Long criminalized as the raw material for cocaine, coca is woven into Bolivian life. The government is lobbying the U.N. to ...

Scientists and Indigenous leaders call on the World Health Organization to rethink coca, a sacred Andean leaf long mistaken for cocaine.

For thousands of years, people in the Andes have chewed the leaves of the coca plant to stave off hunger, treat altitude ...

A short drive north of Bolivia’s capital La Paz, deep in the lush green valleys of the Yungas, Alicia Calle, a middle-aged Indigenous cocalero (coca farmer), plucked the leaves off the shrubs on her ...

CARACAS, Venezuela — 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 ...

Andrews, G. and Solomon, D. Coca and cocaine: uses and abuses.--Martin, R. T. The role of coca in the history, religion, and medicine of South American Indians ...

Tomas Zavala performs a ritual ahead of each workday in his coca field. Deep in the lush green mountains of Bolivia’s Yungas region, the 69-year-old farmer closes his eyes, faces the soil, and asks ...