Mauro Morbello

 

Tocache, a town in the Rio Huallaga valley and core of the coke leaves production, in the last few weeks has turned out being a hard obstacle to the destruction campaign against coke cultivations, promoted by the Peruvian Government with the American Government permanent assistance.

The demonstration against the coke cultivation destructions promoted by Devida, the Peruvian Government Agency against Drugs, started in the mid of March. A hundred of coke farmers and “Cocaleros” Trade Unions, declared a couple of days’ strike to ask the government for entering into negotiations in order to stop the cultivation destruction and promote assistance services in the soil conversion.
After days of mounting tension between the police and the demonstrators, the Government and the cocaleros representatives, some of which are members of the national parliament, have finally reached an agreement. The Government has assured a two weeks’ interruption of the cultivation destruction in order to launch a dialogue between the parties.
Nevertheless, even though the term is expiring in the next few days, it seems that a real solution to the problem has still to be found.
Considering that in Peru there are more than 60.000 coke leaves producers, tensions between farmers communities, whose sustenance depends on coke cultivations, and government are more than likely to rise again, as already happened in the past.

 

Owing to several reasons, the coke leaves cultivation is a really complex and ticklish question.  

On one hand, it deeply belongs to the traditions of the country, and furthermore, thanks to low costs in seeding and soil preparation, the small farmers gain profits not comparable to the ones they would earn with any other kind of cultivation adaptable to the same soil and work conditions.
On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that more than the 90% of the cultivated coke leaves is assigned to cocaine production.
The cocaine consumption has serious consequences not only for the so called “reach”, countries consumers, but nowadays it involves the youth of the cocaine producers countries as well.
In fact, there is a considerable growth of coke base paste consumption, the so called “c.d”, which owing to its low cost is increasingly spreading throughout the country.

 

Peru is the second coke leaves producer in the world. The “Colombia c.d Plan”: the destruction campaign of coke leaves cultivations in Colombia, supported by the President Urribe, seems to be a further reason to the growth of coke leaves in Peru.
In order to compensate for the decrease in coke leaves production in Colombia, Peru has remarkably increased its own production.
In 2000 there were 43.000 hectares of coke leaves cultivation per year and an amount of 141 tons of cocaine, while in 2006 Peru has reached an amount of 43.000 hectares per year for a total of 200 tons of cocaine production.
Peru government recognizes the importance of the coke leaves sector, which is a considerable difference between Peru and all the other countries of the area. In fact, in 1982 Peru established the ENACO (Empresa National de la Coca), a public company that buys legally the coke leaves production destined to be used in medicine, food and industrial activities.
ENACO is allowed to buy only a minimum part of the effective production (3.000 tons a year), compared to the 190.000 tons of cocaine produced, according to the 2006 official estimate.