Woman, Colombian, indigenous leader, businesswoman and triumphant in a legal battle against Coca Cola. Fabiola Pinacue She is not only an entrepreneur and defender of the Nasa People, but also a heroine for her peopleand.
Piñacué is one of those responsible for coca nasa, the first company in Colombia to market coca-based products, located in Bogota and Cauca. She has dedicated her entire life to highlighting the benefits of coca, with natural properties that have been tainted by drug trafficking.
According to the report on the website of Fifth Power, also a political scientist from the Javeriana University and a magister in geography She is originally from the Nasa indigenous reserve, a community belonging to the town of Cauca, where chewing and using the coca leaf is an ancestral and healthy tradition.
Since his university days, he began to spread his knowledge about the plant among his classmates and acquaintances, highlighting its medicinal and spiritual qualities. That previous experience prompted her to create the company Coca Nasa.
Coca Nasa vs. Coke
“CI began in the most traditional way and began offering the coca leaf to people, bringing them prepared aromatics, making them taste it and carrying out an educational process of telling people that coca leaves were taken, could be chewed and we did it in a sachet presentationPiñacué declared in an interview with El Tiempo.
The list of coca products increased, offering bread, gel, wine, rum, cookies, toothpaste, soap and even flour. As production increased, so did human resources, hiring indigenous people from their community to boost the economy of their people.
On the way to success, Coca Nasa had to legally confront the multinational Coca Colawhich sued Fabiola Piñacué in 2002, when she launched a drink called “CocaSek”, an energizer made with coca and other herbs. Putting it up for sale got sued for plagiarism.
However, the lawsuit did not proceed because Piñacué demonstrated in court that his community used the name coca long before the beverage giant.
“Many fell to us to reclaim the name. Coca Cola sued us, but they did not win anything because we have supported each other on the cultural issue”, he commented.
Currently, Coca Nasa with products in stores in Bogotá and Guatapé, with 12 workers in each of its offices and up to 300 families involved in coca cultivation.