Cocaine wars in a land of beauty [Archives:2008/1141/Community]
By: Rajendra K. Aneja
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“People must think we're a wretched country because we're destroying the world by supplying cocaine, yes?” Christina asked, looking into my eyes. There was intense pathos in her eyes when she posed her query.
Although she was right, she was a colleague, an incredibly beautiful Colombian girl. The gods would never forgive anyone for breaking the heart of such a stunning girl with moist eyes, so I lied. “Christina, everybody knows that few Colombians are involved in drugs and that cocaine comes from Bolivia and Brazil.”
From the sixth century onward, the Inca peoples of South America's Andes Mountains used coca leaves as a stimulant to overcome exhaustion, hunger and thirst. African slaves brought to Latin America weren't treated too kindly by their Spanish masters; thus, both natives and slaves blunted their hunger by chewing the leaf. While the leaf didn't fill their bellies, it did give them a high swoon.
However, fate took over in the intervening years to seek its vengeance as the natives mastered growing the magical leaves in massive quantities. A mafia cartel then scattered the scourge like a powder across the globe.
“See, there's a cocaine plant!” Christina exclaimed as we worked the retail outlets in a premium Cartagena neighborhood. “But this is a residential area,” I protested in shocked disbelief. “It sometimes grows in small gardens,” she shrugged.
I stood transfixed, staring at a solitary plant in a pretty garden outside a dainty lace-curtained window. So, I reflected, this is the innocuous little weed causing catastrophic havoc and death and driving a billion dollar global industry!
The leaf also is grown commercially, hidden by the foliage of thick forests, in manicured fields guarded by armed local militia. It is transported by mules, boats and airplanes. Concealed factories convert the leaves into a white powder, which then travels to logistical centers, e.g., the slums of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
From there, it's funneled to distribution centers such as Miami and Bangkok and then on to retail markets in more than 200 countries. In the 1970s, Colombians like Lehder Rivas and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez worked with the Medell”n drug cartel to revolutionize cocaine transport from mules to massive airlifts.
Colombia produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine powder worth $60 billion annually. This exceeds the turnover of many multinational corporations – such as Unilever and Proctor and Gamble put together – worldwide! Profits fund hostage-taking rebels and paramilitaries, while the forests hold 700 kidnapped hostages, some for up to nine years, including a female presidential candidate.
Cartel bosses like Rivas created his own Latino Nationalist Party operating its own Quindio Libre newspaper, while Pablo Escobar Gav”ria gave cash to the poor, built houses in slums, constructed sports stadiums and was even elected congressman!
The Cali cocaine cartel operated in and then subsequently moved to elegant Medell”n. The cartel is the world's largest unregistered multinational corporation, with an octopuses's grip on every aspect from cultivation in the field and processing into powder to logistics, wholesale and retail. It is incredibly lucrative: profit margins are 60 percent, business is cash-only and there are no bad debts because no one risks owing the cartel money!
No government can contain this cartel because it can kill or kidnap anyone anywhere. No one is safe from its bullets; even presidents, judges and police die or vanish within hours of opposing the cartel. Its directors live in massive villas in Medell”n with 50- to 80-foot walls and guns circumventing the parameters. I gradually learned to recognize such homes – and I stayed far, far away!
Compared to the Medell”n cartel in terms of reach and terror, Al-Qaeda is a bunch of trainees!
Approximately 2.2 million hectares of Columbian forest have been torched to grow coca, while the United States has attempted to eradicate the crop via aerial spraying.
Colombia's Vice President Francisco Calderon – himself a hostage for eight months – launched the “Cocaine is violence” campaign, which is true. As I said to him on a BBC program, cocaine is death for those who consume it.
Governments may destroy cocaine fields and dismantle factories, but there are more fields, more factories and other countries. The war on drugs, which annually kills thousands worldwide, has forced a million Colombians off their land.
There are two ways to eradicate cocaine:
1. Educate cocaine users about the havoc it wreaks in families. Additionally, give youth a purpose in life because if they have a purpose to live for, they'll stop those habits that can kill. When consumers no longer desire a product, it automatically dies.
2. Cocaine farmers should be given incentives to grow alternative crops such as sugar cane, tobacco or coffee because cocaine generates 300 percent more than other cash crops, so the desire must be there. Also, convert cocaine fields into factories.
While cocaine hasn't been decimated in the past 90 years and it may not be eradicated for another 100 years; nevertheless, the battle must be fought – and won, even if purely by attrition.
It's a shame that a country with such beautiful mountains, valleys, rivers, forests, youth, girls, music, salsa, climate, warmth, hospitality, “feijao” (beans) and pizzerias is christened as the motherland of cocaine.
Christina, I'm sorry I lied to you, but you can't blame me because you were the most gorgeous Colombian girl I had ever met! Perhaps you knew that I was lying
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[archive-e:1141-v:18-y:2008-d:2008-03-27-p:community]
