We normally associate Venezuela’s president Snr Hugo Chavez with outrageous pronouncements. Peru’s President, Alan Garcia has entered the fray for the title of most controversial remarks: he recently suggested that the coca leaf, from which the drug cocaine is derived, should be used in cooking and salads – that coca leaves had many valuable uses, including giving relief from sore throats and colds. Mr Garcia suggested the legal use of coca as a way of fighting cocaine production and trafficking.

Peru is the world’s second largest producer of cocaine behind Colombia. Mr Garcia’s comments came at a press conference for foreign correspondents at the government palace in Lima. Whilst some of Mr Garcia’s ideas sounded unorthodox, he insisted that the coca plant could be used for nutritional and medicinal purposes. The president likened coca leaves to the herb rosemary and to rocket, adding that he personally had cooked with coca leaves. “You can put coca leaves in your roast dinners, in the oven, you can make many things which it will give a special taste to,” he said and that the best way to fight illegal coca plantations was to open new markets so that Peru’s land could be used to produce coca for legal purposes.