Erythroxylum coca: Los confundidos – A documentary amplifying indigenous voices on coca policy

A new documentary by the Transnational Institute, Erythroxylum Coca. Los Confundidos, brings forward the perspectives of Indigenous and peasant communities whose lives and cultures are deeply intertwined with the coca leaf.

The film comes at a critical moment in global drug policy debates. In December 2025, the World Health Organization’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence recommended that the coca leaf remain under Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs — a decision widely criticised for failing to adequately consider Indigenous rights and traditional uses of the plant .

Filmed across key coca-growing regions — including Los Yungas and Cochabamba in Bolivia; Quillabamba and the VRAEM (Valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers) in Peru; and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Cauca in Colombia — the documentary documents the cultural, ancestral and everyday uses of coca. Through testimonies and community narratives, it challenges dominant prohibitionist narratives and reclaims coca as a plant embedded in identity, livelihood and wellbeing.

By centring community voices, the film highlights a longstanding gap in international drug policy: the exclusion of those most affected from decision-making processes. This reflects broader concerns raised by civil society, including the need to meaningfully include Indigenous Peoples and local communities in global drug policy discussions .

The documentary also serves as a timely intervention in ongoing debates around treaty reform and the need to align drug control with human rights, public health, and cultural protections. It calls on international institutions to reconsider the classification of coca and to acknowledge the evidence on its traditional uses and limited harms.

Directed by Nicolás Martínez and Daniel Pineda