Reply #3: See also "Bolivia's Morales Recounts Police Abuse" (an AP interview) [View All]

He's talking about abuse he himself suffered--beatings by U.S. narco cops--when he was head of the small farmers' coca leaf growers union. They opposed U.S.-instigated toxic pesticide spraying (which poisons food crops, animals and people), and the militaristic, brutal "war on drugs," which only makes things worse. The indigenous have grown coca leaves for millennia--it is a sacred plant of the Andes, needed for survival in the high altitudes and frigid climates. These small poor farmers are harmed and brutalized, while the big, criminal drug and weapons trade thrives. It's absolutely stunning that Bolivians elected a president who campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck. He is very upfront about it. Can you imagine U.S. politicians having that kind of honesty and integrity? One weeps for the day.

He also talks about the indigenous indians' love for Mother Earth, in this interview, and bringing this perspective to bear on saving our battered planet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3052737

I don't trust AP at all. They have proven themselves, time and again, to be shills for global corporate predators and war profiteers. It's possible that, among all the things that Morales said, they focused on his narco beatings stories in order to subtly discredit and target him, in the eyes of "war on drugs"-crazy north Americans, who keep getting looted by the police state/military "war on drugs" industry, and wonder why the trade in harmful drugs like cocaine never ceases. (Coca leaf chewing, and cocaine use, are vastly different things--the one is a time-honored medicine, the other is a manufactured poison. The illegalization of cocaine, however, has led to extremely destructive criminal enterprises, and equally destructive and very corrupt militarism.)

Morales is not alone in opposing the U.S. "war on drugs." So do Rafael Correa (president of Ecuador) and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), and it is a growing trend in South America. The U.S. "war on drugs" not only harms peasants and the poor, it has done great harm to the sovereignty of South American countries, and has done much to corrupt its governments (Colombia being the prime example). AP has been virtually silent on these great harms. They focus on Morales' background, but they don't tell whole story, and never do. Luckily, Morales is so honest and straightforward that HIS viewpoint on the "war on drugs" comes through clearly, and perhaps readers will read between the lines as to just how destructive this "war" has been.