Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, has appointed a coca grower to oversee his country's efforts to combat drug trafficking. During a trip to the heart of Bolivia's coca-growing region, Morales announced the appointment of Felipe Caceres, a co-founder of his Movement Toward Socialism party, to the job. "A coca farmer is going to be in charge of the fight against drugs," Morales said, wearing a hat weaved of coca leaves and drawing loud applause from the assembled crowds, many of them coca farmers.
In recent years, the head of Bolivia's anti-drug efforts has worked closely with Washington, which spends about $150 million a year on coca-eradication programmes in the country. But Morales, who took office last Sunday, first rose to political prominence as the leader of the country's coca farmers, and led protests against US-backed eradication efforts. |