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From criminals to citizens: The applicability of Bolivia’s community-based coca control policy to Peru

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  • Grisaffi, Thomas
  • Farthing, Linda
  • Ledebur, Kathryn
  • Paredes, Maritza
  • Pastor, Alvaro

Abstract

Between 2006 and 2019, Bolivia emerged as a world leader in formulating a participatory, non-violent model to gradually limit coca production in a safe and sustainable manner while simultaneously offering farmers realistic economic alternatives to coca. Our study finds that not only has this model reduced violence, but it has effectively expanded social and civil rights in hitherto marginal regions. In contrast, Peru has continued to conceptualize ‘drugs’ as a crime and security issue. This has led to U.S.-financed forced crop eradication, putting the burden onto impoverished farmers, generating violence and instability. At the request of farmers, the Peruvian government has made a tentative move towards implementing one aspect of Bolivia’s community control in Peru. Could it work? We address this question by focusing on participatory development with a special emphasis on the role of local organizations and the relationship between growers and the state. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, focus group discussions and secondary research, we find that for community controlto have any chance of success in Peru, grassroots organizations must be strengthened and grower trust in the state created. The study also demonstrates that successful participatory development in drug crop regions is contingent on land titling and robust state investment, which strengthens farmer resolve to participate so as to avoid a return to the repression of the past.

Suggested Citation

  • Grisaffi, Thomas & Farthing, Linda & Ledebur, Kathryn & Paredes, Maritza & Pastor, Alvaro, 2021. "From criminals to citizens: The applicability of Bolivia’s community-based coca control policy to Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:146:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21002254
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105610
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sauls, Laura Aileen & Dest, Anthony & McSweeney, Kendra, 2022. "Challenging conventional wisdom on illicit economies and rural development in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Beatriz, Ramos & Benavides, Jean Paul & Vélez, María Alejandra & Jauregui, Gilda & Restrepo, David, 2023. "Control social de la coca: lecciones del Trópico de Cochabamba (Bolivia) para Colombia," Documentos de trabajo 1/2023, Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana.
    3. Thomas Grisaffi, 2022. "Why Is the Drug Trade Not Violent? Cocaine Production and the Embedded Economy in the Chapare, Bolivia," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(3), pages 576-599, May.

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