The Miami Herald reports on a four-hour speech made by Venezuelan dictator-wannabe hugo chavez. A couple of paragraphs in particular are most interesting.
”I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,” he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience.
Bolivian President Evo Morales “sends me coca paste . . . I recommend it to you.”
It was not clear what Chávez meant. Indigenous Bolivians and Peruvians can legally chew coca leaves as a mild stimulant and to kill hunger. But coca paste is a semi-refined product — between leaves and cocaine — considered highly addictive and often smoked as basuco or pitillo.
It seems rather clear to me – coca paste is coca paste. We’ve often thought el mico putumayo was on something – now he admits what it is.