The Enigmatic Evanescence of Coca from Ecuador

Resumen

The coca plant, native to the tropical and subtropical Americas,seems to have disappeared from Ecuador. How andwhy did this occur? A combination of colonial religious andcivil prohibitions, native demographic collapse, competitionfrom other crops and the infeasibility of mining contrivedagainst coca. More recently, legislation calling notonly for prohibition but eradication of the plant under theauspices of an anti-narcotics campaign has pushed it intoobscurity, where it will likely remain.