The Benefits of Coca Leaves

Discussing coca leaves' properties in the San Alejo Sunday flea market. 

As part of the negotiations beginning between the government and FARC guerrillas, the government is demanding that the guerrillas get out of the cocaine business, which has long provided much of their financing.

Coca leaves by the handful.

Which is as good an excuse as any to take a look at the 'good side' of the coca leaf economy. While coca leaves were banned by the United Nations in 1961, along with cocaine, marijuana, heroin and other drugs (but not, strangely, tobacco and alcohol).

Indigenous people in the Andes have chewed coca leaves for thousands of years, without apparent injury, and also used them for religious and medicinal purposes. Bolivian President Evo Morales, an indigenous man who was a coca farmer and is still leader of a coca leaf growers organization, has been lobbying for the U.N. to take the coca leaf off of the prohibited list - so far without success.

Coca and marijuana oils.

Coca tea and crackers. 

In Colombia, indigenous people are permitted to grow coca leaves on their own lands and use them for traditional purposes. The foods, medicines and other products they make out of coca leaves fall into sort of juridic limbo, as far as I understand: They aren't technically legal, but authorities tolerate them. Like so many other things, the coca leaf prohibitions are absurd. Coca leaves may not cure rheumatism and diabetes, as their sellers claim, but neither are they bad for you. Travelers traditionally sip coca tea to treat altitude sickness, with no ill effects besides a possible stomach ache. And hikers and miners chew the leaves to reduce fatigue. Each leaf sold for one of these healthful uses is a leaf which illegal drug producers can't buy.

Despite coca leaves' benefits for health and the economy of indigenous communities, Colombian anti-drug warriors have tried to demonize the plant, branding it 'La mata que mata,' (The plant that kills) in radio and TV ads, until coca plant growers sued them for defamation and won.

A sign lists coca leaves' supposed health benefits, including losing weight, removing skin blotches, and giving you energy. 

These coca products come from harvests in the Sierra de Santa Marta. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The More the Church Changes...

...the more it stays the same.

That seems apparent from the appointment of Colombia's latest (and only voting) Cardinal, the Archbishop of Bogotá, Rubén Salazar Gómez. He's the third Colombian currently in the elite group of 'princes' of the Roman Catholic Church.

This is an honor for Colombia and gives Colombia a bit more influence in the Catholic hierarchy - but it doesn't bode well for the church's future.

According to this profile in El Tiempo, Salazar is a dynamic man whose career has been marked by concern for the poor, and, in particular, for displaced people. But Salazar's ideological positions are doctrinaire conservative: he opposes euthenasia, abortion, gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.

"What does it mean to die with dignity?" Salazar asks in the article. "That a doctor injects a sick person with a poison or a lethal injection?"

Salazar doesn't explain what makes that sort of painless, quiet death less dignified than a long, agonizing one full of suffering and uncertainty for the sick and his or her relatives.

Those ideological positions aren't surprising, of course. After all, Pope Benedict just ordered the United States' largest organization of Catholic nuns to reform for not sufficiently denouncing abortion, gay marriage, etc.

But, in a world that's steadily liberalizing, the Catholic Church looks increasingly outdated and irrelevent. Perhaps principled, too; but that might not help it hold onto believers as young people increasingly see precepts such as not using contraception as absurd. Colombia, for example, is discussing regulating euthenasia, which is already de facto legal here, as well as expanding abortion rights as well as those for same-sex couples.

Camilo Torres, the guerrilla-priest.
Would he have opposed
gay marriage and euthenasia?

It's a far cry from the 1960s, when Colombia was at the center of the progressive Liberation Theology  movement within the Catholic Church. So progressive, in fact, that several Catholic priests, most (in)famously Camilo Torres, ran off and joined guerrilla groups. Pope Benedict has done his best to snuff out the remnants of Liberation Theology. Salazar seems to personify the dedication to the poor, which is admirable, but seems less concerned about some of society's other unfortunates.

Observers of Catholic issues have noted that of the seven new appointees, who will officially don the red hats on Nov. 24, none are Europeans and all but one are from developing countries. In contrast, most of the 12 cardinals appointed in February were from Europe. Benedict may be adding geographical variety to the College of cardinals. But apparently not ideological variety.

Vatican observers noted that this is the first time since the 1920s that a Pope has appointed two groups of new Cardinals in the same year. Is this an indication that Benedict is not as healthy as he appears, and wants to pack the College with conservatives in order to influence the vote for his succesor? Or, does this have something to do with the Vatileaks scandal (in which a Colombian played a part)?

In any case, if the College were to elect a new Pope today, Salazar's would be the only Colombian vote, since the other two Colombians wearing red hats, Pedro Rubiano Sáenz and Dario Castrillón Hoyos, are over 80 and therefore no longer eligible to vote in papal elections.


