The Añez gov't quickly drafted its own drug strategy, “Together and Drug Free,” in coord. w/EU technical experts and DITISA, an EU-funded consulting firm. The strategy was later later rebranded as “ #Bolivia: Drug Free” https://bit.ly/3bzMYDF  @danielbrombach1 @BuxtonJulia

It presents a hardline, muddled stance on drug use, interdiction & supply control, showing little knowledge of existing #Bolivian policy or nat'l dynamics. Its authors copied text from the US INSCR & dismissed the previous strategy as “merely a political discourse”. @SanhoTree

Aggressive statements from key high-ranking Añez officials characterise Chapare #coca farmers as “narco-terrorists”. Ongoing threats of intervention against growers by Bolivia’s security forces fly in the face of longstanding EU policy in the country. @ColettaYoungers @IDPCnet

“Before, we worked closely with the EU to control #coca so as to stay w/in the legal limits,” a coca-grower leader told us. “We want to keep doing this, but everything has broken down with this de facto government. They don’t communicate or coordinate with us at all.”

The EU actively explored adapting the previous policy to neighbouring countries. But now, the lessons from the community experience are quickly being lost. “It'd be a disaster to lose all the progress #Bolivia made on #coca control. The technical focus has gone down the drain.”