Chavez's coco leaf aggression

Miami Herald:

Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chávez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca -- the source of cocaine -- raising questions about the legality of his actions.

Chávez's comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as ``armies.''

''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.

Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ''sends me Coppelia ice cream and a lot of other things that regularly reach me from Havana,'' 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 is another symptom that [Chávez] has totally lost the concept of limits,'' said Aníbal Romero, a political scientist with the Caracas Metropolitan University. ``It shows Chávez is a man out of control.''

More seriously, Venezuelan and Bolivian analysts said Chávez's comments amount to a dangerous endorsement of a substance controlled around the world, and perhaps even an illegal act by a very public head of state.

''If he is affirming that he consumes coca paste, he is admitting that he is consuming a substance that is illegal in Bolivia as well as Venezuela,'' said Hernán Maldonado, a Bolivian analyst living in Miami. ''Plus, it's an accusation that Evo Morales is a narco-trafficker'' for sending him the paste.

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Chavez is not a real proponent on the rule of law and would ignore the law of supply and demand if he could get away with it. However, his personality suggest that he is probably a heavy user of the drug. One of the things I have noticed is common with users is what I call cocaine attitude. They tend to have a low regard for the positions of others and a tendency to be confrontational and occasionally belligerent. Chavez certainly falls into that category. Add to that his natural paranoia and his control freak policies and it is a combustible mix. He does explode with rage easily such as in this story where he says farmers who export their products are traders. Of course that is because they are not able to make a profit at the artificial prices Chavez sets for goods in his ignorant fight against inflation caused by his other policies. He is threatening farmers with Zimbabwe like expropriation. He can see some real inflation if he does that.