Will Peru Take on the Narco-Traffickers?
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Coca leaf farmer John Basilio harvests coca leaves in Tingo Maria, Peru (Mariana Bazo/Courtesy Reuters).
As Peruvian President Elect Ollanta Humala prepares to take office at the end of the month, the worries focus on his economic policies. Will he be another Chavez, nationalizing industries, or a Lula, balancing market friendly macroeconomic policies with broader social programs? The fears have led to a rollercoaster month in the stock market, which sank a record-breaking 12.5 percent the day after Humala’s election, only to bounce back one day later. Rumors of Humala’s plans for the mining industry, private pension funds, and even the free trade agreement with Peru and Colombia abound.
Receiving less attention is how Humala will manage security issues— and particularly narco-trafficking. According to this year’s United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report, Peru is now virtually tied with Colombia as the largest supplier of cocaine in the world. And with skyrocketing cultivation come the more nefarious elements of organized crime. Evidence suggests Mexican cartels are working with local criminal groups and some say moving into Peru themselves, spurring a precipitous rise in drug-related violence in recent years.
Throughout the campaign Humala promised voters a tough on crime, or ‘mano dura,’ approach. He talked about centralizing anti-drug strategies into one agency — a High Commission on Drugs. More controversially, he supported a role for local militias in the fight against narco-traffickers. Recently he met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to talk about bilateral counternarcotics cooperation.
On the other hand, the former lieutenant colonel maintains a close political relationship with Peru’s community of coca growers, and his Nationalist Party incorporates prominent leaders of the so-called ‘cocalero’ movement within its ranks. Humala has repeatedly pledged to respect the rights of peasant cultivators of coca leaf, and has opposed forced coca eradication. During the campaign he moderated his original platform, which eschewed a drug policy “subordinated to external interests”, and called for greater collaboration between the U.S. and Peru on security issues. But, Humala’s party recently announced its desire to appoint a representative of the coca grower’s movement to the National Commission for the Development of Life without Drugs (Devida) – the government’s principal anti-drug agency — in an effort to, as one official put it, establish an “open dialogue” with this community.
Humala owes his election to Peru’s rural poor, and it is this constituency that stands to lose the most (at least in the short to medium term) from a hard-line counternarcotics program. Most of Peru’s coca farmers are entirely dependent on the crop as their only source of sustainable income, even as they remain poor. For example, in the Ene-Apurimac valley (responsible for nearly a third of Peru’s coca cultivation), roughly 80% of the population is poor and half live in conditions of extreme poverty.
Though successful anti-poverty and anti-drug campaigns are not mutually exclusive, achieving both sets of aims will be no easy feat for Peru’s incoming president. As Wall Street waits to see how the recent elections will affect Peru’s economic trajectory, domestic and international communities should also be looking toward Humala’s initial security programs, and how he will balance the fight against drugs with his long-standing commitment to improving the lot of Peru’s poor.
Published in conjunction with Latin America’s Moment at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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In my opinion,the whole issue of the coca farmers and final products ,such as tea’s,honey’s,herbal medicines,as a citizen of the u.s.a.,i am very disaapointed with our own goverments deceitful propaganda compaign against lawful,legal products of the coca leaf.I know many do not like hugo chavez big boisterous,flamboyant image and appraoch,he does has some very valid facts.Coca is not cocaine,not by even a long shot.It is true that america’s chemist,most of them,are lieing about the true use of the coca plants.What we all need to remember is most of these chemist receive grants,money,from the goverment agency for school projects,or other research,in turn to lie about the truth surrounding the coca leaf products.That needs to stop.There needs to be honest research and documentation done on this gift from nature.If the u,s.a. wont allow even that to happen,then you know there is deceit.If these farmers were allowed to grow coca for large amounts of tea’s,medicinal homeopathic medicine,ie,cough syrups,balm creams,flour,honey,cooking,and allowed to export all of these products,this would honestly bring these farmers out of poverty,without jepordizing there heritage.They would not have to turn to useing it for other illegal products.The coca leaf left alone,cannot make coocaine,nor is there truly cocaine in the coca leaf.Another lie by someone as part of this propaganda machine in america.It would also allow a good commerce between many countries,and many have already gone done this path,and good for them.But what is actually happening is what the man,alex,stated.Raids,more helicopters,pesticides on families,wild life,natural resources all being poisened.For what,to hurt the people who are honest ,just tryen to feed there kids.I understand you go after the bad guys who turn this plant from nature into something very bad,but what gets caught in the middle are the honest hard working farmers and there families,and no-one cares about them,oh well casualtues of the ”failed war on drugs”mw