Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accepted a handful of coca leaves from his Bolivian ally Evo Morales and chewed them during a summit meeting on Saturday, saying "coca isn't cocaine."
"You know the strength that coca gives," Chavez said. "I've really grown used to it every day in the morning."
The socialist leader joined the Bolivian president in defending the leaf, chewed by Andean Indians for centuries, while condemning its use in making cocaine.
US officials have tried to stamp out or restrict coca cultivation.
Chavez accused Washington of trying to use the issue of drug trafficking to discredit his government for political reasons, noting that White House drug czar John Walters has accused him of facilitating the flow of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela.
Chavez called that "a serious thing," but smiled as he thanked Morales for recently sending coca to him and Cuban President Fidel Castro. Chavez asked for more.
"You didn't bring me the coca leaf I asked for? Where are the coca leaves?" Chavez asked Morales, a former coca farmer. "I want the leaf that Evo produces there, the pure, pure coca leaf."
Standing up from a table, Morales walked to Chavez and opened a drawstring bag.
"Oh, friend, I knew you wouldn't fail me! They were running out," Chavez exclaimed, accepting a handful of leaves and putting some in his mouth.
"The sacred leaf of the Inca, the Aymara," Chavez said. "Thank you, brother ... As Evo has said -- and I repeat it, coca isn't cocaine."
Morales, who rose to power as head of a coca growers' union, told leaders at the regional summit that the small, green leaf is healthy and beneficial, noting its use as an ingredient in toothpaste, as well as for coca tea. He said Coca-Cola has long used a cocaine-free coca extract as part of its secret recipe -- something the US-based drink maker does not discuss.
Morales, backing a policy of "zero cocaine, not zero coca," has stepped up anti-drug enforcement while attempting to control coca crops through cooperative eradication programs.
His initiative has largely avoided the violence of past US-backed campaigns, in which troops clashed with farmers, but US officials argue it has failed to significantly reduce Bolivia's coca crop.
Venezuela has provided financial help to Bolivia to build plants to produce coca tea and flour. Those plants are now under construction.
Some of Chavez's opponents question his affinity for coca, some even suggesting that he should undergo a drug test -- an idea he dismissed as silly.
"A group of Venezuelans from an opposition party have now made an accusation against me for consuming coca, because they say I'm a drug user and have asked for a toxicological exam," Chavez said.
"They're lackeys of the [US] empire," he said. "They try to ridicule us, but they're the ones who end up making fools of themselves."
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS