Bolivian president gives U.N. chief coca birthday cake [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivian president gives U.N. chief coca birthday cake
Reuters
June 14, 2014, 7:00 am


[font size=1]
Reuters
US-BOLIVIA-UN-COCACAKE:Bolivian president gives U.N. chief coca birthday cake
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blows the candles on a cake during
a celebration for his 70th birthday at an event organized by Bolivia's President Evo
Morales in El Torno, near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, June 13, 2014.
REUTERS/David Mercado[/font]

By Hugh Bronstein

SANTA CRUZ Bolivia (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon got an unusual treat for his 70th birthday on Friday when the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, presented him with a cake made with coca leaves.

The UN chief was in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for a meeting this weekend of the G77 group of countries to discuss measures for reducing poverty.

Coca is used to make cocaine but host Morales, a former coca farmer, has long defended its legal use as an "ancestral rite" for tea, sweets and medicines, going so far as to pull coca leaves out of a small plastic bag during a UN anti-drug meeting in Vienna in 2012 and chew on a wad of them. People in the Andean region also traditionally chew on coca leaf as a source of energy or as an antidote to altitude sickness.

"The Bolivian people will never forget your visit," Morales told Ban on Friday in front of hundreds gathered for the presentation of the cake and a traditional Bolivian jacket.

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