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Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject: Venezuela to help finance Bolivia's coca production |
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Venezuela to help finance Bolivia's coca production
The aid will boost efforts to develop legal commercial products from the crop used to make cocaine.
By Chris Kraul
Times Staff Writer
February 8, 2007
CARACAS, VENEZUELA � Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has found a novel way to dispense foreign aid: by promising to underwrite coca production in Bolivia.
Officials here confirmed Wednesday that Venezuela would buy whatever legal products Bolivia could make from coca leaf, as part of that central Andean nation's attempt to wean farmers from the cocaine industry.
Chavez's promise could finance the production of about 4,000 tons of coca in Bolivia, Venezuelan officials say.
Possible coca-based products include soap, bread, herbal teas, toothpaste, unspecified medicines and cooking oils. No dollar amount for Venezuela's support has been announced. Three factories are under construction in Bolivia with Venezuelan financial and Cuban technical support, and production could begin this summer.
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