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia "On the Verge of an Environmental Disaster."

A coal crane and barge near Santa Marta, where coal
has caused severe pollution, according to Colombia's
inspector general. (Photo: RCN Radio)

They're the sorts of words you'd expect from Greenpeace, or some other radical activist. Instead, they're a quote from Colombia's Inspector General Sandra Morelli in recent interview in El Tiempo.

Morelli asserts that the controversial Cerro Matoso nickel mine lacks environmental licenses, and that it hasn't paid fees for dumping wastes. That is has no water management plan, nor has made a required environmental impact study.

Morelli directly contradicts the position of the minister of the environment, who has said that Matoso's license is sufficient. But, says Morelli, the laws have changed since Matoso obtained its licenses, and those licenses have expired.

Morelli also has harsh words for the handling of coal shipments in Santa Marta Bay, which she says are "polluting the waters and beaches." Deforestation and the diversion of the Manzanares River are also sending sediments into the bay. And on and on.

Morelli does not mince words, about either the businesses or government officials, who she charges "demand nothing from the region's hotels," nor its businesses, which include the Drummond coal company. "We are working against the wind and tides," she says, "against infiltraded agents and corrupction..."

A bus belches fumes this afternoon in Bogotá.
Pollution laws do exist here, but you wouldn't
know it - and environmental authorities don't
appear to, either.

And, with that, Morelli has barely gotten going. She goes on to charge that environmental authorities simply aren't doing their jobs, naming a badly-designed canal which will destroy whole islands and deforested regions simply left that way. The Rancheria River en La Guajira, which she says was diverted from its course with no concern about social and environmental impacts. "Institutional weakness," she says, is causing "enormous pollution in the Bogotá River."

"Colombia signs all of the environmental treaties," says Morelli, "about the transport of toxics substances, about the protection of miners, about water, ages of workers...and the bureaucrats seem to forget their binding character."

"I have no doubt. Colombia is on the verge of an environmental collapse without precedents in our history."

I have virtually no first-hand knowledge about the places Morelli mentions. But her I find her charges easy to believe. After all, the current minister of the environment came to his job from being a newspaper editor. His predecessor had been a peace negotiator. That makes one question their dedication to environmentalism, as well as whether the government which selected them values the environment.

Colombia, one of the world's most biologically megadiverse nations, whose ecology can potentially be a huge economic driver, should give Morelli's accusations at least as much importance as the fortunes of the national football team.

Morelli's words come to me like a bit of fresh air (if that comparison makes any sense in relation to an environmental disaster). After all, I live in Bogotá, which has air pollution laws - which are routinely and flagrantly violated by vehicles and industries of all sorts. Why should I doubt that environmental law enforcement outside the capital, where there are fewer eyes to witness violates, aren't much worse?



By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Drunk Driver Who Killed Three "Is not a Criminal."

Motorcycles lined up outside Bogotá's Central Cemetery
during the motorcyclists' funeral.

In another in Colombia's long series of cases of fatal drunk driving being considered a forgiveable act, the wealthy Caleño businessman who mowed down three motorcyclists and injured one more with his Mercedes Benzoutside of Bogotá while apparently drunk, will now get out of jail.

The driver "was transferred from La Modelo Prison to a site of special detention," attorney Iván Cancino told reporters the other day. 'Special detention' apparently means 'home sweet home'.

A motorcycle club was returning from an outing in La Calera the night of July 7, when Juan Carlos Varela Bellini smashed into them. Immediately after the accident, some witnesses said, Varela Bellini offered witnesses bribes and tried to pretend that he hadn't been driving. Varela Bellini also attempted to flee the scene of the accident and evade the drunkeness test, a judge said. Now, Varela Bellini has agreed to pay the survivors 1,400 million pesos, or a little over one million dollars, in return for dropping charges. That seems like mighty little for three lives, and makes you wonder if anything else was behind it. (The agreement was approved by prosecutors and a judge, Varela Bellini's lawyer said.)

"The important thing is for the world to know that Juan Carlos Varela Bellini is not a delincuent," the accused's lawyer said.

Motorcycle club members at their companion's funeral.

Varela Bellini, 25, belongs to one of the wealthiest and most elite families of the city of Cali, as you can read in this sympathetic story about his misfortunes in Jet Set magazine. How sad it would be for this young man's future to be ruined just because he killed three people. But, it may not be. By paying what is a small fortune for the victims' families, but not much for Varela Bellini's clan, he likely will go on in comfort.

