Editing Coca eradication (section)

{{Short description|Strategy of the War on Drugs in which crops of the source plant for cocaine are destroyed}}
[[File:Figure 6 Colombian Manual Eradicators Destroying Coca Fields (31352594937).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Coca eradication in Colombia]]
'''Coca eradication''' is a strategy promoted by the [[United States]] [[Federal government of the United States|government]] starting in 1961 as part of its "[[War on Drugs|war on drugs]]" to eliminate the cultivation of [[coca]], a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous]] cultures but also, in modern society, in the manufacture of [[cocaine]]. The strategy was adopted in place of running educational campaigns against drug usage.<ref>{{cite book|last=Webb|first=Gary|year=1999|pages=35|title=[[Dark Alliance (book)|Dark Alliance]]|publisher=[[Seven Stories Press]]|isbn=978-1-888363-93-7}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=July 2024}} The [[prohibition (drugs)|prohibitionist]] strategy is being pursued in the coca-growing regions of [[Colombia]] ([[Plan Colombia]]), [[Peru]], and formerly [[Bolivia]], where it is highly controversial because of its environmental, health and socioeconomic impact. Furthermore, indigenous cultures living in the ''[[Altiplano]]'', such as the [[Aymara people|Aymara]]s, use the coca leaf (which they dub the "millenary leaf") in many of their cultural traditions, notably for its medicinal qualities in alleviating the feeling of hunger, fatigue and headaches symptomatic of [[altitude sickness]]es.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} The growers of coca are named ''[[Cocalero]]s'' and part of the coca production for traditional use is legal in Peru, Bolivia and [[Chile]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}