still lived under colonial structures. In Latin America, Mexican sociologists Pablo González Casanova and Rodolfo Stavenhagen were the first and most important intellectuals among those who dealt with the problem systematically (Quijano 577; Rivera, 2010, 66). Their analyses were supplemented in the 1990s by Peruvian sociologist Anibal Quijano who developed the coloniality of power approach. White elites took control of the newly-formed independent states, imposed a system of domination and exploitation against Indian and Afro populations, and promoted European epistemologies of race, development, progress, and modernity (Stavenhagen 66-67). For political scientist Luis Tapia, during the neoliberal period the dismantling of the state through privatizations invigorated the colonial component of Bolivia’s politics (58)
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