Clashes broke out on Tuesday in the Bolivian capital between police and coca leaf producers in a dispute over control of the plant’s commercialization.
Several uniformed officers and a journalist were injured, several sources reported, as hundreds of growers from the Association of Coca Producers (ADEPCOCA), as well as opponents of the government of Bolivian President Luis Arce marched in La Paz to demand the closure of a parallel market for the plant, which they say is illegal and has government support.
In October last year, thousands of coca leaf growers stormed the country’s main coca market in La Paz following violent clashes with security forces.
Photo: AP
The ADEPCOCA market has become the center of a dispute between two groups of coca growers — one loyal to the government, the other opponents — since last year.
About 90 percent of Bolivia’s legal coca leaf business, worth US$173 million a year, passes through the Adepcoca market, UN data showed.
The dispute centers around who should control the market.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Violence erupted last year when the group loyal to, and supported by, the government ousted opposition figure Armin Lluta to take control of the premises.
Lluta said that he was held hostage for hours and beaten up by the government-backed group before they took control of the market.
On Tuesday, protest leader Carlos Choque announced over a loudspeaker: “We are asking that this alleged market for the sale of coca, which has nothing to do with the legal market of ADEPCOCA, be closed immediately. We will not be afraid if they want to shoot us, we are here.”
The growers launched fireworks and low-intensity explosive devices known as dynamite caps, while police responded with the profuse use of tear gas.
“We have several police officers injured by the blast wave of the dynamites that were aggressively thrown at us,” the police said in a statement.
ADEPCOCA leaders said they will not end their protest until the market closes.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I