Sure, the survivors will be better off with their pockets full. But those of us on the road in front of drunk drivers feeling confident that they'll get off lightly for any accident, are worse off. That's why drunk driving is a crime against both the individual victims and society in general. By letting drunks off easy the legal system sends a loud and clear message that driving drunk is no big deal, so go ahead and risk it.

And that drunk driver just might be Varela Bellini again. I haven't heard that they've taken away his driver's license or his Mercedes.

If I carry a gun or a knife or a hammer, get drunk and injure someone with those things, aren't I a criminal? Is a car, which is much bigger and potentially more deadly, any different? As I understand it, in other nations' legal systems, when you get drunk and lose control of your behavior, the law makes you responsible for your actions.

But, that's apparently not true in Colombia - at least not when you're rich and behind the wheel.

Related:

The Motorcyclists' Tragedy

Motorcyclists Rev Up Against Drunk Driving

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

La Peluqueria's Reapperance

Melissa, La Peluqueria's 'hair director,' at work. 

Nicolas Spath prepares to immortalize a
couple with his homemade box camera. 

La Peluqueria, a women's cooperative hair salon, art gallery and cultural events place in La Candelaria, held a get together and hair cutting marathon today. The event served as a sort of reminder of the cooperative's roots, as it has relocated temporarily to the La Nieves neighborhood while its building's roof is repaired. They expect to be back in another two months or so, and back to doing performance art haircutting.

Nicolas can be contacted at nicspath
(at) hotmail (dot) com .

 Related Posts: 

Olave Turns Urban Neglect Into Art

Extreme Haircutting

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Art Week

These four days ArtBo, the city's biggest art exhibition, is happening, as are many parallel exhibitions across town. Here are some scenes of art exhibitions in La Candelaria, the city's historical center.

The interior of the Espacio Odeon

(Odeon)

(Odeon)

(Odeon)

A French resident of La Candelaria restored a historic home and opened the Neebex Gallery there about one year ago.

(Neebex)

(Neebex)

The Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Arts (LIA) has two huge spaces in La Candelaria, but only occasionally holds art exhibitions.

(LIA)

(LIA)

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Long, Long Way to Go for Peace

Lots to say: Government and rebel negotiators at the table in Oslo. 

One thing was made clear by press conference by government and FARC guerrilla negotiators today in Oslo, Norway: the two sides are starting off far apart.

The guerrillas' mindset, it seems, has remained back in the 'Marquetalia Republic,' where their movement began in 1964 as a struggle for landless peasants.

Today, the guerrillas announced that they want to negotiate Colombia's fundamental nature: its economic system and its relationship to its people: Foreign investment, mining, private property. In other words, they want to use negotiations to achieve the Marxist revolution they couldn't win by arms. In contrast, lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle insisted that the government would discuss only specific topics agreed to in Havana, Cuba: rural development, compensating the conflict's victims and a political role for the guerrillas, narcotrafficking and ending the conflict.

The guerrillas' rhetoric about the Colombian people being the protagonists at the talks revealed to me their continued delusion about their being the Colombian peoples' representatives (They still title themselves 'The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Army of the People') altho they have only about 3% public support.

The guerrillas also made clear that they consider their violent armed struggle against Colombia's government "a universal right.

"We are the response to the state's violence," said a guerrilla spokesmen.

That attitude will make it difficult for the guerrillas to agree to any sort of punishment for their countless crimes. Many Colombians seem to have accepted the possibility of the guerrillas participating in politics. But imagining an organization which has committed atrocities against civilians, including car-bombing, kidnapping, murdering hostages, recruitment of child soldiers, driving peasants out of their homes, planting land mines and on and on, would walk away scot-free seems unthinkable. And it's not as tho there's no precedent. Some members of the right-wing paramilitaries - albeit far too few - are in Colombian and United States prisons, as are a number of Colombian politicians convicted of collaborating with illegal armed organizations.

On human rights, the guerrillas also came off looking cynical, by declaring themselves "open to humanizing the war; reducing the impacts on civilians." This, from an organization which routinely terrorizes, injures and murders civilians, which in recent months has invaded rural schools and taken away children to use them as fighters. 'Humanizing the conflict' is a step which the guerrillas should take immediately, by ceasing attacks on or near civilians, freeing all remaining hostages and sending home the underage soldiers in their ranks.

Still, most every negotiation begins with the sides far apart. Colombians are fed up with this war, which has caused tremendous suffering and bld away resources from education, health and other uses. And the guerrillas are beleagured and weakened. Hopefully, those interests will push the two sides to compromise.


The talks, which began in secret more than a year ago, still have a long way to go. After the meetings in Oslo, the two sides are supposed to finally begin formal negotiations in Havana in mid-November. Meanwhile, fighting back in Colombia will likely, and tragically, continue.

Only time will tell.


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours