Slide background The Making of Coca Simplistically into Just Cocaine in Colombia 1884-2021

How Coca Simplistically Became Just Cocaine in Colombia: Coca has always been part of Colombia's biodiverse life cycle. Throughout history the power in place has systematically tried to manipulate coca to its own advantage. From the times of colonization on to the arrival of Prohibition, Coca has been coveted, looted and manipulated to serve the purpose of the conquering powers. In more recent times, the narcotics traffickers, empowered thanks to the Drug War, have waged the war on coca to divert counternarcotics measures towards attacking peasant coca growers.


Following is a recount through analyses, studies and hindsight of how these old and new conquerors have managed to make the sacred and beneficial coca plant into simply cocaine and how, irrational demonization of cocaine use, has become a weapon come to fuel Colombia's internal strife, the plundering of its rich natural resources and the Nation's environmental devastation.

We are now at a turning point in history where mass erradication, equal to coca extinction, is seen as the only way out in a refusal to recognize the fragile ecological balance that also depends on organic coca's survival and the fact that cocaine use is nowhere near to disappearing.

"In the great town of Vitonco the son of the star, Juan Tama, marked the coca leaves and predicted.

We will see the dawning of even more difficult times: times of war and derision when all voices that arise shall be silenced. "

Jacques Soustelle“La Colombie (ES)”
Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 1979/Persée

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The Making of Coca Simplistically into Just Cocaine in Colombia 1884-2021


[1884] José María Samper: “Coca is for America a great source of richness and hope; richness as a desirable product to be widely exported and a source of consolation for those that are ill, thanks to its anaesthetic uses.” Samper goes on to point out our benefactor and divine providence's intervention that has given us the possibility of planting it to our benefit since our subcontinent has this privilege as indicated by the failures at attempts to acclimatize coca  in Italy, Algeria (a French colony at the time) and in the West Indies. Periódico La Nación [Child y Arango] [1884]

[1891-1930] From cocaine to ropivacaine: the history of local anesthetic drugs.In 1850, about three centuries after the conquest of Peru by Pizzaro, the Austrian von Scherzer brought a sufficient quantum of coca leaves to Europe to permit the isolation of cocaine. As suggested by his friend Sigmund Freud, descriptions of the properties of the coca prompted the Austrian Koller to perform in 1884 the first clinical operation under local anesthesia, by administration of cocaine on the eye. The use of cocaine for local and regional anesthesia rapidly spread throughout Europe and America. The toxic effects of cocaine were soon identified resulting in many deaths among both patients and addicted medical staff. Local anesthesia was in a profound crisis until the development of modern organic chemistry which led to the synthesis of pure cocaine in 1891. New amino ester local anesthetics were synthesized between 1891 and 1930, such as tropocaine, eucaine, holocaine, orthoform, benzocaine, and tetracaine. In addition, amino amide local anesthetics were prepared between 1898 and 1972 including nirvaquine, procaine, chloroprocaine, cinchocaine, lidocaine, mepivacaine, prilocaine, efocaine, bupivacaine, etidocaine, and articaine. All of these drugs were ostensibly less toxic than cocaine, but they had differing amounts of central nervous system (CNS) and cardiovascular (CV) toxicity

United States Patent Office: Patent No. 628,489, local anaesthetic., « For several years past readily-volatilizable liquids, such as ethyl chloride, have been employed to produce local anesthesia by applying them in a fine jet or spray to the part af- I 5 fected or to be treated. Anesthesia is produced by the generation of cold due to the rapid evaporation of the liquid, but the effect lasts for only a very short time. [..] I have discovered by repeated experiment that the duration of the effect can be considerably lengthened by dissolving suitable slowly-acting substances, such as cocaine, in a readily-volatilizable liquid, such as ethyl chloride, the boiling-point of which is at a temperature below the ordinary temperature of the hand, and applying the combined medicaments to the part required. […] My invention therefore consists, primarily, of preparations for producing local anaesthesia, such preparations consisting of suitable slowly-acting substances dissolved in suitable readily-volatilizable liquids, the boiling point of which is at a temperature below the ordinary temperature of the hand. . Gustave Pertsch, Lyons, France, Assignor to.Societe Ohi- Mique Des Usines Du Rhone, Anciennement Gilliard, P. Monnet . Cartier July 11, 1899

Golden W. Mortimer: History of coca, "the divine plant" of the Incas " The Spanish idea of conquest was to establish a complete mastery over the Peruvians ; the Indians were to be regarded as slaves to be bought, sold, and used as such. In view of these facts it is not difficult to understand that as Coca was constantly employed among, the natives, its use was early questioned and condemned as a possible luxury, for it was not considered a matter worthy of inquiry as to any real benefit in a substance employed by slaves. So superficial were the observations made by some of the early writers that the fact of this neglect is most apparent. Thus, Cieza de Leon, a voluminous writer on Incan customs, mentions as a peculiar habit of the natives: "they always carry a small leaf of some sort in the mouth." Even so experienced an observer as Humboldt, in his writings of many years later, did not recognize the true quality of Coca, but confounds the sustaining properties of the leaf as due to the alkaline ashes the Uipta which is chewed with it. He refers to the use of this lime as though it belonged to the custom of the clay eaters of other regions, and suggests that any support to be derived from it must necessarily be purely imaginary. “ (full text) [1901]

[1909] Comisión Internacional de Shanghái en 1909. In Julia Buxton: “The Historical Foundations of the Narcotic Drug Control Regime ”, Policy Research Paper prepared for the World Bank , [March 2008].  "This Commission brings together 13 countries and is the first legal drug text to have international outreach even if not judicially binding. This is the very first time that States accept the notion of limiting their export products to protect the wellbeing of other States. … The United States imposes its point of view regarding the universal nature of the issue." [Caballero, 2000] .

[1912] UNODC The 1912 Hague International Opium Convention This convention, as opposed to the Shanghai Conference, does not limit itself to solely one drug or one region. The International Opium Convention basically addresses all known drugs and the world at large. (Caballero, 2000).  “…it likewise internationalizes the monitoring of coca production and trade when including “cocaine and its salts” [Baldomero Cáceres_Spanish] Th Hague, January 23, 1912]

[1931 The drug control treaty promulgated in Geneva as the Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs was a pharmaceutical convention that limited cocaine and its salts, including preparations made direct from the coca leaf and containing more than 0.1 percent of cocaine, all the esters of ecgonine and their salts to scientific and medical uses and stipulated that coca and derivatives could be put under international control without needing the consent of the countries party to the treaty. [July 13, 1931 entered into force on July 9, 1933]

[1945] Luis Duque Gomez: Notas sobre el cocaismo en Colombia. "Since the first half of the 16th century, time at which began the Spanish penetration of America the length of the heart of Colombian territory and before the effects of the Conquista had affected the natives’ economy, the practice of “mambeo” (coca chewing) was reported among the Indians settled in the zones that are now known as Antioquia, Caldas, Bolívar, Magdalena, Sabana de Bogotá, Huila, Cauca, Nariño y  La Guajira if we are to believe the news transmitted by Oviedo, fray Pedro  Simón, fray Descobar y Pedro de Cieza de León.  Thus, the practice of cocaism among Colombia’s indigenous population dates further back than what we assume and it has been successively undermining generations of natives while the State has no yet measured the scope of this national problem. " Boletin de Arqueologia, I, 445-451. Bogota.  (ICANH) [1945]

[1945] Gerardo Bonilla Iragorri: "Coca Consumption in the Cauca" El consumo de coca en el Cauca  "If this monstrous problem, of capital severity for all proposes, does not horrify the highest government officials and does not decide them to solve the problem as quickly as possible and by drastic and implacable means, shortly we will see, if we are not already witnessing, and without being able to remediate later on, the wiping out of immense human rural groups, victimized as a result of their intoxication by the alkaloid, malnutrition, tuberculosis and contagious illnesses of al sorts.  […] I believe there is no reason to study if a specific reparation should be paid or not, prior the appraisal of the plants planted before proceeding to their destruction pulling them out wholly from the root; My concept is that the time is not right for looking into precise statistics regarding the growing and consumption of this toxic leave in order to go on to solve the problem; I assure you that no municipality will sink from a fiscal perspective as of the suppression of these ridiculous and dangerous revenues and I believe that the Indian will not rebel, not provoke riots when, to the benefit of his family the toasted leaf and pure manbi is ripped out of his hands.” [1945]

[1947] Decreto 896 de 1947  "The payment of salaries and any type of emoluments totally or partially with alcoholic beverages or with coca leaves is formally forbidden. Child et al. hold that this is the Republic’s first Antinarcotics Statute. [March 11, 1947] .

[1947] Message from the Cauca coqueros to President Mariano Ospina Pérez: “Executive Order 896 (Decreto 896) has caused deep concern among the Cauca Department’s farmers. A large part of the Cauca inhabitants are dedicated to growing coca. Their sole means of subsistence is this commodity. As neighbors, regions, coca growers and in the name of ten thousand we respectfully request that you repeal this Executive Order. ” Ernesto Manzano, Samuel Muñoz y otros [en Bejarano 1983] [1947]

[1949] UNDOC The Commission of Inquiry on the Coca Leaf  pages 20-41 "The leaves which go to satisfy the appetites of the coqueros form also the raw material from which the dangerous drug cocaine is produced; and all the experience in the international control of narcotics shows that the production of a drug cannot be effectively controlled throughout the world unless the production of the raw material from which it is made is also subject to some measure of control." [1 de enero de 1949]

[1950] UNODC The Commission of Inquiry on the Coca Leaf pages 41-47 "It does not at present appear that the chewing of the coca leaf can be regarded as a drug addiction in the medical sense." [1 de enero de 1950]

[1950] UNGASS: Report of the Commission of Enquiry on the Coca Leaf   " The following conclusions may legitimately be drawn :  The social and economic effects of coca-chewing on the individual are obviously harmful. (…) The effects of coca-leaf chewing must be considered as socially and economically prejudicial to the nation. (...) “That as long as coca-chewing is unrestricted as it is today, there will be no possibility Of improvement for the Indians, and methods successfully applied to other countries for the physical and social betterment of the human race will not bear fruit.” [may 1950]

[1952] UNODC The Coca leaf Problem in Colombia  "The Ministry of Health is proposing very shortly to initiate an active campaign for the complete abolition of coca plantations on national territory, as a means to stamp out this vice among the people." [1 de enero 1952]

[1952] UNODC Further considerations on the coca habit in Colombia, . "We have yet to find out the obscure reasons why the vice should have remained confined to the areas where the cultivation of the plant was originally known, for at least in Colombiahe plant can be grown in regions much lower and warmer than those where it is traditionally known. Besides, man shows remarkable ingenuity and resourcefulness in spreading in all environments anything relating to vice or the depravation of morals". Jorge Bejarano señala la existencia, en Colombia, de 767  hectáreas(277,020 matas) que producirían 186,960 kgs de hoja. [1 de enero de 1952]

[1952] Legal trade in narcotics in 1952 "So far as the Board is aware, coca leaves are produced in four countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Indonesia and Peru.. […] Only Colombia and Indonesia, which are not the largest producers, send the Board figures of their production which, in 1952, amounted to 198 tons in Colombia and 17 tons in Indonesia. These two countries have also accounted for the quantities so produced: in Colombia, the leaves are chewed by the indigenous population; those produced in Indonesia are exported to cocaine-manufacturing countries. […]For coca leaves as for opium, the fullest statistics furnished by producing countries are therefore those of exports. In 1952, according to these statistics, 323 tons were exported to cocaine-manufacturing countries and 219 tons to Argentina, which is the only non-producing country where coca leaves are chewed. The increase in exports from the producing countries to cocaine-manufacturing countries which has been noted over the last two years may be attributed to the fact that, since 1948, manufacturers of cocaine have been making less and less use of crude cocaine from Peru as a raw material, so that in 1952 Peru exported none." [1952]

[1954] Remedios de la Peña: "Coca Use in America According to Colonial and Republican Legislation"/   “El uso de la coca en América, según la legislación colonial y republicana "As concerns coca in Colombia the legislation regarding crop growing and coca-leaf consumption did not take place until 1938, year when governments started becoming concerned about this transcendental problem. Transcendental as well considering the noticeable increase shown by coca consumption since, according to the figures supplied by Dr. Garganta Fábrega (1942), we can see the increase shown, for example,  in the years 39 and 40.  The first year only 40,000 kilos were consumed and, just a year later, the figures rise to 131.222.  The figures speak eloquently to give us an idea of the alarming growth of this vicio (ill habit).  […] As mentioned, coca crops and consumption legislation in this country did not take place until 1938. Although  the National Hygiene Department, national entity that disappeared a year later with the creation of the Ministry of Labor, Hygiene and Social Welfare had  by 1937 issued a  Resolution regulating the commerce of narcotics, absolutely no mention was made regarding coca-leaf growing and commerce. It was not until February 11th of the following year, 1938, when said Resolution was amended by Resolution number 25 that states: Article 1 ‘As of the adoption of this Resolution, coca leaves can only be sold in pharmacies and drugstores authorized in accordance to what has been ordered by Article 7 Resolution Number 313 of 1937 issued by this Directory.’ “. (1954).  

[1961] UNODC Jorge Vejarano : Present state of the coca-leaf habit in Colombia "Over ten years have elapsed since action was first taken against coca-leaf chewing. The coca habit occurs locally among a few indigenous groups; geographically, it is found in the areas of Colombia where the coca bush has been cultivated. It is the leaves of this bush which are chewed. […]In my socio-historic monograph, Nuevos Capítulos sobre el Cocaísmo en Colombia * (New Chapters on Coca Addiction in Colombia), I pointed out that there would appear to be some justification for the cultivation of the coca bush in Bolivia and Peru, where it has become a source of dollar or foreign exchange earnings because there is a foreign market for the coca leaf, which is used in the preparation of cocaine. The same, however, has never been true of Colombia, where the only purpose of this cultivation is to exploit the indigenous labour and economy in the areas where the coca bush survives, and with it the habit of chewing the coca leaf. Coca addiction has made it possible to subject the indigenous populations to exhausting tasks at miserable wages paid in part in rations of coca leaf. Accordingly, in Colombia there are no economic grounds to justify the cultivation of the coca bush, and still less any of the pseudo-scientific grounds which have been put forward in other countries as an apologia for a habit fraught with serious social, pathological and economic consequences.

[1962] UNODC Some Sociological aspects of the problem of cocaism  "From the economic point of view the coca-chewer has a diminished general capacity for labour and displays no aptitude for specialized work requiring greater concentration or skill; he is incapable of assuming responsibility, does not possess the mental lucidity needed for certain types of work, and is more prone to industrial accidents. If to these drawbacks we add the harm done to the health of the worker and his children, some idea will be obtained of the economic damage caused by cocaism." (The prejudice that contributed to the political construction of "coca addiction".)

[1970] Richard T. Martin: The Role of Coca in the History, Religion, and Medicine of South American Indians, (in mamacoca) "“…the discovery of  cocaine  had  another  less  beneficial  effect  on  the  reputation  of  the  coca  plant;  for  the  occasional  abuse  of  this  alkaloid,  particularly  among  persons  already  addicted  to  opiates,  which  was  sensationalized  by  the  press  both  in  Europe  and  the  United  States  at  the  end  of  the  19th  Century,  created  the  erroneous  fear  that  coca  equalled  opium  in  its  perniciousness  and  its  deleterious  effect  on  physical  and  mental  health.  In  the  space  of  20  or  30  years,  coca  went  from  high  praise  by  kings,  popes,  artists  and  doctors  as  the  most  beneficial  stimulant  tonic  known  to  man  to  vigorous  condemnation  as  a  dangerous  addictive  narcotic.  The  effect  of  this  prejudice  and  the  sub-  sequent  legal  ban  on  coca  leaves  in  Europe  and  the  United  States  was  to  halt  experimentation  with  and  use  of  coca  leaves  by  doctors;  only  specialized  uses  of  cocaine  in  anaesthesia  were  regarded  as  acceptable.  Even  more  serious,  however,  is  the  fact  that  confusion  about  the  effects  of  crude  coca  leaves  and  those  of  cocaine  has  caused  many  people  to  regard  the  chewing  of  coca  leaves  as  practiced  by  the  Indians  of  South  America  as  merely  an  addictive  vice,  with  the  lamentable  result  that  coca  is  now  being  suppressed  even  in  areas  where  the  Indians  have  relied  on  its  stimulating  and  medicinal  properties  for  thousands  of  years,  and  where  it  has  formed  a  significant  part  of  their  religious  and  cultural  heritage.  

[1970 ref to] Magazine Ads from the Heyday of Cocaine Chic

[1971] Max Singer The Vitality of Mythical Numbers .  "The main point of this article may well be to illustrate how far one can go in bounding a problem by taking numbers seriously, seeing what they imply, checking various implications against each other and against general knowledge (such as the number of persons or households in the city). Small efforts in this direction can go a long way to help ordinary people and responsible officials to cope with experts of various kinds." National Affairs [1971]

Andrew T. Weil, M.D Observations on Consciousness Alteration Why Coca Leaf Should be Available as a Recreational Drug , By. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 9(1), Jan-Mar 1977: 75-78.

1981] CIA-FOIA Latin american Narcotics Assessment  (en mamacoca): "The illgal drug industry is worth millions of dollars to source country economies.  (...) Colombia continues to be  the major source of marijuana entering the U.S.  According to 1980 estimates, Colombia provides nearly  80% of the US imports."  Directorate of Intelligence Central Inteligence Agency  disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. [December 1981]

1975] CIA-FOIA The Latin-American Connection   “It is estimated that a kilogram of cocaine that costs about $300 to produce can ultimately be sold in New York for up to $30,000.  (…) Still, the problem seems insurmountable in the short term. There is no lack of will on the part of Colombian authorities, but the factors working against them and the rising demand for narcotics make it extremely difficult to stem the tide”. Directorate of Intelligence Central Inteligence Agency - Disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act [17 de junio 1975]]

NarcoNews No history of the 1980s is complete without an understanding of the lawyers and legal mechanisms used to legitimize drug dealing and money laundering under the protection of National Security law. Through the MOU, the DOJ relieved the CIA of any legal obligation to report information of drug trafficking and drug law violations with respect to CIA agents, assets, non-staff employees and contractors. Presumably, this included the corporate contractors who, by executive order, were now allowed to handle sensitive intelligence and national security outsourcing.

[1982] FOIA/NOFORM: Bolivia The Cocaine Industry  (en mamacoca) [26 de enero 1982]

1982] CIA-FOIA ) : Potential coca growing areas in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru  (en mamacoca) “The current coca cultivation areas of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru produce quantities of coca far in excess of legitimate domestic demand and export. However, these cultivation areas represent a very small percentage of the territory in these countries that could (in physical terms) support coca growth.  (…) nearly of all Colombia (90%) is estimated to be able to support coca production, an area sligly larger than 1 million km2.”Central Intelligence Agency  disclosed under the Freedom of Information Ac/  (in FAQs) Directorate of Intelligence Central Inteligence Agency  disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act[August 1982]

1982] Colombia Another Threat in the Caribbean [1982] “The Parrot Speaks for Itself …The entire region is threatened by Communist penetration..” (Note:. Under this, Turbay’s Presidency, the National Security Statute gave the Executive a free hand to persecute any and all opposition. It was under Julio Cesar Turbay that Colombia militarized the drug war and started chemical experimentation against Nature.)

>[1983] CIA-FOIA Implication for the United States of the Colombian Drug Trade Volume I  /((en mamacoca)/ Implication for the United States of the Colombian Drug Trade Vol II:   (en mamacoca) “These guerrilla groups initially avoided all connections with narcotics growers and traffickers, except to condemn the corrupting influence of drugs on Colombian society. (…) The FARC, like the drug traffickers, quickly learned that coca was a highly lucrative crop, and paste was easy to transport and profitable. In the past three years, the FARC has become involved in the cultivation, production and shipping of coca paste from the Llanos.”  Special National Intelligence Estimate _CIA, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps [June 28, 1983]

[1983] CIA-FOIA Implication for the United States of the Colombian Drug Trade Volume I  /((en mamacoca)/ Implication for the United States of the Colombian Drug Trade Vol II:   (en mamacoca) “These guerrilla groups initially avoided all connections with narcotics growers and traffickers, except to condemn the corrupting influence of drugs on Colombian society. (…) The FARC, like the drug traffickers, quickly learned that coca was a highly lucrative crop, and paste was easy to transport and profitable. In the past three years, the FARC has become involved in the cultivation, production and shipping of coca paste from the Llanos.”  Special National Intelligence Estimate _CIA, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps [June 28, 1983]

Semana: "Memorando de la mafia" The Mafia’s Memorandum” called “Unilateral Declaration” is a six-page document sent on May 29, 1984 to the Prosecutor General of Public Office Holders and Defendor of Public Interests Carlos Jiménez Gómez by a group of narcotics traffickers holding they controlled form 70 y 80% of cocaine production. The document attempts a historical approach to the problem and which begins with a supposed sociological analysis on the ‘origin and meaning of the narcotics traffic in Colombia’” [August 6, 1984]

1985] Jaramillo, Mora y Cubides Colonización coca y guerrilla : Letter from Universidad Nacional professors to the INDERENA (National Resources Institute): The Bajo Caguán region’s settlers testify to the fact that the regions main economic base is the growing and initial processing of coca. This is what has moved colonization in the past 7 years. It is what allows, much like those that arrived to hunt, fish and exploit rubber, to survive in this far-off land with no services. These settlers are well aware of the need to substitute coca. The Inderena’s recent visit has increased the settlers’ awareness regarding the need to make sustainable use of the region’s natural resources as they are now beginning to do. We believe that State’s increased presence and consolidating peace would make all the difference. We propose the an Experimental Farm, made up by the Inderena in representation of the government and the legal party ensuing form guerilla demobilization, be set up to explore the means by which to make the rational use of the mason Region’s natural resources a fact. UNAL 1986 /Fernando Cubides [Aoril 29, 1985]

[1985]  Deborah Pacini and Christine Franquemont  Coca and Cocaine Effects on  People and Policy in Latin America  in Proceedings f the conference the Coca Leaf and its Derivatives –Biology, Society and Politics Latin American Studies Program Cornell University  and Cultural Survival Report,  The idea of the conference and text was "to look behind the headlines on coca and cocaine, present the current state of knowledge about the coca leaf end its chemical derivatives, and examine what is going on in the cocaproducing regions of Latin America." [25-26 de abril 1985]]

[1985] Timothy  Plowman  Coca  Chewing  and  the  Botanical  Origins  of  Coca  (Erythroxylum  Spp.)  in  South  America: “The  coca  leaf  has  played  an  important  role  in  the  lives  of  South  American  Indians  for  thousands  of  years.  Its  use  as  a  masticatory  persists  today  in  many  parts  of  the  Andes,  from  northern  Colombia,  south  to  Bolivia  and  Argentina,  and  in  the  western  part  of  the  Amazon  Basin.  Coca  leaf  is  used  as  a  mild  stimulant  and  as  sustenance  for  working  under  harsh  environmen­ tal  conditions  by  both  Indians  and  mestizos  alike.  It  also  serves  as  a  univer­ sal  and  effective  household  remedy  for  a  wide range  of  medical  complaints.  Traditionally,  coca  also  plays  a  crucial  symbolic  and  religious  role  in  An­ dean  society.  The  unifying  and  stabilizing  effects  of  coca  chewing  on  An­ dean  culture  contrasts  markedly  with  the  disruptive  and  convoluted  phenomenon  of  cocaine  use  in  Western  societies.  Because  all  cocaine  enter­ ing  world  markets  is  derived  from  coca  leaves  produced  in  South  America,  the  staggering  increase  in  demand  for  cocaine  for  recreational  use  has  had  a  devastating  impact  on  South  American  economies,  politics  and,  most  tragically,  on  indigenous  cultures.  […] The  widespread  intranasal  use  of  cocaine  hydrochloride  or  smoking  of  cocaine  base  produce  quite  different  psychological  and  pharmacological  ex­ periences  than  the  traditional  chewing  of  coca  leaves.” in Deborah  Pacini  and  Christine  Franquemont  (Editor)     Coca and Cocaine Effects  on  People  and  Policy  in  Latin  America  -[1985]

[1986] CIA/FOIA Narcotics Review (en mamacoca) [June 1986]

[1986] CIA-FOIA: Colombia. Prospects for New Government  (en mamacoca) “On foreign policy matters, we anticipate that Barco will be a reliable  US ally, particularly against the Sandinista government.” Directorate of Intelligence Central Inteligence Agency  disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act [ Septemer 1986] 

[1986] At the time when the enemy of the moment was the Sandinita government mentioned by Gary Webb (who “committed suicide” by shottinh himself two both fatal shots in the head) in "The Dark Alliance"  (The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations) en el:   San José Mercury News: links between the origins of crack cocaine in California to the contras, a guerrilla force backed by the Reagan administration that attacked Nicaragua's Sandinista government during the 1980s. .  For denial see

[1986] The White House National Securtiy Directive #221 “.  To  identify  the  impact  of  the  international  narcotics  trade  upon  U.S.  national  security,  and  to  direct  specific  actions  to  increase  the  effectiveness  of  U.S.  counternarcotics efforts  to  enhance  our  national  security [...] The  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Administrator  of  AID  should  ensure  that  narcotics  control  objectives  are  fully  integrated  into  foreign  assistance  planning  efforts.  The  planning  process  ~hould  include  consideration  of  programs  designed  to  assist  foreign  governments  achieve  effective  control  objectives  and  should  be  guided  by  the  principles  of  controlling  crop  production  and  targetting  trafficking  at  the  source  and  in  transit.  Proposed  assistance  should  be  linked  to  a  foreign  government's  willingness  to  develop  and  implement  effective  narcotics  control  programs ." [8 de abril 1986]

[1987] Ethan Nadelman: Chart on Cocaine Trade in Latin America in "La economía de la cocaína" en Texto y Contexto /Memorias del "Foro Coca y Cocaína" organizado en marzo 1986 por los Departamentos de Psicología y Antropología de la Universidad de los Andes de Bogotá No. 9, [1987]

1987] Mario Arango Jaramillo y Jorge Child : Narcotráfico: Imperio de la Cocaína, Increasingly, the largest of Colombia’s capitalists move to the United States. In contrast, it is the owners of the narcodollars who just recently made known their interest in bringing back their capitals into the country. The narcotics traffickers’ text submitted to Colombian public opinion by the Prosecutor General of Public Office Holders and Defendor of Public Interests denied any ties between the narcos and the guerrilla and the recent (just 2 months ago) assassination Justice Minister Lara Bonilla. The narcos saying to hold 78% of the narcotics traffic in Colombia, promised to give in the whole industry’s infrastructure to the Colombian State (landing strips, labs, raw material, planes); to contribute to coca and marijuana crop eradication; to help with the campaigns against marihuana and cocaine and particularly basuco (a rudimentary form of basic coca paste) use in Colombia; and proposed bringing back to Colombia the capitals they have abroad. This sum in foreign currency reintegrated to the country would amount to (quoted in the narcos’ proposal itself) 2,ooo million dollars. Edivisión [1987]

[1987] Bruce Michael Bagley The State and the Peasantry in Contemporary Colombia “This essay seeks to explain why in the mid-1980s the Colombian regime confronted a rising spiral of rural unrest and guerrilla violence. To answer this central question, the essay examines the evolution of state-peasant relations in Colombia during the quarter century plus that which has elapsed since the end of the Violencia and the creation of the Frente Nacional in 1958. The central thesis advanced is that the current wave of praetorianism and violence in the Colombian countryside is a result of the failure of Colombia's political elites to develop institutions capable of adequately channeling and controlling the new demands for political participation unleashed by the rapid capitalist transformation of the country's rural areas. In Huntingtonian terms, over the last twenty-five years the processes of political institutionalization in Colombia simply have not kept peace with the profound social changes and rapid mobilization of new groups into politics, thus producing the conditions for prolonged violence and instability.”  [1987] 

[198] Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy “The American market for drugs produces annual revenues of well over $100 billion at retail prices. This is twice what US consumer spend for oil each year.” ]December 1988]

[1988] Álvaro Camacho Guizado: The Drug Debate:Same thing, Different Face/ El debate de la droga La misma cosa- distinta cara _ Prohibitions have always been accompanied by violence. The banning of Chicha (a native and locally fermented beverage such as beer) was probably tied to the uprising in the 1950s and and was, most likely, tied to the extra official civil war atmosphere in 1945. Remember those threatening posters “the jails are full of people who drink chicha, chicha is the crime” was what the peasants were surprised to read. They saw how their age-old custom was being threatened… It was at this time -1988- that U.S. embassador Tambs coined the idea that cocaine was the FARC's doing and thus the term "narcoguerrilla". en "Droga y sociedad en Colombia el poder y el estigma". Editorial CIDSE, Universidad del Valle, 1988

[1988] Chemical diversion and trafficking act Stopping the Flow of Chemicals to the Andean Drug Cartels A report prepared by the Subcommittee on terrorism , US Senate, Narcotics and International Operations (Letter of transmittal April 13, 1989) [Decembre 1988]

[1988] According to a survey with 20 drug smugglers at the end of 1987 and beginning of 1988 75% (15), were in favor of legalizing (use and trade) in the United States and 25% (5) preferred prohibition, Mario Arango (Arango Jaramillo, Mario: Impacto del narcotráfico en Antioquia (google books) biblio), Medellín book published in 1988

[1988] La entrevista inédita de Yolanda Ruiz a Pablo Escobar An interview by Yolanda Ruiz (currently RCN) with Pablo Escobar in 1988 while he was in hiding revealed that in his opinion black market monies permeated the whole economy, that the State and government receive these monies through tax collection from the people accused of trading in drugs, Escobar believed that the problem of legalization or the problem of repression against the narcotics traffic is not the issue.. this is more a problem of education and discipline that one of legalization and repression. I say discipline because anything in excess is harmful to our health. 1988

[1989] Henman, Anthony Richard: "Coca: an Alternative to Cocaine?",  This article examines alternatives to the war on drugs in terms of the continued survival of the legal market in coca leaves. By comparing two areas of traditional coca use and cultivation-northwest Amazonas state, Brazil, and the department of Cuzco, Peru-the differences are highlighted between Peruvian and Brazilian attitudes towards coca and ethnic identity. Formulations based on a rigid dichotomy between (good) coca and (bad) cocaine are shown to confuse morality with purely practical considerations. Rather than a simple distinction between substances, the experience of indigenous drug users in South America suggests an understanding of the importance of cultural values in controlling any kind of drug consumption, and a recognition of the long-term effectiveness of " user-friendly" strategies of prevention. Drug Policy 1989-1990: A Reformer's Catalogue, pp. 164-176.

[1989] UNODC Coca-leaf production in the countries of the Andean subregion The estimated areas under coca-bush cultivation in 1988 are expected to total 44,300 hectares in Bolivia, 25,000 hectares in Colombia, 400 hectares in Ecuador and 1 14,400 hectares in Peru. The estimated projections for 1989 indicate that coca-leaf production may amount to 68,200 tonnes in Bolivia, 20,000 tonnes in Colombia. 300 tonnes in Ecuador and 120,100 tonnes in Peru. Of all the Andean countries, Venezuela is the only one that has no coca-leaf production problem. According to estimates for the period from 1985 to 1989, coca-leaf production will increase by 43.3 per cent in Bolivia, by 13.6 per cent in Colombia and by 26.2 per cent in Peru. Coca-leaf production in Ecuador has consistently followed a downward trend (Ecuador a country that never allowed aerial Spring) .Colombia, from 2,500 has in 1981, arrived with aerial spraying to 20,000 has (or more, depending like al drug figures on who counts) en 1989. (pp 95-98) [January 1, 1989]

[1989] Carlos Gustavo Arrieta, Luis J. Orjuela, Eduaro Sarmiento P. y Juan Gabriel Tokatlian: "La cuestión de la legalización de la droga" This article retraces the debate in the US and in Colombia on the marijuana legalization proposal. It tells us who was for and against and how, once the debate launched in Colombia, US officials started circulating in Colombia “scientific information” on the brain damage ad antisocial behaviour tied to marijuana use.

[1989] The National Liberation Army (ELN) in the conclusions to its second Congress states that it has no ties whatsoever with the narcotics traffic. That which means the need to combat not only the global phenomenon but also its effects” The ELN, currently in April 2017, is holding peace talks with he Colombian government. A the time, 1988, it was a well-known fact that the ELN was opposed and repressed even drug use in the communities under its control., en Salgado 2002

1989] Ananias Hincapie Zuluaga La legalización de la droga, , Detailed análisis and proposal by Colombia-legislation expert Hincapie on why and how dugs should be legalized and regulated in Colombia, ed Gráficas Mundial Ltda., 1989

[1989] Jorge Orlando Melo: Informe a la Procuraduría General de la Nación -El problema del narcotráfico Report to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Public Office Holders and Defendor of Public Interests (Procuraduría General de la Nación); The Narcotics Traffic Problem -Document submitted by the Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales (IEPRI) de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia upon request by the Procurador General Horacio Serpa Uribe: A superficial analysis indicates that the drug economy is barely touched by attempts at reducing drug supply in Colombia. [….] Early legalization measures, as proposed years ago by well-known Colombians, would have prevented the growth of narcotics traffickers’ vast fortunes, would have reduced their interest in consistently expanding drug use ad could have contributed to creating in Colombia situations such as those in England and other countries for drug users, such as the regulated supply for a limited number of habituated users. The analysis of these possibilities, in the long term, of a strategy in this sense would also be a step towards having alternatives in case repressive policies, as is the case up to now, continue stimulating the appearance of economic opportunities to be had by trafficking and do not show any effectiveness at reducing drug use. [April 1989] 

[1989] FOIA/CIA: Summary of the Meeting with Study Commission from the Office of the National Drug Control Policy (en mamacoca) [March 31, 1989]

[1989] Los Angeles Times Bennett's Drug Plan "When complex social pathology is mistaken for a police problem, the result is the sort of plan that William J. Bennett, the Bush Administration's new drug czar, put forward last week as the Administration's response to Washington, D.C.'s, catastrophic crack cocaine problem." [April 17, 1989]

[1989] Ernesto Samper (1994-1998): Bennet’s Drug Plan, for taking domestic measures, does not respond to the immense efforts demanded of Colombia as concerns the lives lost and financial resources invested to repress the phenomenon in Colombia. … The drug business in the U.S. is worth approximately 1000 billion dollars (a thousand million) of which US$2.5 billion came into Colombia. Our possibilities of controlling narcofinances are quite limited. "Una estrategia global para manejar los costos económicos de la guerra contra el narcotráfico". Declaración del precandidato Liberal Ernesto Samper Pizano ante la Asociación de Corresponsales Extranjeros acreditados en Colombia, Bogotá, [September de 1989]

[1989] Michel Schiray Essai sur l'illégalité en économie : l'économie de la drogue , « An analysis of the prices shows that the sales revenues, more precisely the added value of drug goods, are significantly higher domestically for consumer countries that in producing countries and, undoubtedly, than in transit countries. Sciences Sociales et Santé, vol.VII, No. 3 tomado de Persée (en mamacoca pdf) [septembre 1989]

[1989] CIA-FOIA: International Narcotics Situation Report  (en mamacoca) Charts on coca crops, cocaine trade and asset seizures Directorate of Intelligence Central Inteligence Agency disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act [November 1989]

[1989] Mauricio Romero Córdoba: Latifundio y narcotráfico The assassination of peasant leaders were the latest social events in the midst of the anti-insurgency campaign led by the narcocapitals, en CINEP Análisis Documentos Ocasionales No. 56 [November 1989]

[1989] Noam Chomsky The Invasion of PananmaThe US government knew that Noriega was involved in drug trafficking since at least 1972, when the Nixon administration considered assassinating him. But he stayed on the CIA payroll. In 1983, a US Senate committee concluded that Panama was a major center for the laundering of drug funds and drug trafficking. […]By the time we invaded Panama in December 1989, the press had demonized Noriega, turning him into the worst monster since Attila the Hun. (It was basically a replay of the demonization of Qaddafi of Libya.) Ted Koppel was orating that "Noriega belongs to that special fraternity of international villains, men like Qaddafi, Idi Amin and the Ayatollah Khomeini, whom Americans just love to hate." Dan Rather placed him "at the top of the list of the world's drug thieves and scums." In fact, Noriega remained a very minor thug exactly what he was when he was on the CIA payroll. (Note. 7,000 panamanians were said to have been massacred by this invasion)

[1989] NewLook De la Colombie a crack city Cocaïne   Cocaine has totally restructured the country. It has multiplied jobs, destabilized the financial system (the banks, the means of entry called “dark/sinister windows” which allow for currency exchanges without further controls over the narcodollars coming into the country)…" mensuel No. 73 August 1989.

[1989] Chet M. Mitchell: Le crime organisé et la guerre aux stupéfiants : crise et réforme, "Drugs remain the most important raw materials exchanged on the international marketplace; there, where coffee alone occupies the second place (in gross value) after oil. Whereas the licit-drugs trade, such as tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical products is controlled by Europe and North America, illicit drugs come from less-industrialized countries. ". Érudit, Criminologie Vol. 22 No. 1 [1989] 

[1990]  Hernando José Gómez: El tamaño del narcotráfico y su impacto económico,, The share in Colombia’s GDP of the revenues generated by the narcoitcs traffic have not been been particularly high and they seem to have had a negative net worth effect on the country’s legal economic activity during the 1980s. Economía Colombiana [February to March 1990]

[1990] Salomón Kalmanovitz La economía del narcotráfico en Colombia, The narcotics economy in Colombia: Marijuana and cocaine exports have been at the root of the accelerated development of a gangster bourgeoisie in the course of the past 15 years. This gangster bourgeoisie has undermined the economic control traditionally held by the oligarchy and even that of more recent businessmen by obtaining, throughout the past decade, at least 30% of all of the patrimony obtained by Colombians at home and abroad during the past 100 years.Economía Colombiana, [February-March 1990]

[1990] David F. Musto    Hidden dangers of the drug war “The time required for a nation to shift its attitude against a drug like cocaine can be frustratingly slow, especially to those who have decided that it is dangerous. Yet in American history there has been no other drug widely used for recreational purposes which has fallen so far in esteem as cocaine. […] From being an ideal tonic, cocaine has plunged to being the most dangerous of substances -- the model bad drug. This happened in the first cocaine epidemic which began in 1885 and lasted until after World War I. Moving from its introduction as a harmless tonic to its popular perception as an extremely dangerous substance took about 15 years. In 1910, 25 years after cocaine's debut, the drug was called "more appalling in its effects than any other habit-forming drug used in the United States" in President Taft's report to Congress. […] When Americans begin to fear the actual effects of cocaine on the mind -- not its cost or purity -- the perception of the drug's dangers to the casual user shifts from optimism based on the earlier estimates of safety to the possibility that anyone may fall to its allure. At this stage, a 10 percent chance of deep and irrational addiction is as frightening as riding in an airplane with a 10 percent chance of crashing. […] Cocaine's affects on the user can create the stereotype of the crazed "dope-fiend:" impulsive, violent behavior and bizarre, paranoid thinking. Cocaine doesn't even hold the last-ditch hope that distributing the drug will quiet the user's agitation and danger to the public. Cocaine taken on a regular basis does not calm or normalize behavior as may occur with opiate users, but only intensifies undesirable traits. in Journal of State Government,  v63 n2 p43(3). [April –June 990] 

[1990] Comunicado Presidencia de la República VirgilioBarco (1986-1990) Regarding diverse news versions according to which the National Government would be negotiating, through intermediaries, with the narcotics traffic “Respecto a diversas versiones de medios de comunicación, que indican posibles tratos, a través de intermediarios, entre el Gobierno Nacional y los narcotraficantes..” At no time whatsoever has the government compromised the country’s best interest [March 29, 1990] 

[1990] Palabras del Señor Pesidente de la República, Virgilio Barco, ante el Paralmento Europeo Statement by President Virgilio Barco to the European Parliament: More than declaring myself completely nonplussed in the face of Europe’s introversion, I believe a more open world is coming to fore. […] IN the Cartagena Summit a great step was taken in the fight against the narcotics traffic. We there agreed upon a general action framework which comprises not only police actions but also economic and political measures. We also arrived at concrete commitments which should de sped up, as mentioned in our Brasilia Declaration of March 1990. […] It is also important that we understand Bolivia and Peru’s situation and we help these countries to substitute and economy dependent on coca crops for a more diversified and dynamic economy, […] I would like to thank the European Community’s support to the International Coffee Agreement, whose collapse caused enormous damages. Strasbourg [April 4, 1990]

[1990] Discurso del Presidente de la República de Bolivia Jaime Paz Zamora: Within the Framework of transcendental demands, in diverse international forums I have pointed out the traditional use of the coca leaf and its legal and beneficial derivatives which ensue from coca’s nutritional and medical properties as well as from its religious and social and cultural context, these cannot be confused with the scourge of illicit use of cocaine. [May 1990]

[1990] Newsweek MagazineThe Drug Busters  As its involvement in the narcotics war grows, the Pentagon outlines a plan to crush the cartels. Thurman (Panama Invasion) develops a plan for simultaneous regional (Bolivia, Colombia and Perú) attack. [ July 16, 1990]

[1990] Following the Trail of Drug Profits (only press release) "The laundering of drug money is overwhelmingly a problem of the northern hemisphere… At the lowest estimate, the Colombian cartels get US7.2bn from their sales of cocaine to the US; though an impressive sum, it represents only 8%  of what is paid by addicts (sic) on the streets of the US. "  Current Latin American Newsletter / [1990]

[1990] Colombia Hoy No. 84_ Approximately 70 people, mainly street dwellers, bums or crack users, have been assassinated in the past few months as part of the social cleansing operations in which, according to witnesses, members of the Third District Police have been implicated in founding the group called “Death to Thieves and Crack Users (bazuqueros) “.Derechos Humanos  en  "Limpieza social hace la policía en Girardot"_ [Octuber1990

El País: Colombia guarantees that it will not extradite narcos who turn themselves in and confess at least one crime committed. These recent measures, nonetheless, seem to make the chances of peace with this sector even more remote. [1990] El País Colombia garantiza que no concederá la extradición de los narcos que se entreguen [December 19, 1990]

[1991] At a meeting in England in 1988 Colombian Army officers informed me on the government’s reluctance to declare an all-out war against the guerrilla and the need to build a group to destroy Casa Verde where the peace talks between the Government and the FARC were beginning to take place. These operations were financed by the narcotics trafficker Rodriguez Gacha – El Mejicano. Los Comandos de la Guerra , Confidencias de un mercenario “Nos financiaba Rodríguez Gacha” Declaración Davis Tomkin’s Sworn Testimony beofre U.SS. Congress, Editorial Oveja Negra[February 28, 1991]

[1991 The National Securtiy Archive "U.S. intelligence listed Colombian president Uribe among "important Colombian narco-traffickers" in 1991 (and for many years the president -2002-2010- backed by the U.S. State Department) [March 18, 1991 released in 2004 Michael Evans]

The ‘Chulavitas’ , Conservative Party Members from the Boyaca esmerald region show a certain continuity with Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha’s drug gangs Salomon Kalmanovitz El Poder Blanco, Revista 90 Otra corriente No. 2 [May 1991]

[1991] Confidential US Embassy in Bogotá to State Department The United States believes the Ejercito de Liberación Nacional (ELN) is being funded by 5,000 hectares of coca crops and is on the verge of becoming the third drug cartel. [May 1991]

The Rio Group: Considering the fact that we are taking on the fight against drug production, processing, trafficking and distribution, we can demand consumer countries that they adopt authentic demand-control strategies. El tráfico ilícito de estupefacientes y sustancia psicotrópicas"La Integración Latinoamericana"  [July 1991]

[1991] CIA-FOIA : Colombia.Opium Cultivation Reaches Commercvial Levels  (en mamacoca) “The collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in July of 1989 may have been a contributing factor to the recent upsurge of poppy cultivation. Directorate of Intelligence Central Inteligence Agency  disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act [septiembre 1991]

1991] FOIA/Department of Defense: Narcotics –Colombian Narcotics Trafficker Profiles The information contained in this report forwards profiles on the most important narco-terrorist contracted by the Colombian narcotics cartels.. [September 1991]

1991] In April of last year, a US State Department, Janet G. Mullis, wrote: ‘Antinarcotics activities inevitably require simultaneous counterinsurgency activities in order to recover government control in certain regions.’  Colombia Hoy Informa  Guerrilla y narcotráfico: Piezas de una guerra que ya se armó Colombia Hoy Año XII No. 94 [September 1991]

[1991] WOLA : The Narco-Guerrilla Theory "The Drug war has replaced the Cold War as the central U.S. military mission in the hemisphere. (…) Rather than using U.S. troops directly in operations, the Andean strategy depends on getting Latin American military and police forces more involved in the drug war and increasing their capabilities."  in "Clear and Present Dangers -The U.S. Military and the War on Drugs in the Andes",  Washington Office on Latin America, [1991]

[1991] INFO Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Report Department of Defense "Alvaro Uribe Velez a Colombian politician and senator dedicated to collaborating with the Medellin Cartel at high government levels. Uribe was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the US. His father was murdered in Colombia for his connections with the narcotics traffickers. Uribe has worked for the Medellin Cartel and is a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria. He has participated in Escobar’s campaign to win the position of assistant parliamentarian to Jorge (Ortega) Uribe has been one of the politicians, from the Senate, who has attacked all forms of the extradition treaty".  (Desclasificado por Derecho de Petición .FOIA. en el 2004 Ver revista Semana /ver asimismo: Biografía no autorizada de Álvaro Uribe Vélez  (El señor de las sombras)  [September 1991]  

[1991] CIA-FOIA: International Narcotics Situation Report Colombian Traffickers and Heroin Production “The government’s current manual eradication efforts can tie up large numbers of troops or Police, diverting them from other counternacotics operations. In addition, manually cleared poppy fields can be replanted almost immediately and be ready for harvest in three to five  months  minister of Defense Pardo recently authorized very limited aerial spraying but he favors attacking the heroin infrastructure over eradication. Item on Colombian Civil Aviation Corruption not disclosed. NOFORN, NOCONTRACT, ORCON.  [November 1991]

[1992] Rensselaer W. Lee III: The White Labyrinth explains why it is so difficult to take effective action against the cocaine problem. It looks closely at problems faced by producing countries: the economic and political pressures that make it so difficult to address the problem from a supply-side perspective. It analyzes the devastating pressure tactics of “coca lobbies” and cocaine trafficking syndicates.. It examines the negative consequences of actions taken by the United States.  El laberinto blanco

[1992] Ibán de Rementería  Worldwide natural drug –marijuana, hashish, coca paste and opium- production is estimated in 1988 at 30.060 metrixc tons. The first producig country was Mexico with 32.2%,, the second the United States with 27.6% and the third was Colombia with a 19.2% part. Macroeconomía de las drogas -Rol macroeconómico de la producción, tráfico y expendio de drogas, Documento preparado para el Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano de Universidades, Bogotá, [1 al 8 de junio de 1992].

[1992] Christian Gros In some regions armed struggle and the narcotics traffic go together; in other regions they confront one another or are independen form each other. Los campesinos de las cordilleras frente a los movimientos guerrilleros y a la droga: actores o víctimas Análisis Político N° 16 [mayo-agosto de 1992]

[1992] CIA-FOIA Monthly Warning Meetings Report for August 1992 Colombia already the hub of the cocaine traffic could become and important cultivator of opium (sic) and a trafficking center for heroin, posing a further trheat to the United States. [September 1992]

1992] Germán Fonseca:  It is impossible to estimate the real scope of the drug economy. The illegal nature of this commodity creates methodological difficulties due to the inexistence of certain data and the collection of the information required for economic analyses. A simple review of the different studies on these estimates reveals considerable discrepancies and casts doubts on the reliability of the sources used. We are therefore faced with the fact that our work is speculative and the risk of accepting the figures simply because they are often quoted. Économie de la drogue : taille, caractéristiques et impact économique In: Tiers-Monde. 1992, tome 33 n°131. pp. 489-516. (pdf Persée en mama-coca) [julio-septiembre 1992

[1992] Mylène Sauloy et Yves Le Bonniec In fact, the Sierra Nevada, fauna and flora reservation has an excellent variety of marijuana which grows wild and is used by the Indians for therapeutic purposes. « Les Dupes de la Marimba dans A qui profite la Cocaïne » Calmann Levy [September 1992]

The five Colombian mafia epicenters have common configuration characteristics from a historical perspective since they were all formed on the basis of the crises suffered by basic agricultural products, on mining ventures or on the local bourgeoisies’ trade and the ensuing economic, social, cultural and public-order traumas which were particularly severe towards the 1970s. Martha Luz García-Bustos Los focos de la mafia de la cocaína en Colombia Nueva Sociedad no.121 , PP. 60-67 [septiembre-octubre 1992]

[1992] Phil Phil Dickie and Paul Wilson Defining Organised Crime: An Operational Perspective , “This paper presents the results of an approach to organised crime now being explored within the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission. (…)If we continue to fail to address our conceptual inadequacies in the organised crime field we will ensure that debate about organised crime will continue to be based primarily on rhetoric and emotion, we will prevent serious consideration of options other than law enforcement ones, we will reduce the ability of law enforcement to effectively target illegal markets and we will stifle public debate about the social consequences of current policy directions.”Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference - Melbourne 30 September - 2 October 1992  

[1992] Richerson Chapter Crime and Criminality "Our analysis indicates that it is time to evolve the culture of our society and become less impulsive, less dependent on coercion, and more sensitive to the needs and suffering of others." [1992]

[1992] Alvaro Camacho Guizado The aid received by Colombia is not only insignificant but it is geared at guerrilla warfare and not for police work: Narcotráfico y Sociedad en Colombia: Contribución a un Estudio sobre el Estado del Arte, " Boletín Socioeconómico, Universidad del Valle [agosto - diciembre de 1992]

[1993] Edgar Torres Amapola, “Ever since 1987 in a versatile and silent process, the masters of the cocaine market have laid the foundations of a new criminal transdformation which today translates concretely into 20,ooo hectares of poppy crops . In figures this means the threat of a 480 ton latex production which serves to make morphine and heroin. El Informe Final El Tiempo [25 de mayo de 1993]

1993] On June 3, 1993 the Colombian Senate unanimously approved Proposition No. 189: To appoint a Commission to asses and determine and submit, within a 90 day period, its conclusions on the narcotics traffic problem in Colombia, it consequences and the States ability to combat it. Said Commission will analyze the different proposals aimed at finding a solution. There were proposals to decriminalize drugs and to accept the narcotics traffickers' surrender for the sake of peace. One of the consensual appraisals reached referred to how measures geared at repressing the narcotics traffic had been undermining the rule of law; how the notion of due process, habeas corpus and impartial sentencing have all been lost in the process. Resolucion No. 189: Conclusiones de la Comisión Accidental del Senado dela República para el Estudio del Problema del Narcotráfico en Colombia en "La legalización de la droga" Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia , Jurídica Radar Ediciones,1994 _[ 23-27 de agosto 1993]

[1993] Charles-Henri de Choiseul   How does the economic actor who wants to act rationally behave in the context of the illegal drug market? For him Prohibition brings about a first certain personal consequence: It creates an artificial monopoly from the dealer to the buyer, the final user. In effect, since the product is banned, the buyer can only turn to one and only one salesman. Considering the danger and uncertainty involved, he is basically subjected to a monopolistic situation and has to pay the highest price. … Prohibition is a the root of a second consequence, as concerns the balance between the salesperson: the buyer has no way of controlling th quality of the product he’s buying, since he cannot call in a competitor nor appeal to official control systems. This is but the second advantage to be gained by drug dealers and traffickers from Prohibition. La micro-économie de la drogue « La Planète des drogues »  sous la direction  de Alain Labrousse et Alain Wallon , Seuil [November 1993]

 [1993] Gustavo de Greiff Colombia’s Prosecutor General (Fical General de la Nación, post created by the 1991 Colombian Constitution), after having fought a hard battle and brought to heel numerous narcotics traffickers, on two different occasions one in October 1993 in Bogotá and another in November 1993 in Baltimore, indicated he was willing to assess the possibility of legalizing psychoactive drugs and negotiate the terms of surrender of Colombian narcotics traffickers. This was of course unacceptable to the United States. ¿De heroe a villano?, Semana

Letter from President César Gaviria to Prosecutor General Gustavo De Greiff in the face of his statements defending the need to legalize psychoactive substances – This letter defending the Government’s war against the narcotics traffic came after the series of bombs which severely shook Colombia and just pior to Pablo Escobar’s capture and death. Carta del Presidente César Gaviria Trujillo al Fiscal General de la Nación [November 29, 1993]

[1994] Andrés Pastrana presidential campaign ¡Llego el momento de Colombia! "Narcotics traffic: As concerns the possibility of legalizing either the narcotics traffic or drug uses, two sides of the same coin, it is not possible to even consider this possibility under the country’s current circumstances . Programa de Gobierno 1994-1998

[1994]Ernesto Samper’s election victory speech As concerns drug use, I have asked Colombia’s Vice President to head in the name of the national government a referendum which would allow all Colombians to express, publicly and decisively, their rejection of any attempt at expanding consumption in Colombia. Discurso de Posesión Ernesto Samper Apartes Narcotráfico y Política Exterior [August 7, 1994]

[1994] Rosa Del Olmo:   For the first time there is an anti-drug law (1986) that stipulates a cooperative relationship between source countries (producer or transit countries) with the USA to control traffic and the possibility of these countries being chosen to obtain foreign aid, and under certain circumstances , commercial advantages. This procedure is called Certification and requires that the US President retain at the beginning of each fiscal year 50% of the foreign aid assigned to a certain country until this country has been certified to be complying with its commitments with the United States. Las Relaciones Internacionales de la Cocaína Nueva Sociedad Nro. 130 marzo-abril 1994 , pp. 126-143

[1994] Hermes Tovar Pinzón A future scenario could be our neighbors to the North invading an Andean country and creating enclaves much like they did with the banana republics. Coca would thus end up becoming an import product in Latin America and the narcotics trafficker become smugglers or representatives of multinational enterprises and growers would become mere laborers under the oversight of a State vowed to defending the legitimacy of a product exploited by foreign capital to the benefit of our development. La Economía de la Coca en América Latina. El paradigma colombiano Nueva Sociedad. 130 marzo-abril PP. 86-111 [1994]

WHO UNICRI Cocaine Project: This information package presents the results of an international study on cocaine executed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and funded by the United Nations lnterregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) “Between 1992 and 1994 the World Health Organization Programme on Substance Abuse (WHO/PSA), in association with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), undertook the largest global study on cocaine ever. Through the WHO/UNICRI Cocaine Project, information was collected from 22 cities in 19 countries about how cocaine and other coca products are used, who uses them, what effects they have on the users and the community, and how governments have responded to the cocaine problem. […] The information collected represents the largest body of current knowledge on cocaine use at a global level. This briefing kit contains information sheets which summarize the findings of the project. The complete findings of the study wilt be made available in a set of project documents and publications which will be released by WHO/PSA later in 1995.

[…]Health problem; from the use of legal substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are greater than health problems from cocaine use. -• Few experts describe cocaine as invariably harmful to health. Cocaine-related problems are widely perceived to be more common and more severe for intensive, high-dosage users and very rare and much less severe for occasional, low-dosage users. -• A majority of health consequences may not be directly attributed to cocaine use. Cocaine often contributes to or exacerbates the conditions reported, rather than causing them. (Ed Note: This project was censured ―neither the first nor the last to be brushed under the carpet―. One can’t help imagining the bloodshed, social chaos, environmental devastation and legislative imbalance the world would have been spared had someone or some country not had solely their own self-interest at heart.) Transform Cocaine Project

[1995] Fernando García M.: Guerilla presence fulfills, among other, a social-control role, in accordance with its own view of justice and the regional context; role which a good part of the rural inhabitants see as necessary. The guerilla, however, has also committed abuses and is feared like any armed group but one that seeks to obtain the support of the locals, Generally speaking, the FARC has created a certain number of rules to which it expects obedience: 1- the group’s legitimacy and safety; 2- gradual substitution of coca crops; 3- measures to avoid land concentration; and 4- a stable tax and financial system. Coca, guerrilla y sociedad civil en el Guaviare: regulación de conflictos y otros controles, (Investigador Centro de Estudios Internacionales -CEI Universidad de los Andes) Revista Colombia Internacional, Uniandes, enero-marzo 1995,

[1995] DrugText.org : The Industrialization of Coca in the United States The Legal Cocaine Club   " In addition to the United States, which  in accordance with official data from this organization, had for that year (1982) a stock of 2,038 tons of coca leaves and 530 kilos of cocaine, another 36 countries have the right to use coca leaves: ….  (…) The above does not include the coca leaves required for the Coca Cola Company. The JIFE reports do not specify the needs for this item because the Geneva convention exempts this item from control. “Capítulo IV en Jorge Hurtado Gumucio: Cocaine, The legend About coca leaves and cocaine Accion Andina y otros  1a Ed 1987  [mayo de 1995]

[1995] Susan Wilson y Marta Zambrano: According to John Law, ex-DEA Director, US citizens, who make up 6% of the world populating, consume 60% of the world’s illegal drugs. (…)  The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that 6.490.000 people in 1974 and 11.460.000 in 1977 were either using cocaine at the time or had used it at least once in their lives. By 1982, this number had shot up to 37.640.000 with a peaking 40.190.000 consumers in 1985. In 1990, , 34.667.000 informed that they were or had been crack or cocaine users. These figures, though, should be taken with precaution…. " Revista Análisis Político, IEPRI Estudia la cocaína como una mercancía trasnacional. Cocaína, capitalismo e imperio [enero-abril 1995]

[1995] Coronel Ruben Dario Silva Ruiz Guardia Nacional de Venezuela Studies carried out by the Colombian Banking Association and Bank of the Republic consider that Colombia narcotics traffickers send a total amount of 310 metric tons of cocaine abroad per year, that which is almost the whole amount of Andean production.. 270O of the tons traded from Colombia go to the US market and 40 to Europe, to add up to a gross revenue of 7,130 million dollars. 3,070 of the whole amount of these revenues correspond to production costs and 4,070 to net earnings. Narcotrafico en los Estados Unidos dimension economica y politica nacional e internacional (en mamacoca) Colegio Interamericano De Defensa Departamento De Estudios Curso XXXIV Washington, D.C., [mayo de 1995]

[1995] President Bill Clinton Executive Order 12978 Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions With Significant Narcotics Traffickers [October 21, 1995]

[1995] Michele Moser Switzerland: New Exceptions to Banks’ Secrecy Laws Aimed at Money Laundering and Organized Crime [1995]

[1995] Patent 5990285 Catalytic antibodies against cocaines This invention provides compounds which are analogs to the hydrolysis transition-state of a cocaine benzoyl ester group. This invention also provides such analogs linked to carrier proteins, and antibodies thereto. This invention further provides pharmaceutical composition for decreasing concentration in a subject using the antibodies produced. June 7, 1995

[1996] Camilo Echandía Castilla: The uncertainty generated by the fall of coca leaf prices at the beginning of the 1990s together with a 75% increase in heroin consumption in the US in 1992 and prices of heroin up to 10 times higher than those for cocaine contributed to promoting poppy growing and derivatives processing in Colombia. (simplistic translation of a very complex and excellent analysis La amapola en el marco de las economías de ciclo corto, Análisis Político, IEPRI [January –April 1996]

[1996] Antonio Caballero: In the Colombian Putumayo and Caquetá jungles, in the Peruvian Huallaga Valley and the Bolivian Chapare, forced coca eradication carried out by Colombian authorities under US orders and by the sue of herbicides sold by the United Sates has provoked the uprising of hundreds of thousands peasant families whose livelihood depends on these crops. (The only Latin-American tropical agricultural product that has a stable –and growing- international market is coca) Más Droga y Más Guerra Revista Cambio16 [2 de septiembre 1996]

[1996] Andy Atkins The Drugs Trade as a Development Issue: Proposals for an EU Response "The EU and member states should consider financing studies to identify environmentally and economically sustainable models of small-scale production in zones of drug-linked cultivation In particular it should focus on those models geared to production for the local and national (rather than export) markets". Development Review [1996]

[1992-2000] OGD Observatoire Géopolitique de Drogues [1997-1999] The first truly world-wide independent report on the the drug situation. It is drwan up from reports from 200 correspondents from the press, scientific and NGO communities from 100 countries, together with the research carried out by the OGD staff in Paris. .

a.OGD The World Geopolitics of Drugs 1997-1998

a.OGD The World of Synthetic Drugs 1999

b.OGD South-East-Asia Far-East and Pacific Ocean 1999

c. OGD Central- Asia Southwest-Asia 1996-1997

d.OGD The Drug Scene in Europe 1998

e.OGD Africa 1997-1998

f. OGD The Americas 1998

[1996 ref to] Fernando Cubides: In September 1996, in two Colombian departments, peasants marched in masses to protest against aerial spraying of illicit crops; in the hope of having access to basic services in the regions; and to once again submit age-old unsatisfied grievances. After several incidents and scuffles in which some of the marchers were hurt, the parties sat down to negotiate. Together with mid-ranking government representatives the marchers come to innovative agreements that proposed that growers would now be treated differently: they would be recognized as coca growers. A whole new world with its tensions and grievances with a certain degree of social stratification in its midst as well, up to then unknown to the Colombian city dweller, was revealed. What can be seen is the inadequacy of the generic “cocalero peasants” expression used by media. The marches’ latter (after the signature of the accords) demobilization weakened the organization which had been created and, nowadays, those of the marchers who signed the agreements who have not died or disappeared, have joined the ranks of the guerrilla in their regions. La participación política del campesinado en contexto de guerra: el caso colombiano, March 2006

[1995] Alejandro Reyes: Local observers believe a grower needs at least 20 hectares to make it. If the grower has less than 20 hectares, he can barely pay laborers and afford agricultural inputs and he cannot escape the debt burden, which is paid with the harvest to the benefit of the merchants. Those who have plots within that 20-hectare range also make their profits through a debt trap in which they hold the leaf reapers by recovering a good part of the salaries through additional business ventures such supplying food, liquor and providing entertainment activities. La erradicación de cultivos: un laberinto, Coyuntura, enero-abril 1995

[1996 ref to] Juan Guillermo Ferro y Graciela Uribe: A great diversity of actors with different processes and projects took part in the marches (which took place in 1996 and lasted for 45 days). The diversity of actors in this new colonization scenario and which participated in these coca growers’ marches ―peasant colonists (colonos), merchants, farmers, raspachines (poppy latex reapers) , mobile street vendors, Indians, coca buyers, among others― indicate the complexity of the issue whilst at the same time allowing us to understand that we cannot do a linear reading into their mode of participation. It is also important to point out the fact that the minority percentage was represented by colono peasants anchored in the department and with a history of social organization. Whilst the so-called raspachines were basically young people from different regions of the country, without any organizational tradition and more used to migratory practices and these made up 50% of the marchers. Las marchas de los cocaleros del departamento de Caquetá, Colombia: contradicciones políticas y obstáculos a la emancipación social Ponencia presentada en el Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencia Política, del 9 de julio del 2002, Salamanca-España y en el VI Congreso "La investigación en la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana", octubre 30-noviembre 2 de 2002

[1997] Guillermo Enrique Rodríguez-Navarro The “Elder Brothers”, Guardians of the “Heart of the World” -Indigenous knowledge as an innovative contribution to the sustainable development of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Colombia Published in: Ambio, The Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm, Sweden.  Vol. 29 No. 7. pp.455-458 1997

[1997] Juan Gabriel Tokatlian Legalization Controversy in Colombia: President Samper and the United States:  Recent drug-legalization history in Colombia, its episodic debate, and the occasional initiatives to this end have one key actor —President Ernesto Samper Pizano (1994-1998)— and one basic point of reference, the government of the United States. Accordingly,  I will describe the chronological stages, and explain the conceptual evolution, covered  by the issue of drug legalization in  Colombia, identifying the significant role played by Ernesto Samper in  this controversy and highlighting the influence of the United States in the manner of dealing with the matter. Essentially, it is possible to affirm that, if at one point narcotics legalization acquired any relative momentum in Colombia with citizen Samper, today this debate is wholly closed due to the experience suffered by Colombia during his presidential term. La polémica sobre la legalización de drogas en Colombia, el Presidente Samper y Estados Unidos 

[1997] General Accounting Office (GAO): Drug Control  Long-Standing Problems Hinder U.S.International Efforts GAO/NSIAD- [27 de febrero  1997]

[1997] CIA-FOIA: Colombia: Paramilitaries Gaining Strength (in mamacoca) "The climate of insecurity in vast areas of Colombia offers the paramilitaries a ready and lucrative market among wealthy businessmen, including drug traffickers. (…) Paramilitary groups have been regarded as allies, or in some cases, surrogates of  the military". Directorate of Intelligence Central Intelligence Agency  disclosed under the  Freedom of Information Act [13 de junio 1997] 

[1997] Central Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Report, “Colombia-Venezuela: Continuing Friction Along the Border,” Michael Evans War in Colombia" archives) Alarmed by an increase in kidnappings, extortion, and attacks on its military outposts, the Venezuelan government in 1997 had become increasingly concerned about Colombia’s apparent inability to reign in guerrilla activity along the Venezuelan border.[…]     The report, from the CIA’s Office of Asian Pacific and Latin American Analysis, assesses what the issue has meant for Colombia-Venezuela bilateral relations, and discusses the possible implications of the dispute for U.S. policy in the region.  Analysts conclude that the diplomatic problems engendered by the dispute might complicate U.S. counterdrug and other programs and could perhaps even “force the US to assume a greater role in the border problem.”  The CIA predicts that both countries are likely to ask the U.S. to intervene, “ostensibly to interdict the narcotics flow … by providing military equipment and technical support that could be used against the insurgents.” October 1, 1997, Secret, 14 pp. “(#40)

[1997] Joaquín Viloria de La Hoz  Cafe Caribe: La economía cafetera en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta At the end of the 1970s estimates were that the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta produced at least 60% of the 9.500 tons of marijuana produced in Colombia,. This activity employed around 30.000 people throughout the country. Quoting ANIF [November 1, 1997]

[1997] Silvia Diana Matteucci y Jorge Morello (Argentina) Aspectos Ecologicos del Cultivo de la Coca (in mamacoca) Literature on coca production is tainted by a Manichean ideological component witch overshadows the facts. Many of the ecological arguments used to justify coca substitution and eradication projects are based on what our current ecological and agronomic scientific knowledge and, as such, are but a myth. These myths answer to a Manichean logic: 1- Pro- view of coca as a crop with multiple including for ceremonies (traditional local cultures); 2- The anti-coca view which demonizes coca and ties it exclusively to cocaine production. Carrera Interdisciplinaria de Especialización de Postgrado en la Problemática del Uso Indebido de Drogas. Módulo "Aspectos históricos, antropológicos, socioeconómicos, culturales y ecológicos".[1997]

[1997] Severa authors and articles on crops and drugs in Colombia - Eduardo Sáenz Rover The Pre-History of the Narcotics Traffic in Colombia -North American fears and Colombian realities during the first half of the 20th century Simposio Crisis: La crisis sociopolítica colombiana una análisis no coyuntural de la coyuntura Centro de Estudios Sociales (CES) Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Ed Utópica  [November 1997]

[1997] Peter Kopp: L'économie de la drogue, The illegal nature of the deals and puny competition characterize certain levels of the drug chain. The practically nonexistent transparency explain high drug prices and the lack of costs and production information. La Decouverte [1997]

[1997] Bernard Morel et Fréderic Rychen « Le marché des drogues, An analysis of how an ordinary commodity, which responds to common economic laws would react were it to be decriminalized under State control so growing demand would cease to be in the hands of bandits. ’aube [1997]

[1997] Thierry Colombié: Economic and social impact of poppy growing on the Yanacona Community in the heart of the Colombian mountains /: Impact économique et social de la culture du pavot sur la Communauté des Yanaconas au sein du Massif Colombien  MOST [1996 publicado 1997]

[1997] Ricardo Varga, Colombia: The Heresy of the Manicheans, "Alongside the emergence of a new social sector arising from the drug economy in Colombia, has been an increase in the use of violence against those State officials most committed to applying justice. In effect, judges and magistrates, police, high-ranking functionaries and innocent bystanders have been assassinated, as drug traffickers attempt to force the State to reverse its position allowing for extradition to the US of arrested drug traffickers. This wave of violence, however, did not constitute the greatest cost that Colombian society has paid in terms of the effects of the emergence of drug trafficking on the country's socio-economic structure." TNI, April 1, 1997

[1998] The FARC submitted a proposal to put an end to the narcotics traffic in Colombia . The FRAC proposes setting up a Pilot Project for substituting crops in Cartagena del Chairá (10,000 inhabitants). The government and the FARC would set up a “Common Control Board” to prevent further planting of coca and build basic infrastructure. It would require hiring experts to carry out soil studies for planting legal crops. International observers would monitor the project every 6 months. The FARC foresee a 5-year project. If the results are successful, this project could be replicated nationwide. The funding for this project would come from the Colombian government, the United States, France, Italy, Germany and the United Nations.

[1998] From Washington to Puerto Wilches _Plan Colombia Document orginally in English and translated by the Pastrana Govenrment [1998] 

Las FARC tienen un plan simple para la eliminacion del narcotrafico en colombia [1998]

[1998] Santiago Villaveces Izquierdo Why Do We Eradicate?: Bulwarks of Power, Culture and Narcotics Traffic In 1997, the Guambiano indigenous community of Silvia (Cauca), in Southwestern Colombia, invited Alternative Development Plan (PLANTE) authorities help them incorporate government sponsored crop-substitution strategies into the resguardo’s[1]development plan. In October of the same year, I was called on by the Director of the PLANTE -a program ascribed to the Colombian presidency and designed to implement illicit-crop substitution programs-  to explore the voluntary eradication process being carried out by this community. For three consecutive months, and following a series of interviews with local and regional Plante authorities as well as with members of the indigenous communities, the effort to understand started to take form and the reasons and motives behind the community’s decision for initiating eradication came to fore in response to the question of whether it was a result of the Plante’s advertising campaigns -which emphasized the moral cost of planting coca and poppy- or rather the result of local struggles both in the political and cultural arena. […]As of the beginning of 1997, the Guambiano case was already well known by the public at large. For the bureaucracy in Bogotá, the Guambiano experience was just one more example of the achievements of public officials’ efforts towards implementing Plante strategies within the framework of administrative and financial decentralization policies being promoted by the National Planning Department since 1988. Voluntary eradication in this indigenous resguardo was shown as the result of the bargaining power held by regional and local public officials whom -in active dialogue with the indigenous authorities- had managed to convince the latter of the economic benefits that would result from crop substitution (soft loan opportunities, land acquisition, continued technical assistance, and others). [1998] (full article in Spanish)

[1998] Jorge Orlando Melo The Drug Trade, Politics and The Economy: The Colombian Experience For Colombians today, drugs are probably the phenomenon which has had the greatest impact on national life. In different ways and with varying degrees of accuracy, all kinds of effects are attributed to the drug trade. For some, one of the main causes of the upward trend of the economy over the last 20 years has been the resources generated by the drug trade. For others, the violence, which has affected the country to a degree unparalleled in any society not at war, is primarily attributable to the large groups of criminals created by the narcotics industry. The destruction of the judicial system, customary impunity for criminal offenders and growing corruption are usually attributed to the influence of the drug traffickers. Many believe that the money and resources have in their turn allowed drugs to influence popular culture, the management of the media, political campaigns and parties, and the distribution of power in general. It is not only foreign journalists or US government rhetoric that characterise Colombia as a “narco-democracy”. Every day Colombians see on the news how Congress, mayors from remote regions, the judicial system or the bureaucracy are penetrated, influenced and directed by the “narcos”.

[1997] Criminality generates direct physical and human capital and natural resources economic costs in addition to the uncertainty which generates additional indirect costs. For the 1991-1996 period the gross urban criminality and armed conflict costs were estimated at 24.5% of the country’s GDP while the net costs represented 17.6% of the GDP which is the equivalent 2.9% of the yearly GDP. [1998] Edgar Trujillo y Martha Elena Badel: Los costos económicos de la criminalidad en Colombia: 1991-1996  (en mamacoca) [March 10, 1998]

[1998] Juan Gabriel Tokatlian: "Tokatlian tries to establish the relationship between the existance of illegal business of psicoactive drugs, of various and powerful criminal groups linked to this business and the consequences for the perception of National Security in the Colombian case. Thus, he sets the colombian "strategic dilemma" in a double dimension: an absolute confrontation with the organized narco-crime weakens to the national government, but to elude the fight against drug dealers weakens Colombia in the international sphere." Seguridad nacional y drogas ilícitas: ¿un vínculo real o un problema abierto? Una reflexión a partir del caso de Colombia. Chile, FASOC, Año 13, N1 2, abril-junio, 1998

[1998] CRS: Nina M. Serafino for Congressional Research Service : Colombia: The Problem of Illegal Narcotics and U.S. - Colombian Relations  The Colombian government billed 1996 as “a year of significant progress” in its war on drugs, and claims that “Colombia has done more than any other single country to combat drug trafficking.”16 It states that it spent $1.3 billion on counternarcotics efforts during 1996, up from $900 million the previous year. It also: carried out eradication spraying over 73,581 acres of coca and poppy; confiscated 1.35 million pounds of coca leaf, 124,575 pounds of pure cocaine and base, and more than $400 million in assets; and destroyed “more narcotics processing labs, clandestine airstrips, and transportation infrastructure than ever before”. In addition, the Colombian government enacted new asset forfeiture laws “intended to bankrupt narcotics traffickers,” implemented new laws on money laundering, and concluded a new maritime understanding and eradication verification protocols with the United States. [Updated May 11, 1998]

[1998] Constanza Ramírez At first it was the Muzo and Otanche Emeralds Networks which became involved in the cocaine traffic. in Peru and Bolivia, countries where coca has traditionally been grown. Based on their experience with emerald trafficking they decided to use their distribution and supply networks to trade in coca paste or refined cocaine. Conflicto agrario y medio ambiente en “Cultivos Ilícitos y Medio Ambiente”, Revista Foro No. 35 Foro por Colombia [September 1998]

[1998] FOIA/CIA Colombian Paramiliaries Assuming a Higher Profile (en mamacoca) [31 de agosto 1998]

[1998] José Jairo González Arias: Speaks of the cocalero and “raspachines (poppy latex collectors) peasant marches and how their protest is tied to the vicious way in which territorial property holding in Colombia has been constituted and how Peasant Reservation Areas (Zonas de Reserva Campesina) could contribute to finding a plausible way out. Cultivos ilícitos, colonización y revuelta de raspachines, Revista Foro No. 25 [septiembre1998]

[1998] Luis Jorge Garay: As opposed to the previous stage, when the war was regionlized an about a certain group of surpluses, the current war is expaning countrywide in the search for a new surplus which is now available in the country, drugs, coca and poppy. El excedente económico de la droga, un gran motor de guerra: ". en Entrevistas de Guillermo Solarte Lindo  "No ha pasado nada Una mirada a la guerra" [octubre 1998]

[1998] GAO: Drug Control: Status of U.S. International Counternarcotics Activities (Testimony, 03/12/98, GAO/T-NSIAD-98-116).  [3 de diciembre 1998]

[1998] Ricardo Vargas Meza: Colombia The Heresy of the Manicheans "The most important social, political, and economic effects of drug trafficking in Colombia have been the impact f new social groups on the transformation of the agrarian structure, acquiring more than three million hectares of prime lands; their role in financing the dirty counterinsurgency war; their potential influence in accelerating the State’s tendency to privatize repressive forces, and their impact on the phenomenon of impunity, feeding into the void of institutionality and State legitimacy in Colombia."  [1998]  

[1998] Patricia McRae Impact of the Illegal Narcotics Trade on Economic and Legal Institutions in Colombia: "The first formal and legal institutional mechanisms to capture narco-profits were put into place in 1985. These represent the first documented effect of the INT on Colombian economic institutions. Prior efforts were accomplished by presidential decrees frequently issued during a state of siege. The Colombian Congress authorized a special bond issue to repatriate narcoprofits  through the purchase of government bonds traded on the international market. This did little to enhance Colombia's international image as it sought additional credits to manage its national debt. Moreover, there was a growing tension between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the GOC as efforts by Betancour and later Barco to reform income tax legislation were rejected by Congress or deemed unconstitutional by the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice."   [1998]  

[1998] Eugene Oscapella : In some cases, the ties between drugs and weapons seem coherent form one country to another. Occasional illicit drug consumers who are not involved in the drug trade, for example, do not own more weapons than do non-consumers., nor do they use weapons more frequently than no consumers. La rélation entre les drogues illicites et les armes à feu Un examen de la documentation  (en mamacoca) [1998]

[1998] Mayra Hornbacher Wasted A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, (Note: Ilegal?) Harper_ 1998

[1998] Aurelio Díaz Hoja :  Recreational intranasal use of cocaines hydrochloride ―and also of coca paste, although the latter is less frequent― characterized by a low level of consumption (non-daily frequency and amounts which do not exceed a gram per month) tied exclusively to partying and intermittent sociability and which is easily interrupted at the first sign of slight problems, or when use tends to increase, activating an effective regulating and control mechanism characterizes a certain social urban middle class group; a sector which is normalized and integrated and which shares a certain view on leisure: they prefer the nightlife. This type of drug use is relatively common amongst this group of users and does not pose a problem of excesses to them. If this type of drug use maintains its characteristics, goals which are easily achieved by these users for long stretches of time, the risks are minimal. Pasta polvo y roca -El consumo de los derivados de la coca ". Profesor titular Antropología Social y Cultural de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) , 1998

1998] Eric Blumenson & Eva S. Nilsen : Policing for Profit: The Drug War’s Hidden Economic Agenda "We believe the strange shape of the criminal justice system today—the law enforcement agenda that targets assets rather than crime, the 80 percent of seizures that are unaccompanied by any criminal prosecution,21 the plea bargains that favor drug kingpins and penalize the “mules” without assets to trade". Suffolk University Law School Suffolk University Law School Faculty Publications Paper 4 [Year 1998] in Forfeiture Endangers Amercian Rights (FEAR)

[1999] Juan Guillermo Ferro Medina The FARC and their Relationship with the Coca Economy in Southern Colombia Testimonies of Frontiersmen and Guerrilla Fighters “Much has been speculated about the relationship between the FARC and Colombia’s Coca economy. The aim of this study is to review this relationship from a regional perspective (the Caquetá Department); an historical viewpoint (the past 20 years); and on the basis of the testimonies of the protagonists of this relationship (colonos [frontiersmen/settlers] and guerrilla fighters.) The territorial location, chronological follow-up, and live testimonies of these social actors has allowed for an understanding of this complex relationship, or at least, for an alternative comprehension of the “events” as compared to the reductionist, sensationalist or even moralist discourse typically expounded by national and international mass media. […] The link between guerilla groups and Coca leaf cultivation is one of the most heated and complex issues as concerns political analyses regarding the FARC and therefore an extremely relevant issue in order to understand the difficulties encountered by Colombia’s current peace talks. Indicative of this pertinence are the two contradictory thesis regarding this relationship. The first one holds that the FARC has considerably expanded on a political and military level since it started becoming involved with Coca crops. The second sustains that , if it weren’t for the link FARC-Coca, this guerrilla group’s political standing would be much more advantageous..[...]This article analyzes how, in fact, the repercussions of this relationships differ depending on whether we take into consideration only Coca-growing regions, or the country as a whole. We, for our part, believe that the FARC’s decision to allow Coca cultivation meant both widening their scope of legitimacy -with some ups and downs- with growers while, on the other hand, it implied a loss of legitimacy with other actors and in general, in the eyes of the general public which is outside of this circuit. This study deals with the regional -as opposed to the national- expression of this problem in the Southern part of Colombia. […]Furthermore, we believe that the FARC’s relationship with Coca crops is a dynamic and changing one as of modes of intervention which have not always been one and the same. In order to address the changing nature of this relationship our analysis is carried out in stages, which are developed throughout this text. Finally, the last part of this article analyzes and shows the FARC’s versión and the colonos cocaleros’ versión regarding the implications for the FARC of their different forms of intervention in Coca crop economy.

[1999] Roberto Steiner and Alejandra Corchuelo Economic and Institutional Repercussions of the Drug Trade in Colombia “The influence of drug trafficking on Colombia’s economy and society is undeniable. The export of illegal drugs (ID) brings considerable sums of hard currency into Colombia. In addition, local spending by the owners of this hard currency has secondary and regional effects, which cannot be ignored. This study carries out a careful review of specialized literature dealing with the economic effects of drug trafficking. It shows that the collateral effects of drug trafficking – “Dutch disease”, contraband, land tenure concentration, disincentives to domestic and foreign investment, and changes in key relative prices – far outweigh the positive effects that tend to be emphasized in the mass media. […] Certainly, other effects of the illegal drug trade, aside from those purely economic, are entirely negative. Illegal drugs have played a key role in turning Colombia into one of the most violent countries in the world, where corrupt practices abound and the administration of justice works in a precarious fashion. […] In addition, drug trafficking has strengthened the most violent participants in the armed conflict that Colombia has been suffering for more than forty years. As if this were not enough, the Colombian government has set aside a high percentage of the national budget to fight this plague at all levels, thereby neglecting key responsibilities in the areas of health, education, and infrastructure. Any objective evaluation of this topic must conclude that, aside from a few short-term economic benefits, Colombia is perhaps the main victim of the illegal drug trade. CEDE- Universidad de los Andes , December, 1999

[1999] José Jairo González Arias and Luis Hernando Briceño The Poppy Scenario in Southern Tolima In a broad sense, the Southern Tolima region is made up of municipalities of Ataco, Chaparral, Planadas, Rioblanco, which constitute the two river basins covered by the Alternative Development Plan (PLANTE) regionalization strategy for intervention in this region; together with the municipalities of Coyaima and Natagaima. […]The region is inhabited by approximately 22 indigenous communities -the Coyaimas- Natagaimas and Paeces- living in the municipalities of Ortega, San Antonio, Chaparral, Planadas and Rioblanco. The total population of these 10 municipalities is 263,268 inhabitants (approximately 20% of overall department population). The municipalities cover an area of approximately 10,354 km2, 44% of the Tolima department’s territory. […]The region’s historical configuration process has been associated -since the outset of its colonization and settlement- with multiple ethnic and agrarian conflicts, with bipartisan violence, and with the insurgent and counterinsurgent war which is still raging today. […]According to the surveys and interviews carried out with the community within the framework of this study, people in this region started growing poppy, in a disperse manner, between 1984 and 1989. Afterwards, between 1990 and 1995, the phenomenon becomes more widespread and significantly involves over 20 veredas from Planadas. The field work for this study is based on this group of veredas divided into 7 epicenters. […]Several factors contributed to the development of poppy growing in the the Southern Tolima, in particular, the region’s biodiverse conditions; existing social structures; its links with other illicit crop-growing areas; and the peasant economy crisis. Some authors point out that, for this region, the coffee crisis was a determining factor. This study, however , adds precision to this argument by stating that the truly determining factor was the crisis suffered by the peasant economy, above all if we consider how the local is inscribed within the regional whole. […]In short, as of 1990 and after the appearance of poppy, colonization figures increased dramatically and an average of up to 2,000 hectares of forest and stubble were destroyed per year. This situation persists more or less up to 1996, period at which there is a poppy crisis as of recurrent aerial fumigation and the tendency towards declining latex prices. Escenario amapolero en el sur del Tolima [full article in Spanish] 1999

[1999] Carlos César Perafán The Impact of Illicit Crops on Indigeneous People -The Colombian Case -Report of sound practices This publication is a summary of a study concerning the impact of illicit crops on indigenous communities in Colombia. It was carried out within the framework of field work done for the Alternative Development Plan (PLANTE). Perafán’s study was sponsored by the PLANTE and is based on studies carried out as part of the preparatory field studies financed by the UNDP. A preliminary version of this study was presented at the seminary held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington on December of 1997. […] The subject of illicit crops and indigenous communities deserves special attention since it illustrates -within a very particular context- the reality faced by most indigenous peoples which, while becoming a part of consumer societies, concurrently maintain their own particular forms of organization and values. Washington D.C. January 1999 No. IND 106 [full article in Spanish]

[1999] UNODC Global Illicit Drug Trends 1999 [1 de junio 1999]

Latin America/Caribbean/European Union: First Summit / Declaration of Rio de Janeiro /PRIORITIES FOR ACTION Press Release: Brussels (29-06-1999)

[1999] Paul Gootenberg (Ed) Cocaine Global Histories, Prologue by Ethan Nadelmann Routledge, 1999

[1999] Pierre Salama: Drugs and Economy in the Andean Countries, Methodological Approaches,  Tiers Monde [1999]

[1999] US Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control [1999- on_search]

[1999] Aura María Puyana. Although the hypothesis according to which the guerrilla is stronger in those territories where there are illicit crops, this does not prove that there is no ideological nor political relationship and with what is a primarily economic issue. In Corporación Observatorio para la Paz: Las verdaderas intenciones de las FARC, Ana María Puyana: "Verdades y mentiras de las cifras en el conflicto armado y en los cultivos ilícitos",  Intermedio, [1999]

[2004f] Alain Labrousse : Colombia: The Role of Drugs in the Territorial Expansion of the FARC-EP (1978-2002) At the beginning of the 1980s when coca growing began to expand in FARC-controlled lands, FARC leaders’ first reflex was, as Marxists, to oppose drugs as a product of capitalist degeneration… : /Colombie : le rôle de la drogue dans l’extension territoriale des FARC-EP (1978-2002), , Hérodote 1/2004 (N°112) , p. 27-48

[2000] Alvaro Camacho y Andres Lopez Perspectives on Narcotics Trafficking, Marijuana, coca and poppy growing is an issue which has aroused considerable controversy in Colombia. This is not surprising. The narcotics traffic, phenomenon to which illicit-crop growing owes its complexity and significance, constitutes the most outstanding feature of what Fernand Braudel would term Colombia's current historical conjuncture. Indeed, the speed with which the narcotics phenomenon has developed since the mid 1970s has precipitated radical changes in Colombia's economy, society, politics and culture; and has largely contributed to fashioning the country's current national profile. […]Drug trafficking has compounded the preexisting institutionalized social and political violence in Colombia by injecting it with its own brand of terrorism and mass assassination of opponents, competitors, officials and political and social activists. It has fueled the creation and/or consolidation of professional criminal organizations entrusted with settling accounts, eliminating obstacles and increasing the enormous profits to be had from this business. Gunmen recruited by narcotics traffickers have raised the homicide rates in some cities and enlisted large numbers of young people from the poorer quarters as sicarios (hired killers), and for general delinquency purposes. These youngsters are now facing the serious difficulty of freeing themselves from these activities.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society [2000]

[2000] A Putumayo Without Coca, With Social Development and Without Fumigation This document contains the proposal and engagement of the Putumayo Governor's Office for " Herein we make known our interest in directing, from a social viewpoint and through global co-responsibility, the policies of eradicating coca cultivation in the Putumayo.[2000] Productive Projects

[2000] Pierre Salama The Economy of Narco-Dollars: From Production to Recycling of Earnings “For an economist, the problems presented by the production, sale, and, use of drugs both reveal the limits of his discipline and strongly encourage the study of such problems, The object of study is poorly defined, its measurement is to say the least, difficult and often 'folkloric', the behavior of the dealers is relatively unknown, and their possible change in status is difficult to determine. […] The object of study is poorly defined precisely because its definition depends on a prohibition that varies according to the country and period of time. The consumption of coca leaf is authorized in certain countries, but forbidden in most. Trafficking is prohibited in certain countries, while the use of drugs is not repressed in others. The amount of variation is considerable and little is known about its modalities: the differentiation can be horizontal or vertical, according to the kind of products and above all to the degree of purity, which itself varies according to the forms of repression and the fluctuation in prices. Quality therefore is difficult to assess, the variation not being defined before the act of sale by the dealers. Likewise, little is known about substitution in products, which depends upon the differentiated change in prices, the amount of dependency, and the changes in the cultural context. The rapid rise of synthetic products-new chemical cocktails-is significant; their use has substituted in part for the use of natural drugs, which are made from plants converted by the help of chemicals, and they are often mixed with these natural forms. The distinction between what is medicinal(thus legal because administered by prescription) and what is not, is not always an easy one, especially if these substances help increase performance, such as speed and endurance. The professionalization of sports and the extraordinary commodification of this domain leads naturally to the "doping" of athletes, Drugs become, therefore, a part of the reproduction of the workforce of athletes. The strong inflow of these substances is revealing of profound societal problerns, but also of the difficulties that arise in defining what is a drug and what is a medicine and of the limits and often arbitrariness of the law. These represent old problems since they were encountered many times during the international discussions concerning legalization at the end of the last century ( concerning opium primarily) and at the beginning of this one. But there are also new problems in this debate, since it is now a question of synthetic substances the short- and long-terms effects of which are difficult to determine on the health of those who try multiple cocktails composed of more or less mysterious substances. Published in International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. Vol. 14, No 1, 2000

Emperatriz Cahuache Casado  Indigenous Peoples, Irreplaceable Actors  [full article in Spanish] October 2000

[2000] Cesar Ortiz: The Ministry of Environment informs that, from 1984 to 1998, over 900,000 tons of chemical precursors were discharged into water sources that which together with the impact of aerial spraying consolidate the second conflict which has still to be sufficiently assessed. La evolución de la política de Desarrollo Alternativo en Colombia, Impacto de los cultivos ilícitos en el desarrollo rural en América Latina,  Pontificia Universidad Javeriana,  Seminario Internacional, Bogotá, Colombia. [agosto de 2000]

[2000] Darío Fajardo Montaña Las Zonas de Reserva Campesina In August 1994 Law 160 was passed in an attempt at promoting a new version of an agrarian reform in Colombia. On this occasion the intent is to redistribute land, not through State intervention as was the case with Law 135 of 1961, but by via of an “assisted market” a mechanism previously implemented in countries where political, rather than technical or economic, conditions hindered land-property regulations and where land distribution continues to act against a rational organization of agricultural economics. According to Fajardo, the Peasant –Farmers’ Reservation Areas (Zonas de Reserva Campesina ZRC) can be a regional development strategy, an instrument to counter forced displacement, an agrarian reform component, first and foremost inside the agricultural frontier, if the State guarantees the property rights of the members of these communities. Darío Fajardo Montaña: Las Zonas de Reserva Campesina:  ¿Estrategia de Desarrollo Regional y contra el Desplazamiento? [April 2000]

[2000] Mauricio Romero: Political Democratization and Paramilitary Anti-Reform Strategy in Colombia “This paper deals with the emergence of paramilitarism and the so-called “self-defense” groups in the context of democratization initiated in 1982 with the peace negotiations between the government and the guerrilla, the political liberalization, the subsequent decentralization an the first municipal elections which were held in 1987. The article situates these phenomena as part of a broader confluence of opposition to any reforms signifying a redistribution of power and wealth in the Colombian rural area.” Democratización política y contra reforma paramilitar en Colombia [2000]

[2000] Jorge Iván González Jorge Iván González Narcotráfico, economía especulativa y violencia El caso colombiano durante los noventa In the 1990s Colombian economy grew in a speculative way. The bubble burst in 1998. This process benefitted the financial sector and capital markets which could the focus on intermediation and trade activities. The growing current account deficit of the balance of payments was accompanied by a continuous flux of international capital markets. The value of the peso was strengthened and imports increased. Domestic industry and agriculture lost competitiveness…, Profesor U. Nacional,  Colloque organisé par le GREITD, l’IRD et les Universités de Paris I (IEDES), Paris 8 et Paris 13   «Mondialisation économique et gouvernement des sociétés : l’Amérique latine, un laboratoire ? » Paris, 7-8 juin 2000 Narcotráfico economia especulativa y violencia El caso colombiano durante los noventa /tomado de GREITD[7 de junio 2000]

[2000] Manuel Marulanda Vélez -FARC-EP Proposal to the Special Hearing attended by 21 countries. Illicit-Crop Substitution Planning Mechanisms Municipality of Cartagena del Chairá (Caquetá). A FARC 5-year proposal to cooperate in the eradication of illicit crops through the building of directive and participatory mechanisms with the inhabitants interested in substituting illicit crops. Planificación de mecanismos para la sustitución de cultivos ilícitos Propuesta e plan piloto para Cartagena del Chairá sometida por las FARC dentro del marco de los diálogos de paz San Vicente del Caguán [16 de junio 2000]

English  proposal updated on November 2013: Pilot project for the substitution of coca crops /(in mamacoca

[2000] Luz Elba Torres Guevara  Peasant costs for producing coca in the Caguan Caqueta Region of Colombia Costos de la produccion de coca a nivel campesino en la region del Caguan, Caqueta – Colombia.  un analisis comparativo CLACSO  (en mamacoca) agosto 2000]

[2000] CIA/FOIA Colombia: Burgeoning Coca Industry in Norte de Santander [17 de agosto 2000]

[2000] Fernando Cepeda ~En 1990, César Gaviria came to power and clearly distinguished narco-terrorism from narcotics trafficking . The former, he said, is Colombia’s responsibility which it is successfully confronting with the policy of surrender of the capos to Colombia’s Judicial System. The latter, the narcotics traffic, is the International Community’s co responsibility.: La política exterior de Colombia y la internacionalización del proceso de paz”,  Revista del Centro Andino de Estudios Internacionales(2002)  

 [2000] Jean-Claude Grimal The drug economy is rapidly developing together with all of the aspects of globalization: from producer countries, which are generally poor but can make unprecedented if small earnings, to the respectable rich institutions in industrialized countries that recycle the drug money, the circuits go global making the dividing line between the legal and illegal economy increasingly blurred. Drogue L’autre mondialisation Gallimard [2000]

[2001] Henry Salgado Ruíz Social Pacts in the South: An Excuse for War? The populations in the Amazon have been the target of militaristic actions under the Plan Colombia; scapegoats for the US and Colombian governments’ geopolitical and military strategy. The first repercussions of this aggression against the Colombian people are felt particularly in the department of the Putumayo. The number of people who have been thrown off of their lands and out of the country due to chemical fumigation and armed conflict are alarming. In the year 2000, 9,698 people were displaced from Colombia into Ecuador. From the end of 1999 up to September 2001, 7.443 people have been forced to emigrate to the Nariño department. The program for aiding populations affected by forced crop eradication had assisted up to 38.038 people by August 2001. However, the scope of the problem goes way beyond these “figures”, which are not complete. Currently, armed conflagration in Colombia has grown and paramilitarism is expanding; aerial chemical fumigation had been halted, but only temporarily, as of the “social pacts” signed by the communities -under the threat of government-sponsored aerial fumigation- according to local leaders, “...the communities signed these pacts hoping this would be the means to stop renewed fumigation and its lethal consequences”. Actualidad Colombiana. Year XIII No 325, November 14 – 28, 2001, Bogotá D.C. [full article in Spanish]

Report Forum: “Alternative Development in the Andean Countries” The event, carried out on May 24 and 25, 2001 in the Colombian Senate upon the initiative of Senators Rafael Orduz and Juan Manuel Ospina with the cooperation of the UNDP and the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the following participants: Simonnetta Gras (UNDCP, Colombia and Ecuador Office), Carlos Gustavo Cano (IICA, Perú Office), Alejandro Reyes (IEPRI, National University of Colombia)), Darío Fajardo (IDEA, National University of Colombia), Waldo Tellería (Viceminister of Alternative Development, Bolivia), Oswaldo Antezana (AID, Bolivia), Hugo Cabieses (CEPES, Perú), Wenceslao Villa (Programs Sub-director, PLANTE), Yamile Salinas (Delegate Ombusdsman for the Environment and Collective Rights), Parmenio Cuellar (Governor of Nariño) and Cliff Brown (AID, Colombia). […] The European Union accepts the co-responsibility principle in addressing drug control. From this standpoint and wondering how to make this principle a fact, Germany supports alternative development programs through international cooperation. To this end, the Colombian Embassy in Germany and the Hanns Seidel Foundation have joined efforts to carry out a profound analysis of diverse alternative development experiences in the Andean countries. This support is extremely important for Colombia which is in the middle of a peace process that must necessarily take this debate into consideration. Report made by Senator Rafael Orduz’s legislative working group [full report in Spanish

[2001] Bruce Michael Bagley :Globalization and Transnational Organized Crime: The Russian Mafia in Latin America and the Caribbean “The purpose of this paper is to examine the scope and impact of the post-Cold War wave of Russian transnational organized crime in one region of the global system: Latin America and the Caribbean. Although the evidence currently available in the public realm is primarily journalistic and often anecdotal, it is, despite these limitations, sufficient to support the conclusion that the linkages or “strategic alliances” between various Russian organized crime groups and major transnational criminal organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2001 were already substantial and expanding rapidly. Moreover, it raises the specter that, at least in some key countries in the region (e.g., Colombia, Mexico and Brazil), the alliances between home-grown and Russian criminal organizations may provide domestic criminal and/or guerrilla groups with access to the illicit international markets, money-laundering facilities and illegal arms sources that could convert them into major impediments to economic growth and serious threats to democratic consolidation and long-run stability at home. School of International Studies , University of Miami , Coral Gables, Florida , October 31, 2001

[2001] Pierre Salama:Cocaine: Counting and Miscounting The nature of cocaine is such that it can encompass a wide range of elements: economic, political, social and symbolic all in one. The economic, considering the enormous sums at stake; the political lured by this rich manna; the social thanks to the monetary fallout and the bonds of clientelism which can be funded by these sums; and last but not least, the symbolic element as of traffic-engendered sublimation of violence. Prohibition of production and consumption make drugs a source of enrichment and violence. Riches for traffickers, and for those they buy off to the credit of interdiction and repression. Sumptuary expenditures, distribution of a part of the earnings as manna to those in « bondage » and those who are yet to be purchased. Violence between traffickers, and against the state which it eats up; violence in the marketing of cocaine; violence as these monies suffer their metamorphosis into laundered riches; and ultimately, violence and corruption, two closely tied and complementary elements. In short, anomie. Text for the international forum -Criminalization of Power and the Drug Traffic- held in Gualdalajara and sponsored by the University of Gualdalajara and the Greitd-cluny . Article published in French in Recherches Internationales No.2 2001. [read more]

[2001] Carlos Mario Perea Restrepo A Circle Means Respect and Power Gangs and Violence in Bogotá Colombia is a country of manifold violences. Perpetrators of violence have molded the nation’s history throughout the past century. As of the end of the 1940s, armed confrontation of all sorts has indeed been forging the passage -through peace and conflict issues- of the country’s political forces. Meanwhile, not one of its governments has failed to use violence as the axis of its governance. The 21st century is born under the sign of violence in the midst of a civil war whose peaceful settlement is not yet in sight. Since that faraway period up until the end of the century, death’s tide has risen and ebbed, particularly in the 1960s when it declined without ever falling to the region’s average. Echoing the country’s accelerated process of profound structural modifications, this bloody struggle does all it can to hang on to the winds of the times. It thus turns the pájaro (Conservative government security forces in the 1950s) into a sicario (hired killer) , the bandolero (road bandit) into the guerrilla fighter, the soldier into a paramilitary recruit; as evidenced by a perpetual displacement from political conflict to street brawls, and from rural localities to urban turfs. […] In the face of such a motley panorama, several formulas to catalogue some type of order have been put forward, two of which have received special attention. The first distinguishes between political violence -which obeys to a collective project for changing society- and the remaining violences, tied to vested interests and economic ambitions and aspirations. The emergence of narcotics trafficking, a new actor with enormous resources moved by a search for profit without any public considerations, introduced the second formula: That of organizational capability as the discriminating element: on the one side stand those violent forces which have the potential to make an organization into an element for accumulating power, while spontaneous and daily forces -inorganic forces- remain on the other side of the tracks. Historian, professor of thel Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones nternacionales de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Iepri).

[2001] Carlos Gustavo Cano The Coffee Crisis in the Andean Region within the Framework of Alternative Development: A Proposal October 2001

[2001] María Clemencia Ramírez and Carmenza Mantilla Alternatives to Coca-Crop Cultivation for Regional Organizations in the Putumayo Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (ICANH) [full article in Spanishfrançais][2001]

[2001] Nasa : Executive Summary of Project "Socialization of the Coca Leaf" Aternartive use for food purposes -packaging as herbal tea [2001]

[2001] Ben Kohl and Linda Farthing The Price of Success: Bolivia’s War against Drugs and the Poor first appeared in North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Volume 31, Issue 1, July/August 2001  

[2001] Revista Semana The drug numbers according to Mancuso: Seven billion dollars a year would be the revenues received by Colombian economy from the narcotics traffic. The paramilitary drug lord Salvatore Mancuso, like any other businessman, takes stock of his business. This sum is more than what was paid for Bavaria (Colombian beer company), the largest of Colombia’s companies. Las cuentas de Mancuso [9 de enero 2001]

[2001] CRS: Issue Brief for Congress: Crime Control: The Federal Response, (en mamacoca) (Major Enactments) Statement of the Honorable Michele Leonhart, Administrator Drug Enforcement Administration, before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science And Related Agencies March 16, 2011 As the leader of DEA, an organization of almost 10,000 employees dedicated to a vital mission, I would like to express our collective appreciation for the support that this subcommittee has shown us over the years. Furthermore, I welcome the opportunity to continue our partnership and to share with you DEA’s recent accomplishments and our future plans to help protect the American people. DEA was established in July 1973 by President Nixon; his Executive Order created a single, unified command to combat illicit drug trafficking. [January 24, 2001]

[2001] Camilo Rubio Pardo: The Colombian State has not managed to reduce crop áreas in Colombia. Critics highlight the fac that incentives such as subsidies, soft loans or technical assistance what they do is incite non-growers to turn to these crops with the hope moving the government to look their way, as it has never done. Programs that encompass the whole community would make it desirable for non-growers to seek to attract government attention for the right reasons Aspectos relevantes de los cultivos ilicitos en el desarrollo rural: el caso de Colombia [2001]

[2001] Henry Kissinger: Is there a Road Out of Chaos? Plan Colombia “Unfortunately, the almost exclusive emphasis of Plan Colombia on a military solution virtually invites failure.”  in “Does America Need a Foreign Policy? Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century” , Sinom & Schuster, [2001]

[2001] Luis Fernando Ramírez  (Ministro de Defensa Nacional): I believe we should take a panoramic shot of the current situation in Colombia for the sake of posterity. As concerns the insurgency and counter-insurgency, there are approximately 16,000 guerrilla fighters and 5,000 militiamen in the FARC; a waning ELN but still 4,000 guerrilla and militiamen-strong, and a more recent but increasingly alarming fact is the presence of the illegal self-defense groups, erroneously-called paramilitary forces, with a little over 8,100 members. These are the 30,000 people who have a country of 40 million inhabitants in a state of checkmate. Seguridad y defensa en el conflicto y el proceso de paz: Una visión de las Fuerzas Militares en Fernando Cepeda Ulloa (Compilador) “Haciendo Paz Reflexiones y perspectivas del proceso de paz en Colombia”, Proyecto Houston -Embajada de Estados Unidos y Fundación Ideas para la Paz-  2001

2001] FARC-EP: Agrarian Reform The FARC initially rejected crops used for illicit purposes fearing their processes might become corrupted. The economic difficulties faced by peasants led them to reconsider the need to accept this option with the expectation that these crops would eventually be regulated. Ponencia de la Comisión Temática de las FARC-EP presentada en la Audiencia Pública, los Pozos, San Vicente del Caguán (en Salgado) [18 de agosto 2001]

[2001] Patricia Sacipa: As Colombia’s war gains momentum so does forced internal displacement of civilian rural inhabitants who have been affected by the territorial disputes as well as by the agrarian crisis. Forced displacement responds to divergent regional historical development and issues, as in the case of the regions where illicit crops are grown and where forced eradication policies are implemented. Desplazamiento forzado y política de erradicación de cultivos ilícitos, Scripta Nova,  Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad de Barcelona, Nº 94 (39), [1 de agosto de 2001]

[2001] Juan Guillermo Ferro y Graciela Uribe: The cocalero marches which occurred in Caquetá in 1996 show the difficulties of social emancipation in the Colombian context of war and illegal crops. Las marchas de los cocaleros del departamento de Caquetá, Colombia: contradicciones políticas y obstáculos a la emancipación social Ponencia presentada en el Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencia Política, del 9 de julio del 2002, Salamanca-España y en el VI Congreso "La investigación en la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana", octubre 30-noviembre 2 de 2001l.

[2001] Arlene B. Tickner: U.S. Foreign Policy in Colombia: Bizarre Side Effects of the “War on Drugs” Associate Professor, Universidad de los Andes, Paper presented at the Conference, “Democracy, Human Rights and Peace in Colombia”, Notre Dame University, March 26-27, 2001.

[2001] Kimberly Theidon: Practicing Peace, Living with War: Going Upriver in Colombia , “-It is disconcerting to share a hotel room with someone who needs to tell you in detail how he learned to use a machete to chop the human body up into unrecognizable chunks of flesh. Vladimiro’s military training showed not only in his butchering prowess, but also in his upright posture, an odd juxtaposition of perfect etiquette and lethal brutality.” October 30, 2001

[2001] ONDCP: III. Report on Programs and Initiatives -6. Reducing the supply of illegal drugs , 2001

[2001] The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: International Narcotics and Economics Drive U.S. Policy in Latin America, July 12, 2001

A Toast with Coca ...A Toast for Life On the 2nd of January 2001, in the city of Popayán, Departament of Cauca, Colombia, Floro Tunubalá, member of the indigenous Guambía community, was sworn in as Governor of the department. For the occasion, a toast was proposed with a drink prepared with Coca Leaves. The "Bloque Social Alternativo", a convergence of diverse social sectors which backed Floro's election, distributed the following text which Mama Coca wishes to present to its readers in homage to the age-old cultural valor which the indigenous peoples of this part of the Americas attribute to this Holy Plant —"MAMÁ COCA", we join our people in their toast.

[2000] Utopias La minga del Taita Floro, Año VIII,  No. 80 Noviembre 2000

Pierre Salama Drugs and Economy in the Andean Countries, Methodological Approaches When studying the weight of the aeronautic sector, for example, on overall national industry, we have figures on which to go on to analyze its influence on growth, its share in the country’s foreign exports balance, and to determine whether it has a significant impact on the country’s trade balance and foreign exchange rates. […] Illicit crop cultivation and processing is another matter. Their illicit nature makes it difficult to be able to count on precise statistics. The only available data comes from estimates based on observation and deduction, which are thus debatable. […] It is undoubtedly important to study, on the one hand, the macroeconomic effects of production and distribution of illicit products and, on the other, of repatriation of a portion of the proceeds from sales of these products abroad. Nonetheless, this is not easy to do. Possibly, sustained growth and low inflation rates in Colombia during the 1980s while most of the countries in Latin America where plummeting into inflationist or hyperinflationist disindustrialization owes it part to capital inflows from production and sale of illicit products. Similarly, but otherwise, Bolivia’s extremely high inflation until 1985 and Peru’s economic, social and political disaggregation were also conditioned by this activity. Inversely, Bolivia’s growth recovery ¾if weak¾ and relative control of price hikes is probably a byproduct of repatriation flows of laundered monies. These contrasts are an enigma and, as such, constitute a stimulating source of research in the quest for an answer to the relationship between drugs and a society’s structural changes as concerns its socio-economic, and accordingly, political realms. Published in Tiers Monde, [2002]

[2002] Daniel Samper Pizano A Hallucinated Plan for Hallucinogenics, El Tiempo, [2002]

[2000] Henry Salgado Ruiz One fo Salgado’s proposal is to defend biological and cultural diversity by structuring a special protection system for peasant, Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples’ knowledge, innovative and traditional practices, in compliance with the rights stipulated ILO Convention 169, Law 21 of 1991, and the Biological Diversity Convention, Propuestas para sustraer al campesinado del mercado ilegal de drogas (CINEP) [September 2002]

[2002] CRS: K. Larry Storrs and Nina M. Serafino Andean Regional Initiative (ARI): FY2002 Assistance for Colombia and Neighbors  (in mamacoca) reports for Congress [Updated February 14, 2002]

[2002] UNODC Colombia Coca Survey for 2001 [31 de marzo 2002]

Thierry Deffarges The cocaine economy : Elements of a quantitative and qualitative analysis.The cocaine economy is subject to imperfect and incomplete information due to its illegal nature. Besides, analyses of interactions between production and consumption are missing. The purpose of this article is thus methodological, empirical and theoretical. From a purely deductive method, the author seeks to assess the importance of cocaine supply and demanL'économie de la cocaïne. Éléments d'analyse quantitative et Qualitative, In: Tiers-Monde. 2002, tome 43 n°171. Trajectoires latino-américaines. Regards sur Cuba. (sous la direction de Rémy Herrera). pp. 639-664 Persée

[2002] CRS: Rensselaer Lee and Raphael Perl_ Issue Brief for Congress:  : Drug Control: International Policy and Options  (in mamacoca) "U.S. government figures released in early March 2002 indicate that both coca leaf cultivation and production of refined cocaine reached an all-time high in 2001, respectively at 223,700 hectares and 930 tons. Cultivation in Colombia alone increased 25% to 169,800 hectares, despite a massive coca spraying effort". [Updated March 18, 2002]

[2002] Hector Mondragón Renewed land concentration in Colombia (relatifundización) is a result of a conjunction of economic and political phenomena..Among other, paramilitary and armed conflict expansion has spurred population displacement and abetted land rights concentration in the hands of narcotics traffickers, land speculators and the paramilitary themselves. La economía rural y la guerra Mesas Ciudadanas para una Agenda de Paz Taller agrario y cultivos ilícitos”[5 de abril 2002]

[2002] Bernardo Pérez Salazar: Political Solution to Colombia’s Internal Conflict: Is there room to manoeuver? , artículo completo en español 2002

[2002] Vicariato Apostólico de San Vicente Puerto Lueguizamo This document is a preliminary study o fan exploratory nature which analyzes the physical –chemical properties of the Cocasa substrate. Cocasa is the substrate made up of coca leaves, cement, urea, bleach, gasoline and occasionally water with ammonia and sulphuric acid which is compressed and left in heaps generally near the homemade cocaine/PBC labs or in th worst of scenarios, dumped into the nearby water sources. The hope is to be able to make some use of this cocasa, possibly as a fertilizer. "Cocasa, ¿abono o veneno? Centro de Investigación Formación para el Servicio Amazónico (CIFISAM) [octubre 2002]

[2002] Juan Guillermo Ferro Medina There is still not enough agricultural research on the crops which can be used to substitute coca and the ensuing trading ventures. There is no ongoing sustainable and profitable agricultural process in the Amazon. The most successful attempts with rubber, cocoa, fruit trees and other products are still sporadic and short-term experiences Likewise, cattle ranching being developed in the Department poses enormous problems and there ar very few experiments with sustainable cattle grazing. Large cattle haciendas have destroyed the soil for agricultural purposes.Las FARC y los desafíos de la posguerra en el Caquetá [2002]

[2002] Luz Estella Nagle: The Challenges of Fighting Global Organized Crime in Latin America (Associate Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida) Fordham International Law Journal Volume 26, Issue 6 (en mamacoca) [2002]

[2002] Bernard Castelli: Narcotics traffickers increasingly resort to underground organizations charged with eliminating the economic and financial safeguards posed by the mass influx or narcodollars. These organizations vary in size depending on the profits , the laundering structure often used is a network since it is more efficient than conventional recycling criminal enterprises, grey or black markets, mafias…. These networks are initially not a part of the narcotics traffic, preferably a criminal protection structure of a polyvalent nature and a coherent system for the protection of illegal resources. Les réseaux de blanchiment de l'argent criminel en Amérique latine: de l'illégalité financière à la légitimité économique Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France) [2002]

[2002] Joseph Pouzoullic: The large-scale production of illicit crops (coca and poppy) is no longer in the hands of the narcotics traffic, powerful mafia organizations of the 1980s who controlled the whole of the market and whose most emblematic representative, Pablo Escobar, could say he was internationally famous. Today, the drug market is closely embedded into the country’s political life (thus the reason why Labrousse, Koutouzis, 1996 speak of a narcodemocracy). Les cultures illicites en Colombie : Les enjeux du développement alternatif dans une société en crise Mémoire de Dea  Géographie Tropicale  [Année Universitaire 2001-2002]

[2002] Mauricio Cortés Acosta  y Ana Mercedes Galvis Morales : This study presents, among other, a description of the social struggles and movements' dynamics and how these reflect the forming a of a regional identity which is the communities’ initiative to express, debate and find their own solutions to an issue that requires actions beyond the local sphere. We see the appearance on a Southern Colombia Regional Integration Initative proposing a sustainable development plan based on social, economic and institutional reconstruction. Cultivos ilícitos y conflicto armado en la región surcolombiana. “reintegremos los problemas para integrar la región”.

2002] Javier Marín y Alejandro Pulido: Some researchers point to coca as the latest colonization boom, that of the 1980s. We need, however, to put this phenomenon into the overall context of the social and economic breakdown brought about by oli exploration ventures. In this sense, what motivated coca processing and trafficking as opposed to legal productive activities, was the high salaries paid by the oil companies to which the region was not accustomed; the disorganized way in which the royalty revenues were invested in the municipality; the corruption they created at different levels; the greed and new lifestyles brought to the region and the bankruptcy of local traditional economies as well as the short-term duration of oil jobs, among other factors. Lo indígenas del Putumayo buscan recuperar la sustentabilidad de su cultura /  Conservación y Equidad Social [2002]

[2002] Gonzalo Uribe What is happening in Colombia with coffee production, the end of industrial crops and the atomization of plantings into smaller plots, is exactly the same thing that is happing with coca and poppy. The people bearing the burden of the small gains to be had are naturally the poorest peasants. Thus, for the coca or poppy entrepreneur, it is not a matter of the expanse of coca planted but more of the number of families who depend of his economic power through which he builds production and indebtedness ties . It is pertinent to speak, not of number of hectares, but of number of families. Sobre los cultivos industriales [2002]

[2003] MamaCoca Illicit Crops and Users’ Forum within the framework of the Thematic World Social Forums, Cartagena 2003

[2003] Paul Gootenberg: Between Coca and Cocaine: A Century or More of U.S.-Peruvian Drug Paradoxes, 1860 –1980 Hispanic American Historical Review, Duke University Press –brought by The Wilson Center [2003]

[2003] MamaCoca Wokshop: Independent Global Commission To assess "drug" policies and propose social alternatives Report, July14, 2003

[2003] Anthony Henman What does considering Coca a subject mean? Considering coca as a subject of history and not just as an object for our consumption, our needs, our interventions, our policies: This implies, firstly, the obligation of relieving coca of it reputation as a condemned plant; reputation which it does not deserve and which is, to boot, a view that we hold but which coca does not share. Secondly, this implies seeing it for what it is: a plant that needs water and soil, that looks to the sun and, like all other species, desires and seeks to reproduce. "Paz con la coca" Cartagena de Indias, Foro Social Temático  [septiembre 2003]

[2003] UNODC  Colombia Coca Survey  for 2002 [december 2002 and semi-annual estimate for June 2003  [25 de septiembre 2003]

[2003] María Mercedes Moreno  MamaCoca – Coca Law “ Coca as a development alternative. We deem in necessary to adress coca not as a problem but as a solution. We therefore propose a Bill which would distinguish a natural (vegetable) renewable resource ―Coca― from the chemical substance which is processed from it. This Bill would legalize the possession and consumption of Coca for uses other than extracting and processing its alkaloid to make cocaine.

[2003] Leonardo Apaza Ibañez Both Colombia and Bolivia’s National Constitutions lay down the diverse and pluralistic nature of their societies and thus the need to respect: firstly, human life; secondly, their citizens’ customs and traditions; and, thirdly, environmental conservation and protection and to seek the countries’ sustainable development. Comentario al proyecto de ley Colombiana:  “La Hoja de Coca Como Opcion de Desarrollo”  (Proyecto Mama Coca) _Investigador – DNAN Viceministerio de Cultura [octubre 2003]

[2003] Manuel Rodríguez Becerra: Coca and poppy crops are the greatest threat to Colombia’s environment and, in general, to that of the Andean Region. Razing frontier lands to plant coca and poppy is a significant cause of deforestation. The cycle of eradication via aerial spraying or substitution programs and the opening of lands beyond the agricultural frontier in order to replace the plantations eradicated, as well a tree felling to expand the number of hectares planted, has caused the destruction of native forests in different regions of the country. . Furthermore, the agrochemicals used to grow illicit crops and those chemicals used to process cocaine have an enormous adverse impact on water sources and soils in coca territories. Los cultivos ilícitos y el medio ambiente Presentado en el VIII Cátedra Anual de Historia “Ernesto Restrepo Tirado”.   [29 al 31 de octubre del 2003]

[2003] Francisco Elías Thoumi:  “Illegal Drugs Economy and Society” , Chapter 5: The Size of the Illegal Drug Industry,  Woodrow Wilson Center Preess & The Johns Hopkins University Press [2003]

[2003] PNUD  Taking narcotics out of the conflict: the war on drugs (on mamacoca) "Callejón con salida") Capt. 13 [2003]

[2003] UNimedios: Strategic Illicit Drugs and Narcotics Traffic Macro Project geared at building new public policy proposals that would take on co-responsibility, and, in line with what is proclaimed, a truly global approach on the issue by the society of nations. Alianzas necesarias [2003]

[2003] Juan Alvaro Echeverri Research Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá), 2003.

[2003] César Ortiz The impact of coca poppy and marihuana crops, called crops for illicit purposes, as well as that of the aerial spraying of glyphosate as a public policy aimed at eliminating these crops have profound environmental, social and agricultural repercussions. One of Ortiz’s graphs shows how coca crops are in fact, for the first time, simultaneously receding in the face of aerial spraying. This decrease in the area planted does not, however, mean less productivity. On the contrary, what can be noticed is a gradual increase in innovative technology, greater density in the planted areas, and improved processing techniques which allow for increased productivity of coca and its alkaloid; that which, in turn, implies greater environmental impact. Agricultura, cultivos ilícitos y medio ambiente en Colombia “Este documento vincula, como fuente empírica, los diferentes ejercicios realizados en el marco de la investigación financiada por Colciencias y la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, “La multidimensionalidad de los cultivos ilícitos, los casos de Puerto Asís (Putumayo) y Santa Rosa del Sur (Bolívar)”.. [2003]

[2003] Peter Cohen: Making Peace with Cocaine and Advancing form Harm Reduction to Harm Refusal , Cartagena FSMT September 3003

[2003] Patente (Numéro du brevet): 7105643 Monoclonal antibodies specific for crack cocaine metabolites, [30 de julio 2003]

[2003] Francisco E. Thoumi Illegal Drugs, Economy, and Society in the Andes , 2003 (in The Wilson Center)

[2003] Francisco Thoumi Anti-Drug Policies and the Competitive Advantage in Illegal Drugs “The growth of a clandestine drug industry is largely determined by the social structure of the country argues Francisco Thoumi, from the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University. Policies and direct interventions can only achieve moderate success if fundamental issues of social structure, and the role and function of the state remain un-addressed. The case of Colombia illustrates how policies derived from the international drug control system can produce perverse outcomes. Interventions at one stage in the coca production/trafficking chain only create incentives elsewhere.” [2003]

Out from the Shadows An estimated 300 people attended The First Latin American Legalization Summit, or Out from the Shadows Mérida, at the Autonomous University of the Yucatan in Mexico, February 12-15, 2003, including Mexican activists, national legislators and advocates throughout Latin America, Americans, Europeans, and numerous students and interested members of the community -- an historic, first of its kind, global summit calling for and end to drug prohibition. Though the event's primary focus was on legalization, the coca issue was also dealt with extensively. Among the important leaders from the cocalero movement were Felipe Quispe of the Bolivia Parliament and Nancy Obregon of Peru. Other events in this international legalization conference series included an institutional two-day event at the European Parliament in Brussels in September 2002 and a press conference with Canadian Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin in Washington in April 2003.

[2003] Alejandro Mejía -Consejo Nacional Agrario We have seen how severe the economic and social crisis that is affecting our territories is; how it aggravates poverty and violence in the country. We are in the face of a type of globalization imposed by the United State and other powerful countries through multilateral agencies such as the Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and the World Bank to the advantage of multinational companies. These companies are taking control of the world’s food supplies and production and over territories through their monopolistic appropriation and technological manipulation. They are seeking control over territories’ knowledge and genetic property and the political reform and repression measures they are imposing seek to guarantee this control and territorial domination. Mandato Agrario [8 de abril de 2003]

MamaCoca: Andean Amazon Forum- The first coca forum in Colombia. It brought together 300 coca growers from all of the Andean Amazon Region with international and national analysts and specialists in Popayán Foro Andino Amazónico (FAA)

[2004] Elmer Castaño Ramírez et al : Colombia went from being a drug trader to being the world’s largest drug producer, processor and distributor. Now, in 2002, Colombia is responsible for 59% of the region’s coca crops (see chart). Análisis Económico del Cultivo de la Coca Erytrhoxylum Coca en Colombia Revista Ideas Ambientales Universidad Nacional Manizales [enero 2004]

[2004] Juan Carlos Echeverry   Colombia and the War on Drugs, How Short Is the Short Run?,  CEDE Uniandes , tomado de: webpondo.org) [Febrero 2004] 

[2004] Rosinaldo Silva De Sousa “This article analyzes theoretical issues concerning the underground economy on the basis of an ethnographic study of the networks of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro. In this paper, drug trafficking is regarded as a sector of the illegal economy, based, according to the authoríties’ interpretation, on the rationalized use of violence, kinship and affective links and corruption.” Narcotráfico y economía ilícita: las redes del crimen organizado en Río de Janeiro Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales. Revista Mexicana de Sociología, año 66, núm. 1, [enero-marzo, 2004]

[2004] Emanuel L. Johnson, Dapeng Zhang and Stephen D. Emche: Inter- and Intra-specific Variation among Five Erythroxylum Taxa Assessed by AFLP “Background and Aims The four cultivated Erythroxylum taxa (E. coca var. coca, E. novogranatense var. novogranatense, E. coca var. ipadu and E. novogranatense var. truxillense) are indigenous to the Andean region of South America and have been cultivated for folk-medicine and, within the last century, for illicit cocaine production. The objective of this research was to assess the structure of genetic diversity within and among the four cultivated alkaloid-bearing taxa of Erythroxylum in the living collection at Beltsville Agricultural Research Center..

[2004] Note from the US Embassy demanding that all of the fugitive’s assets be handed over directly to the United States Nota de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Bogotá al Gobierno de Colombia con la solicitud de extradición del “Ajedrecista” Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela . Las confesiones secretas de Gilberto y Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, Editorial Oveja, 2005 [18 de febrero 2004]  

[2004] Claudia Tabares: This paper analyzes the strategies used by the United States and son European countries to counter illicit drugs and the consequences of these measures. Esquemas de cooperación internacional para enfrentar de los cultivos ilícitos,  (en mamacoca) Seminario Público  [mayo 2004]

[2004] UNODC Colombia Coca Survey for 2003  en  Colombia Coca Survey 2002 and Mid 2003 [junio 2004]

[2004] Joaquín Villalobos: There is a problem in the Caguán that has to be resolved which is that there is guerrilla and there is coca and the issue has to be addresses because if both are fought against simultaneously and the local populations are criminalizes the strategy against the FARC is sure to be a failure.  ¿Se está ganado la guerra? Caracol Radio, Caracol Televisión, Revista Semana, El Tiempo Bogotá, [28 de julio 2004]

[2004] U.S. Intelligence Listed Colombian President Uribe among "Important Colombian Narco-Traffickers" In 1991   sobre información desclasificada que revela nexos de  Alvaro Uribe Velez con el narcotráfico  "El documento sugiere que Álvaro Uribe Vélez tenía en ese entonces relaciones con el narcotráfico y el Cartel de Medellín, que su padre fue asesinado por sus relaciones con los narcotraficantes, que era amigo personal de Pablo Escobar y participó en la campaña que llevó a este a la Cámara de Representantes como segundo renglón de Jairo Ortega, y que, como Senador, Uribe se opuso al tratado de extradición. [30 de julio 2004] Full text of communiqué from the Colombian government (Casa de Nariño) - English [Unofficial English translation by Michael Evans]

[2004] Guillermo Andrés Ospina For the past decades, Colombia’s National Parks have been the target of privatization through colonization partly motivated by the demand for raw materials for illicit drugs markets. Secondly, these areas have been appropriated by armed groups as geopolitical scenarios in a territorial war and war over the narcotics trafficking routes; and, thirdly, these National Parks are the target of transnational policies designed within the global framework of “the war on drugs and terrorism” to the loss of the fundamental principles of local communities’ sovereignty and their right to locally manage their territories and natural resources. : Parques nacionales en el escenario de la guerra contra las drogas y el terrorismo: impactos sobre la gobernabilidad local en la política de participación social en la conservación - Colombia. “;Décimo congreso bienal de la asociación internacional para el estudio de la propiedad colectiva  Oaxaca-México, [9-13 de agosto de 2004]

[2004] Arlene Tickner  “This article argues that perceptions of insecurity and threat produced by Colombia in neighboring countries are not the result of the objective consequences of the regionalization of the Colombian crisis, but rather, depend largely upon internal political dynamics in each country and the ways in which their representatives articulate specific issues as security problems. Following a general conceptual discussion of security and securitization, the author explores the primary practices of securitization that have been employed by Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. This examination allows the article to conclude that the Colombian crisis and U.S. military policy in the region are two factors that currently determine the security dynamics in this zone.” La securitizacion de la crisis colombiana: bases conceptuales y tendencias generales,  Universidad de los Andes, Colombia Internacional[julio -diciembre 2004]

[2004] Vanessa Barclay Neumann The (In)coherence of US Foreign Policy in Colombia Disentangling the Maze is Plan Colombia the Panacea? “U.S. anti-drug policy is an interesting example of an intermestic policy (with domestic and international components), particularly since the drug frenzy around cocaine and crack use in the mid-1980s. Moreover, the U.S. war on drugs has been a “hot topic” in Presidential campaigns, namely those of Presidents George Bush and Clinton. It is therefore worthwhile to further explore the interaction between foreign and domestic affairs, by looking at the decisionmaking processes and diverse interests and stakes Université de Genève [2004]

[2004] Sandra Botero: Late and wihtout being invited is how Colombians came to the dicussion on the Plan Colombia. The Plan was submitted by Andres Pastrana’s government as a Plan for Peace, Prosperity, and the Strengthening of the State. In the light of the way it was made known and discussed and the transformations it suffered since its start in 1999, it would be pertinent to ask how Colombians view this Plan Colombia.  El Plan Colombia y los colombianos: crónica y consecuencias de la desinformación Universidad Nacional de Colombia (en UCentral /Universidad Central)[2004]

[2004] Jennifer S. Holmes  and Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres - “The Illegal Drug Industry, Violence, and the Colombian Economy: A Department Level Analysis” (on mamacoca) University of Texas at Dallas,  Bulletin of Latin American Research [2004]

[2004] Santiago Fandiño: Sandiño reviews the drug figures and comes to the conclusion regarding the need for an independent analysis and building a dialogue between nations with the purpose seeking co-responsible solutions.Conflicto, Desarrollo Agrario, Drogas Ilícitas Revisión bibliográfica Documento de trabajo No. 1 (en mammacoca)[2004]

[2004] Molly Charles:  Cannabis and Culture: Impact of Drug Policy on Drug Use and Drug Trade [2004]

[2004] Dr. Thomas Bauer  and Prof. Dr. Werner Schneider:  Illicit Crop Monitoring in Colombia -Review of the Methodology The report follows a visit to Colombia in August 2004, where a staff member of the Institute of Surveying, Remote Sensing and Land Information (IFVL) analyzed the methodologies applied by the team of SIMCI in situ. University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Landscape, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences [2004]

[2004] John Dickie « La mafia sicilienne de 1860 à nos jours » This book traces the history of the Scilian Mafia including the bloody rise of Corleone Family and the birth of the US.Mafia. Tempus, 2007 (2004) 

[2005] Comisión Segunda de la Cámara de Representantes: In the course of the past few years, Colombia has been supplying 70% of the cocaine distributed worldwide. Despite current policies, illicit crops are still there and, concurrently, the economic situation has degraded, partly due to the unsustainable levels of the country’s foreign debt. In the face of this situation, we need to design strategies and alternatives that would allow Colombia not only to struggle against the drug issue but to alleviate its foreign debt. Within this framework, this study aims to serve the Congress of the Republic as an academic tool which would allow it to address the discussion regarding the exchange of illicit-crop eradication for foreign debt. (in mamacoca) "Un Estudio de antecedentes sobre la viabilidad de implementar un posible pago de la deuda externa por erradicación de cultivos ilícitos en Colombia  [January 2005]

[2005] Francisco Thoumi: “A modest proposal to clarify the status of coca in the United Nations conventions”, The implementation of anti-drug policies that focus on illicit crops in the Andean countries faces many significant obstacles, one of which is the cultural clash it generates between the main stakeholders. On the one hand one finds the governments and agencies that attempt to implement crop substitution and eradication policies and on the other the peasant and natives communities that have traditionally grown and used coca or those peasants who have found in coca an instrument of power and political leverage that they never had before. The confrontation about coca eradication, alternative development and other anti-drug policies in coca growing areas transcends drug related issues and is part of a wider and deeper confrontation that reflects the long-term unsolved conflicts of the Andean societies. Crime, Law and Social Change, 42: 4-5, January 2005.

[2005] International Crisis Group "War and Drugs in Colombia" Latin America Repoort No.11 [27 de enero 2005]

[2005] Daniel Fonseca, Omar Gutiérrez y Anders Rudqvist : Cultivos de uso ilícito en el sur del Bolívar: aproximación desde la economía política, "As of its peasant origins and its long presence in the coca-producing regions, the FARC has a complex view on the narcotics traffic and coca production. ", Asdi/UNDP, [April 2005]

[2005] GTZ-David Mansfield “Development in a Drugs Environment: A Strategic Approach to ‘Alternative Development'  (on mamacoca) A Discussion Paper by the Development-oriented Drug Control Programme (DDC) [2005]

[2005] Alvaro Camacho Guizado (editor) Drug Trafficking: the Relations between Europe, Latin America and the United States en "Narcotráfico: las relaciones entre Europa, América Latina y Estados Unidos", Universidad de los Andes Centro de Estudios Socioculturales e Internacionales—CESO en Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) [24-26 de octubre 2005]

The Second Colombian Social Forum was decentralized. Five large events were carried out (Democracy; Cultural Identities- Natural Patrimony; Development Models Equality, Safety, Terrorisms and Violences; and Public Education Policy) – These were held in different regions of the country in order to allow for greater participation of regional networks and processes. The Froum tha was held in Santader de Quilichao Cauca addressed the Plan Colombia, aerial spraying and other Drug War policies. III Foro Social Colombia descentralizado Foro Social Santander de Quilichao – Encuentro Identidades Culturales - Patrimonios Naturales Bodega Alta - Caloto, Cauca [3, 4 y 5 de Noviembre de 2005]

[2005] Connie Veillette: Drug Crop Eradication and Alternative Development in the Andes, (WikiLeaks) CRS Report for Congress, [18 de noviembre 2005]

[2005] Women’s Peaceful March to Peace –Women’ words and resistance to Colombia’s armed conflict /Ruta Pacífica de Mujeres por la Paz  /in mamacoca) /Palabras representaciones y resistencias de mujeres en el conflicto armado colombiano  [diciembre 2005]

[2005] Juan Felipe Yepes González: Our goal is to describe the Program Family Forest Wardens in the Chaparral Municipality and, through an analysis of the conflict in the region, to try to understand the conflict’s dynamics and how the program affects this conflict. Programa Familias Guardabosques en el municipio de Chaparral. Análisis del conflicto, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana [2005]

[2005] Teresa Salazar  Analysis of feminine delinquence for drug use in the “penitentiary center for the Andes” Mérida-Venezuela 2005 -2006. “Drug traffic is a global problem that transcends individual, family and social spheres, affecting all countries with greater or lesser intensity. In this study, the State of Merida, Venezuela, does not escape this problem. Treatment of this situation is complex, more so when women, one of the fundamental axes of society, are involved, irrespective of the place they occupy in it. This is a transversal, descriptive and inferential field study, carried out in 2005-2006 regarding the demographic, family and social-economic characteristics of women in the Penitentiary Center of the Andean Region in Merida, Venezuela, who were involved in drug crimes, and the motivations for committing these crimes. These aspects were approached through a census. Significant contrasts were obtained regarding the motive for the crime and the variables of income, family nucleus and with whom the inmate lived during childhood. In the descriptive analysis, it was found that the majority of the cases had crime modes of distribution, transportation and possession; they committed the crime due to economic need and to buy drugs; 50% had partial or completed secondary education; 28.1% were domestic workers and 31.3% were private employees. It was also observed that 65.5% had no income; 70.4% changed jobs several times, among other interesting results.”  Análisis sobre la delincuencia femenina por droga “centro penitenciario los Andes” Mérida-Venezuela 2005 -2006, Universidad de los Andes [ 2005]

[2005] Drugs and Drug-Fighting in Colombia Illegal production and trade, armed conflict, State intervention “Colombia is both the world’s top producer of cocaine and Europe’s main supplier. Armed groups run rampant in many regions of the country. What are the links between the globalised drug trade and localised armed actors? What role does the United States play? Why have public policies, particularly Plan Colombia that ended in September 2005, proven to be ineffective, even counter-productive? Here are some of the questions that this issue attempts to explore in a multidisciplinary overview of Colombia’s complex reality. Les Cahiers de la sécurité  INHES [fin 2005] 

[2005] Staff Trip Report to the  Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate:  Plan Colombia: Elements for Success,  (.doc) One Hundred Ninth Congress [29 de diciembre 2005] 

[2005] Travis Ning "Review Digest: Human Rights & The War on Terror" [2005]

[2005] Cocaine in Surface Waters: A New Evidence-Based Tool to Monitor Community Drug Abuse : We showed that cocaine and BE are present, and measurable, in surface waters of populated areas. The largest Italian river, the Po, with a five-million people catchment basin, steadily carried the equivalent of about 4 kg cocaine per day. This would imply an average daily use of at least 27 ± 5 doses (100 mg each) for every 1000 young adults, an estimate that greatly exceeds official national figures. Data from waste water treatment plants serving medium-size Italian cities were consistent with this figure.[…] Official statistics for the year 2001 indicate that in Italy about 1.1% of young adults (15–34 yrs old) admit having used cocaine "at least once in the preceding month", but the actual dosages and frequency of use are not known. Therefore, it is hard to estimate the amount of cocaine that is consumed by the population. If we consider that in the River Po basin there are about 1.4 million young adults, the official figures in this area would translate into at least 15,000 cocaine use events per month. We however found evidence of about 40,000 doses per day, a vastly larger estimate. The economic impact of trafficking such a large amount of cocaine would be staggering. The large amount of cocaine (at least 1500 kilograms) that our findings suggest are consumed per year in the River Po basin would amount, in fact, to about $150 million in street value (based on an average US street value of $100 per gram. " Environmental Health [2005]

[2005] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Price monitoring.

[2005] Jonathan P. Caulkins: Price and Purity Analysis for Illicit Drug: Data and Conceptual Issues, Se esboza la teoría de Keliman según la cual como los adictos no están acostumbrados a droga de pureza, cuando la consumen los riesgos de sobredosis aumentan. Habría que confrontar sto con estudios médicos que expliquen si los productos de corte de la droga son tan a o más nocivos según la vía de consumo sea intravenosa, nasal, fumada..... Carnegie Mellon University, [24 d e mayo 2005]

[2006] Grassley Concerned that ONDCP is Manipulating Data “Washington – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that he is dissatisfied with the Office of National Drug Control Policy response to a recent letter he sent. Grassley’s letter questioned their interpretation and use of data involving illegal drugs. […] “In my letter I raised serious concerns about ONDCP’s interpretation of data and how they use it,” Grassley said. “My concerns are not about how DEA compiles STRIDE data or the overall progress of Plan Colombia, but about how ONDCP manipulates data to suit their own interests.  I plan to follow up on the response I received and hold ONDCP accountable for their actions.” […]Grassley said ONDCP’s response lacked an accurate and dependable assessment on the full magnitude of the efforts to stop the production, flow and use of illegal drugs. As chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Grassley is involved with the oversight of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and has been working to ensure their actions are forthright and transparent., May 24, 2006

[2006] FENSUAGRO-CUT Second International Seminar “The Persistence of Coca, Marijuana and Poppy Crops – How Anti-Drug Policy Has Failed – National Sovereignty y and Food Safety , February 1-3 , 2006 "Por la soberanía nacional y alimentaria": Segundo Seminario Internacional Persistencia de los cultivos de coca, marihuana y amapola -Fracaso de la política antidroga, Bogotá,  [1-3 de febrero 2006]  

[2006] Transnational Institute (TNI -): Coca Yes, Cocaine No? Debate Papers No. 13,  Holland [mayo 2006]

[2006] UNODC Colombia Coca  Survey for 2005 [junio 2006]

[2006] María Clemencia Ramírez The Construction of Citizenship in the Context of Armed Conflict, Anti-drug Policy and Illegality in Putumayo (Colombia) Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia [2006]

[2006] Herschel I. Grossman y Daniel Mejía: The War Against Drug Producers, Brown University Banco de la República: This paper develops a model of a war against the drug producers. [July 2006] 

[2006] Germán Valencia, “This article reviews the literature published between 1990 and 2006 on economic analyses of Colombian internal conflict. Firstly, we present the analytical efforts that economists have been doing on improper actions of agents; secondly, we examine Colombia internal armed conflict's ourttanding actors, behaviors and incentives; and, thirdly, we analyze the conflict, showing its economic and social costs and the need to do further estimates. Finally, we conclude and issue an invitation to carry out more global research efforts which include the political and criminal components that are part of Colombian conflict in these analyses"  La economía frente al conflicto armado interno colombiano, 1990-2006 , Universidad de Antioquia,  Perfil de Coyuntura Económica,  [diciembre 2006]

2006] Pedro Rivas Nieto y Pablo Rey García Self-Defence Groups and Paramilitarism in Colombia (1964-2006) “This paper studies the phenomenon of the Colombian paramilitarism from its formal emergence, in the sixties, up to its formal disappearance, in 2006. This analysis comprises the evolution and the relations with diverse social groups that constituted the paramilitary movements, specially ranchers, drugs traffickers and the Armed Forces. Special emphasis is given to the change produced among the “self-defence groups” -legitimate defence supported by the State- and the paramilitary groups, whose purpose in the beginning was to finish with the insurgency, but at the end both of them were dedicated to criminal activities Las autodefensas y el paramilitarismo en Colombia (1964-2006) Artículos Confines [2006]

[2006] Departamento de Estado US Policy and program Development Overview for 2005 “Vigorous international drug control efforts kept the drug trade on the defensive in 2005. Our long-standing, international campaign to curb the flow of cocaine and heroin to the United States advanced significantly during the year. Coordinated international enforcement programs limited drug crop expansion, strengthened interdiction efforts, destroyed processing facilities, and weakened major trafficking organizations. Drug seizures set new records for cocaine interdiction in the Western Hemisphere. Better enforcement and judicial reforms led to the arrest of several long-sought drug kingpins, while tougher enforcement of chemical control and money laundering laws in key countries further hobbled the major trafficking organizations' ability to refine drugs and bank their profits. [2006] 

[ 2006] John Gettman "Marijuana Production in the United States" (The Bulletin of Canmabis Reform) www.drguscience.org

[2006]International Relations and Security Networks Zurich Drug Trade in Colombia The Illegal drug business and Colombian society “Forced displacement in Colombia mainly happens in rural areas and is a preferential strategy used by the armed groups to seize agricultural land from peasants.” [2006]

[2006] Alexander Cotte Poveda  Violence and Economic Growth in Colombia –A Microeconomic Analysis (abstract in English) Violencia y crecimiento economico en Colombia: un analisis desde la microeconomia Universidad de la Salle [2006]

[2006] ,  Sandro Calvani (Representante de la UNODC para Colombia) : Should Colombia reduce even further its illic it crops or, on the contrary, should it reduce the number of cocaine producers, slaves of the cocaine trade, slaves to the armed groups? ¿Debería Colombia reducir aún más sus cultivos ilícitos, o al contrario, debería reducir el número de productores de cocaína, esclavos de los grupos de cocaína, esclavos de los grupos armados?, en Alvaro Camacho (Editor):  "Narcotrafico  Europa, Estados Unidos, América Latina",  Uniandes Ceso [2006]

[2006] Francisco I. Bastos, Waleska Caiaffa, Diana Rossi,Marcelo Vila, Monica Malta The Children of Mama Coca: Coca, Cocaine and the Fate of Harm Reduction in South America, International Journal of Drug Policy, 22 November 2006

[2014] Jheraldin Mosquera Carvajal Claudia Marcela Rivera Quiroga ; Abstract: “Peasants, indigenous and African des cents, have become as major player in the struggle for land and territory, further in the struggle to be recognized as thinking, capable and certain qualities that make them worthy of differential recognition and guarantees reinforced, but beyond that with real guarantees for the realization of their life plans. This leads to the need for recognition in both formal and material terms of their identity and territory, ending with viable integral recognition of the peasants, indigenous and African descents as political subject and their rights.” De la necesidad a la exigencia: Reconocimiento integral del campesino como sujeto, Universidad Santiago de Cali Facultad de Derecho 2014

[2006] Julia Buxton The political economy of narcotics: Production, consumption and global markets, 2006

[2007] Escuela de Cultura de Pau: The paramilitaries grouped together since 2002 as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) are made up of a wide and varied group with distinct histories and interests. The AUC has grumps tightly linked to he narcotics traffic, others with cattle interests, .etc. These paramilitary groups were formed during the mid 1980s in response to guerrilla military manoeuvres. From 1998 to 2003, these groups conquered strongholds in many Colombian regions. Thus the current demobilisation process refers exclusively to their military apparatus without affecting its political, economic or social-control capacity. This control was achieved through years of carrying our massacres, selective killings and forced displacement, thanks to which they managed to accumulate large swaths of land. Análisis del proceso de desmovilización de la AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia) . Ficha técnica que se refiere entre otros, a los fondos estadounidenses para el proceso y su condicionamiento a la extradición [2007]

2007] Yamile Salinas Abdala : In Colombia land ownership has always been intricately tied to the country’s violence, namely because people still believe that land ownership is a natural and individual right pertaining to certain elites, as stipulated by the first Civil Code. This holds true despite several constitutional amendments to the 1936 and 1991 constitutions which, respectively, recognize the social and ecological function of property. This view is at the root of the failure to bring about a global agrarian reform and the human rights and International Humanitarian Law violations in the Colombia countryside.  La tenencia de la tierra y el conflicto interno [2007]

[2007] United States Department of the Treasury: Impact of Economic Sanctions Against Drug Cartels US Office of Foreign Assets Control To combat the threats of violence, corruption, and harm posed by narcotics traffi ckers and their networks, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12978 in October 1995, declaring a nation­al emergency with respect to significant foreign narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia. (…)This report reviews the SDNT program’s achievements over the past 11 years, as it has targeted the leaders of Colombia’s Cali, North Valle, and North Coast drug cartels. It is our hope that the report will provide a useful window into the history and achievements of this program, as well as lessons for refining sanctions targeting and implementation in the future in this and other programs. [March 2007]

[2007] Omar Ñañez Camacho  Y  Alfonso R. Cera: Today the government holds that the revelations regarding the ties that underlie the paramilitary Project are due to its negotiating process with the paramilitary, nothing is further form the truth. This has happened in spite of the government and against its will. The modifications introduced to the Bill by the Constitutional Court eliminated the qualification of revolt (political offense) which would have been applied to the crimes committed by the paramilitary; it included the victims and asserted their right to know the truth; it eliminated the possibility of a second confession; established full confession and reparation for the victims and extended the time designated for investigating the crimes committed. El debate sobre el Paramilitarismo en Colombia   Círculos Nuestramérica [15 de mayo 2007 ]

 [2007] UNODC Crop Monitoring Andean Report 2006  In the world survey there is no reference to marijuana production in the United States which, according to Gettman, is, for 2006, a US $36 billion business of 56.4 million indoor plants 11.7 million outdoor plans.[junio 2007]

[2007] UNODC Colombia Coca Survey for 2006 77,870 coca hectares [junio del 2007]

[2007] Kelly Hearn: Drug Wars Threaten to Wipe Out Amazon Nomads, "Civil strife and wars over the plant source of cocaine...", National Geographic [27 de abril 2007]

Michelle L. Farrell: .Sequencing targeting insurgents and drugs in Colombia, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2007

[2008] María Mercedes Moreno Humanitarian Considerations of Aerial Spraying, 2008

2008] Carlos Ernesto Lucio: The borderline between an addict and a drug dealer has always been extremely blurry. In the country of “Democratic Security” (as Alvaro Uribe 2002-2010 calls his regime) this addict can be considered a narcotics trafficker or simply subjected to the social violence now being used against what are known as the “disposable”. Los costos de la política antidrogas en Colombia [2008]

[2008] Gabriela Aguero: Colombia Drugs Guerrilla and US Involvement [mayo 2008]

[2008] Lutheran World Relief "True Alternatives to Coca" (en la mama-coca) Way Forward for USAID in Colombia [June 2008]

[2008] Daniel Mejía:  The War on Illegal Drugs (preliminary version) Department of Economics, Universidad de los Andes June 2008

[2008] Daniel Mejía y Pascual Restrepo The War on Illegal Drug Production and Trafficking: An Economic Evaluation of Plan Colombia. Documentos CEDE  tomado de economia.uniandes.edu.co [octubre 2008] [Stanford 2010]

[2008] Radio Caracol: Police plants coca and marihuana in order to better understand illegal-plants growers’ ruses. Basically, to see if what growers do to protect the plants from glyphosate aerial spraying is in fact effective. La Policía siembra coca y marihuana en Tolima, Boyacá y Putumayo [25 de junio de 2008]

2008] La Ley de Promoción Comercial andina y erradicación de drogas Impacto económico en los Estados Unidos y países andinos Testimonio ante Washington de la Comunidad Andina [22 de julio 2008]

[2008] WOLA: The Coca Debate: Headed toward Polarization or Common Ground? Kathryn Ledebur and Coletta A. Youngers  [23 de agosto 2008]

[2008] Omar Felipe Giraldo y Ricardo Andrés Lozada Food Security and Livestock Farming: The Case of the Rural Locality of Sumapaz “The article discusses the issue of food security and livestock farming from the case study of the Sumapaz Locality, which belongs to the rural area of Bogota D.C. This territory is facing a serious food insecurity situation in accordance with information from previous studies. By approximating their consumption patterns, self-perception and a characterization of the importance of livestock production systems on food and household economy, this article attempts to illustrate the importance of animal production for food security of rural families of Sumapaz.” Ref original :  Programa de Desarrollo Alternativo en Colombia Familias Guardabosques. Visión desde el enfoque del desarrollo territorial rural Universidad de Caldas [9 de diciembre 2008]

[2008] Natalia Franco Vásquez et al.: This historical study on illicit crops in the Duda region- Guayabero Departamento del Meta seeks to establish the relationship between illicit activities tied to basic coca paste (BCP) production and trade and the different political and social circumstances that the Municipalities of la Macarena, Vistahermosa, la Uribe, Mesetas, Puerto Rico, Puerto Concordia y Mapiripan in the Meta Departament have gone through in the past 25 years. Cultivos Ilícitos en La Macarena “Eje Duda – Guayabero Universidad del Meta Fac de Derecho (Tomado de el 7 de junio 2011) [2008]

[2008] Roman Guillou   Legalization and alternative development in the andean region (abstract in the roiginal) “With the globalization and from the 90s there exists really a “problem of the drugs “. So much the consumption, the produc-tion like the traffic of the same ones disturbs the State in all the ar-eas: economic, social, political and educational. The Andean region, though only one was aiming for being a producer, is now consum-ing and the public current policies do not seem to be suitable. There-fore, the drugs must be studied without any taboo or false concepts about them and to accept the reality to avoid a worsening of the situation. Why the prohibition of the drugs? Are all the drugs bad? Does the fault only have the Region Andean? Does the big potency can intervene in the national territories? The war against the drugs and the prohibition there are a defeat in the Andean region and the public policies are not adapted, reason for the legalization of the market turns out to be of that time as the only solution.” Legalización y desarrollo alternativo en la región andina [2008]

[2008] Andrew V. Bradley and Andrew C. Millington: Coca and Colonists: Quantifying and Explaining Forest Clearance under Coca and Anti-Narcotics Policy Regimes  Ecology and Society This study provides a detailed quantitative analysis of deforestation rates under different policy regimes in a coca source region -Bolivia. [2008]

Carolina Sierra González: Alternative Development in Colombia:The practice and theory of alternative development programmes. Institute of Social Studies, September 2008

[2008] Daniel Mejía y Carlos Estéban Posada: Cocaine Production and Trafficking What De We Know? "This paper describes the available data to measure the incidence and prevalence of cocaine production and trafficking. It also describes the main data sources, the collection methodologies, if available, and examines the accuracy an d biases of different data sources. [..] . Established in 1997, UNODC has become the main source for data on illegal drug markets. It employs about 500 staff members worldwide and has 21 field offices located in the main producer countries, as well as in those countries used as traffic corri dors. The mandate of UNODC is to assist member countries in their stru ggle against illegal drugs, crime, and terrorism. UNODC relies on voluntary contributions – mainly from just a few countries – for almost 90% of its budget. UNODC works jointly with the respective government institutions in the producer countries to undertake the “Coca Cultivation Surv ey” each year. Through the Illicit Crop Monitoring Programme (ICMP), UNODC uses the interpretation and processing of satellite images to monitor illegal crops in producer countries: coca in the three Andean producer countries and opium poppy in South and East Asian countries.", World Bank[2008]

[2008] Rómulo A. Chumacero: General Equilibrium Analysis of the Market for Illegal Drugs, The World Bank Development Research Group Macroeconomics and Growth Team [marzo 2008]

[2008] Laurent Laniel Monitoring the Supply of Cocaine to Europe,"Trends in pure cocaine production in the Andean region over the period 2002–2006 appear to be overall relatively stable, with estimates fluctuating around 900 tonnes ( 7 ). At country level, both sources report increases of production in Colombia and Bolivia, but diverge regarding Peru, with UN figures showing an important increase and US figures reporting a decline over the period. Taking the long-term view, UN data indicate an increase of 27 % in the total pure cocaine production of the three countries during the period 1990–2006 (UNODC, 2008a). […] It should also be noted that unknown, but probably lower, amounts of cocaine HCl are refined elsewhere in Latin America since coca leaves, coca paste and cocaine base (the two intermediary products) may all be exported to neighbouring countries for further processing into cocaine HCl. Laboratories for processing cocaine are found in countries such as Argentina (nine labs found in 2006), Chile (two in 2006), Venezuela (18 in 2005) (UNODC, 2008c) and Ecuador (one in 2006) (INCB, 2008a). Some cocaine HCl may also be refined in Brazil, Panama, Paraguay and possibly Mexico. In addition, cocaine labs have been dismantled outside of Latin America in recent years: in 2006, 10 cocaine labs were dismantled in Spain, one in South Africa, and four in the United States; in 2005, one was dismantled in France (UNODC, 2008c); in 2004, five labs were found in Australia and one in Hong Kong (UNODC, 2007c) ( 8 ). Although some of these labs were probably HCl ‘re-packaging facilities’ (e.g. for extracting cocaine HCl embedded in the shipments of licit products, such as textiles or fertilizer), it is possible that other laboratories actually were carrying out the last stage of the refinement process, i.e. transforming cocaine base into HCl. This would mean that both cocaine HCl and cocaine base are exported from Latin America. However, this is difficult to ascertain given current reporting practices, which, outside Latin America, rarely differentiate between seizures of cocaine base and seizures of HCl." EMCDDA [2008]

[2009] Alonso Fernnadez : “Taxonomic analysis of vegetable material has gained a great importance for the Justice Administration at a worldwide level and it also has a promising application in Colombia. Until 2008, the main demand at a forensic level in the country was related to the study of plants coming from illicit crops with Erythroxylum P. Browne species, commonly named coca plants, being the main subject of study from 2006. A bibliographic review of the state of art about those species covering world wide and local perspective were done.” Especies cultivadas del género Erythroxylum P. Browne. Revisión del tema desde la perspectiva forense INMLCF. 2009

2009] Francisco E. Thoumi Necessary, sufficient and contributory factors generating illegal economic activity, and specifically drug-related activity, in Colombia The international drug control regime is formulated under a basic paradigm: all drugs included in the convention schedules I, II and IV can only have medical and research uses. The policies derived from these conventions forbid all recreational, ritual, experi- mental, or self-medicating consumption of coca, cocaine, opium, heroin, marijuana and many other drugs. The conventions allow the production of controlled drugs for medical and research uses and criminalize all other production. Where consumption is concerned they are less rigid, as users of illegal drugs do not have to be arrested or jailed. […] “…no factor is sufficient for the development of illegal crops or illegal drug trafficking. Some factors are necessary to develop coca and poppy plantings and cocaine and heroin production and exports. To do so countries must have the full set of necessary factors. There is also a wide spectrum of potential contributing factors. These might trig- ger the development of the illegal industry only if all the necessary conditions are present” .” Iberoamericana, 35: 105-126, 2009.

[2009] Ricardo Rocha: Assessment of the Implementation of the United States Government’s Support for Plan Colombia’s Illicit Crop Reduction Components, USAID, [April 17, 2009]

[2009] Catalina Martinez Gutiérrez: There is minimum threshold below which economic incentives for eradicating are no longer effective. Impacto del Programa Familias Guardabosques sobre la criminalidad, “ Uniandes, 2009

[2009] Luis Eduardo Sandoval,  Ángela López, & Camilo Cárdenas Determinants and Characteristics of Cocaine Supply Market in Colombia (1989 - 2006) Abstract “One of the main problems of Colombia since the end of XX th century has been illegal drug trafficking of cocaine to the United States and the rest of the world. This has led to devastating consequences for Colombian population, such as maintenance of armed conflict and forced displacement. The coca eradication has been made through the implementation of different methods, but unfortunately, none of them has been totally effective. At this point, it is essential to outline the importance of Colombian supply over foreign demand of cocaine, considering that, in order to provide a solution from the inside of the country, the determinants which affect supply of cocaine to the United States must be clear. Therefore, the objective of this document is to study and analyze the characteristics of cocaine market between Colombia and the United States due to its importance in social, economic and environmental issues in Colombia.” Determinantes y características de la oferta de cocaína en Colombia (1989 – 2006) (en mamacoca) Universidad Militar Nueva Granada [23 de enero 2009]

2009] Denis Richard, Jean-Louis Senon et Marc Valleur This dictionary does an in-depth coverage of the diversity of issues tied to drogues: Drogues et dépendances,   "Environnement" et "Environnement et drogues de synthèse",  Larousse, 2009

[2009] Suzanna Reiss Policing Development:Andean Drug Control & the Expansion of US Capitalism, Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 23, No 2 [Spring 2009]

[2009] Maria C. Acevedo  Does local violence explain differences in crop prices paid to farmers? Evidence from coca farming in Colombia (Harvard University), June 2009

[2009] The Economist: Coca and Cocaine in the Andes - Mixed signals among the coca bushes -an apparent fall in cocaine production conceals the remarkable resilience of an illegal industry.  "Estimates of drug production are far from foolproof. The UN derives its data from satellite photography, taken in December each year, backed up by field visits to sample sites. This methodology is more thorough than that used by America’s Central Intelligence Agency, which provides the United States’ government’s estimates of drug production." [25 de junio 2009]

[2009] Open Society Foundations -Global Drug Policy Program: Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift, 2009

2009] Fabio E. Velásquez C. (Coordinador), From 2000 to 2006 886.840 hectares have been sprayed at a cost of USD $650’130.000 which represent 70% of the Plan Colombia resources of social and economic assistance. The human, economic and environmental damage is immeasurable. Las otras caras del poder Territorio, conflicto y gestión pública en municipios colombianos (on mamacoca) [septiembre de 2009]

[2009] Marcela Ibañez y Fredrik Carlsson : A survey-based choice experiment on coca cultivation   "We used a survey-based experiment to measure the responsiveness of farmers to changes in the relative profit of growing an alternative crop and to changes in the probability of eradication." Journal of Development Economics [9 de octubre 2009]

[2009] TNI Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared to Be Illicit  [21 de octubre 2009] p>2009] Giacinto  Franzoi: “Dios y Coca” Father Giacinto, La Consolata misionary a native of Italy came to the Caguan in 1978 to serve. He was the parish priest of Remolinos until, Colombia, the country that fears anything that's outstanding, accused him of being a guerrilla collaborator. Upon his return to Italy his story tells how between the narcotics traffic and the guerrilla, a country with enormous natural resources has no future because it burns them up in just one day of insanity. Replica el Padre Giacinto los testimonios de la llegada de la coca al Caguan. [2009] en "Dioy y cocaína", Intermedio Editores Ltda,  2009

[2009] Juan Gabriel Tokatlian et al.: The studies that make up this volume point to scope attainted by the drug war in the Andean world. All of the studies point out the complexity of the issue and the meagre results of existing coactive measures.La guerra contra las drogas en el mundo andino- hacia un cambio de paradigma, Zorzal, [diciembre 2009]

[2009] The Observer UK _Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions [13 de diciembre 2009]  

[2009] Peter H. Reuter The Unintended Consequences of Drug Policies  Report 5 en Rand Corporation  Prepared for the European Commission [2009]

[2009] Miguel Serrano López: Thi study analyzes how the internal conflict and illicit crops production affects human development in the Catatumbo region. Actores armados y cultivos ilícitos en el conflicto armado colombiano en "Conflicto armado y cultivos ilícitos: efectos sobre el desarrollo humano en el Catatumbo", CIDER, [enero 2009]

[2009] Ariel Ávila y Magda Paola Núñez Gantiva: Generally speaking, in the territories that are shared the FARC control the far-off rural areas the FARC control the coca crops.This guerrilla group allows peasant to sell basic coca paste (‘original’ crack) to narcotics trafficking groups and emerging bands in urban zones. These emerging bands, in turn, allow the FARC militias to buy their food and medicine in the urban areas. The tactical alliance consists basically in the FARC guarding the crops, but the emerging bands are the owners of the narcotics traffic routes. Expansión territorial y alianzas tácticas , Arco Iris, 2009

[2009] Arielle K. Eirienne USAID's Alternative Development Strategy: A Critical Review of Initiatives in Colombia "As LeGrand (1986a; 1986b; 2003) and others (e.g., González 2004) have documented, Colombia’s population was once “concentrated” (González 2004) in select areas, but as landlords have confiscated peasants’ properties and as conflict has displaced Colombians from their lands, the country’s campesinos have relocated to increasingly remote regions. With their infertile soils, lack of infrastructure (including lack of roads to markets), and guerrilla leadership, many of these regions have afforded campesinos few economic opportunities other than drug production.", Inquiries, 2009

William F. Garzón M., Fabián Parada A. and Néstor M. Florian Forensic Analysis of Cocaine Samples Produced in Colombia: I. Chromatographic Profiling Abstract: “In this study sixty-five (65) seized samples of cocaine hydrochloride are chromatographically outlined to determine its purity and making qualitative analysis to detect adulterants and occluded residual reliable extenders in tropacocaine, norcocaine, cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine, benzoylecgonine samples; and caffeine, phenacetin, levamisole and hidroxizine. In the quantitative samples analysis lower cocaine purity found is 64.58% and the highest is 95.83%. In relation to the presence of residual compounds, 136 of them are detected. Some are preliminarily identified. This work explores the possibility to use these compounds for the comparison of chromatographic profiles looking forward to establish different links in cocaine samples. The results contribute to the knowledge of forensic chemistry and the toxicology potential of cocaine hydrochloride samples produced and seized in Colombia.” February 12, 2009

[2009] Transform Drug Policy Foundation Cost effectiveness of Prohibition and Regulation of Drugs Stephen Rolles [abril 2009]

[2009] ] Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). Drug Use Epidemiology in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Public Health Approach 2009

[2010] Daniel Giraldo Pulido: The coca plant is a crucial part of the Nasa People’s view of the universe, customs and daily life, just like it is for their brothers form other native cultures from the Amazon and the Andes. They share a respect for the divine gift in the form of a leaf that keeps hunger at bay, that guides their steps on their long trips and that tells them if the trip will be fruitful or difficult. Western man is unable to burst the bubble that limits his senses and keeps him from seeing what for the Nasa is visible on a daily basis.Evolución de la problemática de los pueblos originarios en Colombia: Cosmología nasa vs. discurso hegemónico Université de Montréal, Section d’études hispaniques TINKUY n°12 , mayo 2010

[2010] The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank: Innocent Bystanders –Developing Countries and the War on Drugs "The nature of illegal and so-calle d black markets makes it very diffi cult to collect data such as quantities of goods traded, intermediate and fi nal prices, and other relevant market characteristics, including the quality of the product and the distribution of profi ts within the industry. Illegal drug markets are not the exception. (Reuter and Greenfi eld 2001, 169). For instance, in measuring consumption “buyers cannot report a price in dollars per standardized unit, but only how much they spent on some quantity of white powder, the contents of which is unknown” [2010]

[2010] Luis M. Llosa, MD: Brief Review of Oral Cocaine for the Treatment of Cocaine Dependence "“The amount of cocaine extracted from the leaves as coca tea vary when prepared with hot and cold water as well as the cocaine extracted from coca flour varies whether or not mixed with an alkaline substance (sodium bicarbonate, lime),…][…] References of oral cocaine use (as alkaloid) have shown that traditional doses do not produce intoxication, behavioral disorders or lead to addiction..[…] here are no reported cases of abnormal or addictive behavior nor reports of deaths in sporadic or chronic users of oral cocaine by chewing, drink as infusions or eat as coca powder.[…] Orally cocaine contained in coca leaves has been consumed by Andean people for thousand years for work, social and spiritual purposes without users show signs of diseases and behavioral disorders. The use of oral cocaine as agonist therapy meets the criteria for substitution (replacement) therapies”. [2010]

[2011] J. Marla Toyne: The Transformation of Coca to Cocaine: An Overview of Traditional Drug Use and Modern Drug Use, "“…I will examine how drug use in and indigenous community is very different from ' drug' use in a modem, capitalist society. Many of the attitudes held about cocaine as a narcotic have been transferred to coca . However, this negative transference is inappropriate, as cocaine is pharmacologically and socially utilized in a much different way than coca. Indeed, the biological and social significance that coca affords within the many Andean populations is very different from the novel use of cocaine, and its street derivatives such as crack, by the 'modem' world over. Essentially, the comparison between the physiological effect of chewing naturally occurring coca leaves, to snorting manufactured cocaine powder, is like "comparing fire hoses with flame throwers" […] In the late 1800s, cocaine came to be recognized as potentially addictive and dangerous, and a s a growing menace t o society. In 1 9 15, cocaine was banned from free consumption and classified as illegal ( Wilson & Zambrano 1994:299 ) . Seven years later, the United States Congress prohibited the importation o f cocaine and coca leaves , and classified it a s a narcotic with criminal penalties for possession ( Grinspoon & Bakalar 1985 : 41 ). With it s prohibition and anti - cocaine legislation , cocaine became deviant and went into the black market , augmenting the negative sentiment towards it . Use declined between the 1930s and 1960 s, but was followed by another cocaine “boom " in the 197 0's, as cocaine powder was easier to transport than the bulky leaves of marijuana ( Clark 1997 ). In the years that followed , there was increasing awareness o f the threat that cocaine posed to the health and wellbeing of many Americans.” Totem, The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology  [2010]

Hemispheric Drug Strategy "Promote the harmonization of national legal norms, regulations and internal procedures in order to implement hemispheric judicial cooperation mechanisms and mutual legal assistance in connection with drug trafficking and related crimes." Adopted by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) at its forty-seventh regular session May 2010 (Note: Countries are precisely demanding greater flexibility to address the issue in view of domestic needs and possibilities). 

[2010] Ariel Fernando Ávila Martínez y Magda Paola Núñez Gantiva. What needs to be said is that the ELN and other illegal groups' growing strength is not solely due to the narcotics traffic. In the Arauca, for example, the ELN has been reticent to take part in the narcotics traffic and has even reduced considerably the coca crops in some of the department’s municipalities by pressuring peasants to eradicate them. Las dinámicas territoriales del  ejército de liberación nacional: Arauca, Cauca y Nariño, 2010

2010] Suzanna Reiss: Beyond Supply and Demand: Obama’s Drug Wars in Latin America "The language of supply and demand, much like the designation of legal or illegal, must be understood as a political and historical construction rather than as a set of neutral descriptive categories. The system of drug control itself has given these categories and labels substantive power. " February 24, 2010

[2010] Paola Palacios:  Forced displacement: legal versus illegal crops_ (tomado de economia.uniandes.edu.co), June 2010

International Crisis Group: Improving Security Policy in Colombia Briefing 23 / Latin America & Caribbean 29 June 2010

[2010] Leonardo Raffo López (Profesor de la Universidad del Valle) One of the enigmas about illicit- drugs markets is that, despite repression, cocaine and heroin’s real prices adjusted according to purity levels have fallen while drug use and average production have actually increased and number of hectares planted have slightly dcreased. Could the answer lie in greater prodcutivity? Narcotráfico y conflicto: ¿Por qué bajó el precio de la cocaína? Revista de Economía Institucional  v.12 n.23 (en la mama-coca),  jul./dic. 2010

[2010] Silvia Quintanar & Carolina Von Oerte This article analyzes Colombia’s internal conflict and its polemic internationalization during Alvaro Uribe’s two mandates. Uribe’s idea of going for “terrorists” wherever they might be was a source of serious incidents with neighbouring countries. Uribe y la internacionalización del conflicto interno armado colombiano  (en mamacoca) FLACSO, 20-21 septiembre 2010

Vanessa Buschschluter: How landmines complicate Colombia's drugs fight, BBC News, Tumaco, Colombia , December 15, 2010

[2010] Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the Crime and Narcotics Center Director of Central Intelligence: Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in The Tri-Border Area (Tba) Of South America July 2003, Revised December 2010

[2010] Alain Deneault : As discretely as possible, Canada just signed a free-trade agreement with Panama. This agreement with a poor country with a population of barely 3 million inhabitants, could well seem inconsequential. Nonetheless, it just so happens that Panama is a tax haven and not just any tax haven. It is one of the most active, least cooperative and best integrated with organized crime.  (Auteur d'Offshore, paradis fiscaux et souveraineté criminelle et membre d'Attac-Québec - Écrivain et coprésident d'Attac-Québec)  et Claude Vaillancourt Accord de libre-échange entre le Canada et le Panama - S'acoquiner avec le paradis du narcotrafic December 21, 2010

[2010] Patricia Madariaga Villegas: Coca cultivation is extremely time and resource consuming. The cocales have to be weeded, fertilized and periodically sprayed to guarantee their productivity. A peasant who has 6 acres has to devote approximately 20 continuous days a month to harvesting, processing and to weed and pest management. Cultivo de coca, jóvenes y autoridades armadas en las montañas del sur de Colombia, 2010

[2010] International Human Rights Law Clinic, The Truth Behind Bars Colombian Paramilitary Leaders in U.S. Custody  (on mammacoca) Regarding international impacts of extraditions on Colombia’s accountability measures and transfer of resources from the US government to Colombian victims) ",  University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, February 2010

[2010] Nicolas Shaxon Treasure Islands and Tax Havens   (treasureislands.org) [to 2016]

[2010] Daniel Mejía  y Daniel M. Rico This chapter presents a detailed x-ray of cocaine trafficking and production microeconomics in Colombia. It makes a brief description of how aggregated cocaine production figures have evolved and focuses in detail on each of the links of the manufacturing chain. La microeconomía de la producción y tráfico de cocaína en Colombia  tomado de: www.uniandes.edu.co, 2010

[2010] The Privatization of Seeds Year in and year out farmers are losing the seeds from their own plants, and are forced to purchase them anew from seed providers. Monsanto has monopolized the seed market which has significantly limited the variety of plants available on the market. The consequences of which have had fatal effects on both our environment, and the farmers that harness crops from it. ICA (Colombian Agricultural Institute) Resolución 970 de 2010 bans peasants from storing their seeds and sentences them to prison fro not buying patented seeds. Here we can see live how this Resolution is applied …[2013] Víctoria Solano: La privatización de la semilla. / d/Dharmadeva: Tener una semilla es un delito: la nueva dictadura alimentaria, El Espectador /Historia detrás de la 970, Semana[12 de agosto 2013] /La resolución 3168 del ICA de 2015 sobre semillas reemplaza la resolución 970 [2015]

[2010] César Caballero Reinoso : A Kidnapped Society : Kidnapping is probably one of the criminal enterprises which has had the greatest impact on Colombian society, particularly in the contemporary phase of the country’s conflict. .. The kidnappings carried out by the M-19 in the 1970s and 1980s were intended to destabilize and influence the State, much like the kidnappings carried out by the narcotics traffic at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s which sought to negotiate its surrender and counter extradition. Likewise, the FARC, by detaining hundreds of policemen and soldiers, sought to push for a “humanitarian exchange” against its own prisoners. The ELN, when partaking in peace-talk scenarios, increases the number of kidnappings in order to “improve” it bargaining position. ..When the kidnapping phenomenon came to fore in Colombian society in the 1970s and 1980s, there were on average 113 cases. According to this study, over 39,000 persons have been kidnapped in Colombia during the past 40 years Una sociedad secuestrada: 2010, Centro de Memoria Histórica in English - ,

[2010] UNODC Data analysis Cocaine (1988-2009) “The bulk of the cocaine that enters the United States comes from Colombia. Forensic analyses of cocaine seized or purchased in the USA have repeatedly shown that nearly 90% of the samples originated in Colombia. 12 Peru is a lesser supplier, and the Plurinational State of Bolivia appears to have basically lost contact with the North American market. [....] “... it appears that less than 1% of the cocaine sales in Europe goes to the Andean coca farmers. Another 1% goes to the traffickers within the Andean region. The international traffickers who ship the cocaine from the Andean region to the main entry points (notably Spain) obtain 25% of the final sales value. A further 17% is generated in shipping the cocaine from the entry points to the wholesalers in the final destination countries across Europe. The largest income is generated in the des- tination countries, between the wholesaler and the consumer, generating more than 56% of the total. As there are far more dealers at the national level, the per capita income of the dealers at the national level is in Europe (like in North America) lower than among the smaller group of internationally operating cocaine dealers”. [2010]

[2010] EMCDDA–Europol joint Publications Cocaine A European Union perspective in the global context "“Cocaine adulterants: When sold in Europe, cocaine is almost always adulterated. Common adulterants or cutting agents include the local anaesthetics lignocaine (lidocaine) and benzocaine; painkillers such as phenacetin (a carcinogenic substance) and paracetamol; and other agents such as hydroxyzine, boric acid, glucose, manitol, lactose and caffeine. A relatively recent trend is the use of Levamisole (leva (l)-Tetramisole), a veterinary anti-parasitic agent used in the past in human medicine as an immunostimulant. When used over a longer period of time and in higher doses, Levamisole may cause a number of adverse effects, of which agranulocytosis ( 1 ) is the most alarming. Levamisole has been reported as a cocaine adulterant in the United States and in Europe at least since 2004. In 2009, over 70 % of cocaine seizures that were analysed in the United States contained this substance (SAMHSA, 2009). In Europe, recent information from the EMCDDA–Europol Early Warning System indicates an increase both in the percentage of the cocaine samples adulterated with Levamisole and in the concentration of the substance in the samples. Thus, several countries reported Levamisole in about one third (Belgium, Spain, France and Sweden) and one half (Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK) of the cocaine seizures analysed. Levamisole is widely used in South America, and it is likely that the adulteration of cocaine takes place not only at the point of import in Europe, but also immediately after production or just before export." [2010]

[2010] Maia Szalavitz A Common Cut in Cocaine May Prove Deadly, Time Magazine, [Jan. 20, 2010 ]

[2010] The Government Reply to the Seventh Report From the Home Affairs Committee Session 2009-10 HC 74 Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of Her Majesty The Cocaine Trade “The British Crime Survey (BCS) and other data have indicated a significant increase in powder cocaine use over time despite a reduction in overall drug use. Since 1996 levels of powder cocaine use among the general population (aged 16-59) have increased from 0.6% to 3.0% (representing around 1 million adults, 2008/09 BCS). Most recently, increases in powder cocaine use were apparent between 2007/08 (2.4%) and 2008/09 (3.0%). The increase was particularly apparent amongst 16 – 24 year olds: 1.3% in 1996 and 5.1% in 2007/08 compared with 6.6% in 2008/09 (almost half a million young adults). ....Los logros de los esfuerzos de erradicación en Colombia: The wholesale price of cocaine across the EU is rising, prices in the UK in 2009 increased by 25%. Street sales now rarely contain more than 20% cocaine and often as little as 5%...[julio 2010]

[2010] UNODC World Drug Report 2010: drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new market,

[2010] Saumil Jariwala A Game-Theory Analysis of US Efforts to Curb the Colombian Cocaine Trade , Current US intervention strategy involves fumigating coca fields with herbicidal spray; the most herbicide is dispensed to the areas with the most coca cultivation. While this approach seems valid from a conventional viewpoint, it does not consider the motivations of individual farmers and thus results in an improper allocation of funding. North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics , [2010]

[2010] Naval War College, Case Studies in Policy Making - 12th Edition Newport, RI [2010]

[2011] Peter Chalk (Rand Corporation): The Latin American Drug Trade Scope, Dimensions, Impact, and Response: “Between 1998 and 2009, the area subjected to manual eradication increased from 3,125 ha to 60,577 ha, while aerial spraying—using a formula known as Roundup® (a mixture of glyphosate and Cosmo- Flux™ )—rose by more than 58 percent, from 66,029 ha to 104,772 ha. Between 2003 and 2009, the Bogotá government invested $835 million to underwrite these programs, a figure that is expected to surge to $1.5 billion by 2013..” The Rand Corporation , 2011

[2011] Clare Ribando Seelke, Coordinator,  June S. Beittel, Liana Sun Wyler Latin America and the Caribbean: Illicit Drug Trafficking and U.S. Counterdrug Programs Congressional Research Service [25 de enero 2011]

[2011] Kelly J. Thomas, J.D. :  "Panama Express" _A model for Success in the Drug War  in  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Law Enforcement Bulletin, [February 2011]

[2011] Curt Tarnoff and  Marian Leonardo Lawson Foreign Aid: An Introduction to U.S. Programs and Policy , February 10, 2011

[2011] CRS: June S. Beittel Colombia: Issues for Congress   President Obama has asked "the U.S. Trade Representative to work closely with the Colombian government to see how the two countries could proceed on the pending Free Trade Agreement (FTA)."   [March 18, 2011]

[2011] María Victoria Cárdenas Londoño: Principales determinantes de los cultivos de coca en los municipios de Colombia Impacto del Programa Familias Guarda Bosques (PFGB). 1999-2009 (en MamaCoca) Seminario de Economía del Banco de la República [18 de marzo 2011]

[2011] John Bailey Prepared statement for the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management Hearing on “The U.S. Homeland Security Role in the Mexican War against Drug Cartels,” (en mamacoca) El Plan Merida a la 'luz' del Plan Colombia y el que sigue...[31 de marzo 2011]

[2011] Alejandro Gaviria Uribe  y Daniel Mejía Londoño,  It’s been 40 years since Nixon declared the war on drugs. No country in the world has paid a higher price in terms of lives lost ―its politicians, its judges, its policemen,  its journalists and dozens of thousands of innocent bystanders; and no country has seen as much damage done to its institutions as Colombia. Políticas antidroga en Colombia: éxitos, fracasos y extravíos , /Patrullando la dosis personal , Centro de estudios para el tema de normatividad al consumo de droga,  Universidad de los Andes, abril 2011

[2011] Ernesto Zedillo and Haynie Wheeler (eds):  “War on Drugs” Through the US-Mexico Prism (on mamacoca) The papers contained in this book are based on presentations from the conference Rethinking the “War on Drugs” Through the US-Mexico Prism, organized by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut  [May 12 and 13, 2011]

[2011] INCSR_U.S. Department of State:  2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report   “The 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) is an annual report by the Department of State to Congress prepared in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act. It describes the efforts of key countries to attack all aspects of the international drug trade in Calendar Year 2010. Volume I covers drug and chemical control activities. Volume II covers money laundering and financial crimes.” [20 de mayo 2011]

[2011] New York Times: Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder, May 14, 2011

[2011] Luddy Marcela Roa-Rojas: Money laundering in formal Colombian economy: approaches to its impact on the GDP of Colombian political-administrative divisions (abstract) El lavado de activos en la economía  formal colombiana: aproximaciones  sobre el impacto en el PIB  departamental Crim., Volumen 53, número 1, enero-junio 2011

[2011] Omar Alfonso Ochoa Maldonado he implementation of Plan Colombia in the country generated a series of antagonistic positions by various social sectors about their inspiration and functionality. After more than a decade of its incorporation as a state policy, the real intentions are revealed according to historical experience, which allows for a critical judgment about its application, extent and results in social, envi- ronmental and economic and political impact Plan Colombia: una lectura retrospectiva, 13 de julio 2011

[2011] Oeindrila Dube and Suresh Naidu Bases, Bullets and Ballots: the Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Political Conflict in Colombia _ (on mamacoca) New York University - Columbia University “The findings suggest that foreign military assistance may strengthen armed non-state actors, undermining domestic political institutions”.  [Julio 2011]

[2011] María Clara Torres Bustamante: What has occurred in Putumayo goes to show that the idea that, illegal coca economy goes against the establishment of local-level government, doe snot necessarily hold true. Estado y coca en la frontera colombiana-el caso del Putumayo, ODECOFI, December 2011

[2011] Luis Jorge Garay-Salamanca, Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán, Luis Astorga, Francisco Gómez, Edgar Gutiérrez, Claudia Méndez Arriaza y Natalia Duarte: Drug Trafficking, Corruption and States: How Illicit Networks Reconfigure Institutions in Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico  (on mamacoca in Spanish) 2011

[2011] Peter Reuter and Jonathan Caulkins: Purity, price and production: Are drug markets different? “ Markets for drugs, prostitution and other prohibited goods and services are just that… markets”. DRAFT [2011]

[2011] J. Marla Toyne: The Transformation of Coca to Cocaine: An Overview of Traditional Drug Use and ModernDrug Use The University of Western Ontario, [6 de noviembre 2011]

[2012] Lukas Jaramillo-Escobar and Francisco Thoumi : . Appendix 2 Commentaries “Creative Drug Consumption and Production in Medellin, Colombia” with Substance Use & Misuse, 47, 5: 594-595. 2012 (not full open access)

The Guardian: Western banks 'reaping billions from Colombian cocaine trade' While cocaine production ravages countries in Central America, consumers in the US and Europe are helping developed economies grow rich from the profits, a study claims, June 2, 2012

[2012] Victor Ivanov: Drug Trafficking and the Financial Crisis, January 28, 2012

[2012] James D. Henderson: How the Drug Traffic Destryed Peace in Colombia In Spanish on mamacoca "Derecha e Izquierda en la violencia y drogas ilícitas en Colombia en  La historia de cómo el narcotráfico destruyó la paz en Colombia, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, 2012

[2012] Ariel Fernando Ávila  (editor): FARC and Criminal Bands (Bacrim)the fight over illegal revenues -FARC y BACRIM - La disputa por las rentas ilegales en "La frontera caliente Colombia Venezuela",  Arco Iris Debate, abril 2012

[2012] Francisco Thoumi “Colombian Organized Crime: From Drug Trafficking to Parastatal Bands and Widespread Corruption”, in Henk van de Bunt and Dina Siegel (eds.), Traditional Organized Crime in the Modern World. Responses to Socioeconomic Changes, Springer, 2012

2012] Universidad d los Andes: Narcotics trafficking and Money laundering the scope of the problem, Notas de Política No. 11  (en mamacoca), May 2012

[2012] The man who issued all sorts of licenses and contributed to spreading mining ventures in Colombia and has been systematically accused of being a part of the narcotic traffic tells us how it is others that are narcotics traffickers and how illegal mining is with the narcotics traffic…. Álvaro Uribe: “La minería ilegal está con el narcotráfico” [1 de junio del 2012

[2012] Patrick Radden Keefe Cocaine Incorporated, How  a Mexican Drug Cartel Makes Its Billions”,  "More than 50,000 people have died in the Mexican Drug War since 2006". The New York Times [15 de junio 2012]

[2012] Felix Hipólito Dolores : Coca . 14 natural alkaloids La Coca, 14 alcaloides naturales , 29 de octubre 2012

[2012] Merly Guanumen Pacheco Drug Management in the Relations Colombia - United States Abstract :In this article, a presentation is made of the events that in a priority way, included the war against the drugs in the agenda of the relations Colombia-United States, as there was a coincidence in the official positions regarding the use of psychoactive substances. An analysis is made of the way drugs became a central issue in U. S. politics and on a worldwide basis, after the changes of the sixties and the Vietnam War and how the illegal traffic took hold in Colombia very early on and, in response, a repressive governmental strategy was implemented. The coincidence of ideological arguments and the dimension of the problem prevented Colombia from devising its own stand on this issue, instead taking on the interdiction policies of the United States. /La narcotización de las relaciones Colombia-Estados Unidos [noviembre 2012]

[2012] Ioan Grillo: Hit Mexico’s Cartels With Legalization, legal marijuana would take billions of dollars a year away from organized crime. This would inflict more financial damage than soldiers or drug agents have managed in years and substantially weaken cartels. New York Times, November 1, 2012

[2012] Catalina Toro et al.: (editores) The FARC’s relationship with the narcotics traffic, at least until the second half of the 1980s, grew and changed. It served to consolidate the FARC's army, that which allowed them to go from guerrilla warfare and surprise attacks against small security forces units to permanent and direct offensives against Army and Police bases and operations with a significant defense capacity. However, this relationship with the narcotics traffic had another aspect: on the one hand, control over coca territories and cocaine labs in the South and, on the other, confrontations with the narcos over land rights in the Northern and Eastern parts of Colombia. So, the narcotics mafias, much like traditional teratenientes (large landowners) and rural capitalists, were being aggressed by the guerrilla over territorial domination. Thus, while the guerrilla was building its own State in rural colonization and traditional peasant areas, the paramilitary were appearing in zones where there were the land was rich and its ownership highly concentrated. Minería, territorio y conflicto en Colombia , noviembre 2012

[2012] Medical Marijuana Business Daily: Some Medical Cannabis Stocks Soar After Election as Investors Eye New Opportunities , November 12, 2012]

[2012] Andrés Leonardo Molina Portuguez Abstract “I t recognizes the origin and expansion of illicit crops in Colombia as a result of multiple causes economics, social and environmental, that have produced a reconfiguration of territory expressed in the transformation of rural society and their economic practices. The research did a reading of the evolution of the landscape, rural economies and land holding in relation t o the phenomenon of illicit crops and the policies to control it, taking as a case of study the municipalities of San Pablo and Cantagallo (South of Bolivar), this in order to show and study the new rurality in Colombia generated from the illicit crops.”: Cultivos de uso ilícito y dinámicas territoriales: análisis de los municipios de San Pablo y Cantagallo Sur de Bolívar Colombia Tesis de grado presentada como requisito parcial para optar al título de Magíster en Geografía, Universidad Nacional de Colombia [2012]

Juan S. Sabogal-Carmona y José R. Urrego-Novoa: Quantifying the chemical composition of crack-cocaine (bazuco) samples seized in Colombia during the first half of 2010 (Spanish), February 2012

[1988-2013] Position Statement: Medical Use of Cocaine The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery considers cocaine to be a valuable anesthetic and vasoconstricting agent when used as part of the treatment of a patient by a physician. No other single drug combines the anesthetic and vasoconstricting properties of cocaine. Adopted 12/4/1988; Submitted for Review 4/13/1995; Submitted for Review 3/1/1998; Reaffirmed 3/1/1998; Revised 5/6/2013

[2013] Michael Miklaucic and Jacqueline Brewer (editors): Convergence Illicit Network and National Security in the Age of Globalization (Note: Conveniently reinventing history: “The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, for instance, started out by guarding airfields for the cartels and quickly realized that they could take over the trade themselves.”), Center for Complex Operations Institute for National Strategic Studies By National Defense University Press , Washington, 2013

2013]  Augusto Bonilla: Six reasons why the FARC’s drug proposal makes sense "Seis razones por las que la propuesta de drogas de las FARC tiene sentido, La Silla Vacia, enero 2013

[2013] Juliana Suárez Vanegas Emerging criminal bands (Bacrim) are defined as criminal organizations (macro-delinquency) significantly armed, that carry out activities both depredatory and to take over control of illicit businesses an frequently use violence as an internal disciplinary measure, to set boundaries of specific areas and to force and intimidate third arties in order to uphold the conditions require by their activities. Bandas Criminales BACRIM Observatorio de D.I.H. SV. Francisco Aldemar Franco Zamora, 2013  

[2013]Pierre Salama: Abstract “In most Latin American countries homicide rates are much higher than in developed countries. It increases in some countries, decreases in others or stabilizes. It growths strongly in a few cities but decrease significantly in others since the beginning of the years 2000. The drug taffickers and the evolution or criminal organizations play a special role. The causes of the increase and the reduction of violence are many and complex. Reduce violence when it reaches the level that she knows in many Latin American countries is a bit like trying to do the squaring of the circle. That is the difficulty. There is a set of prerequisites to make the more cohesive society and reduce violence: substantially reduce socio-economic inequalities, promote a more egalitarian income distribution, develop a primary, secondary, and vocational quality education, invent the city policies, improve the quality of institutions, including and especially that of justice and the police, develop a policy of the city as it was done in Bogotá and as it starts to be done in the «pacified favellas» at the Brazil in contrast to what is observed in Mexico where repression is privileged and corruption is very high.” Homicidios, ¿es ineluctable la violencia en América Latina?, Revista Frontera Norte , Vol. 25, Núm. 49, enero -junio de 2013

[2013] Alexander Rincón-Ruiz, Unai Pascual., and Suzette Flantua: Examining Spatially Varying Relationships Between Coca Crops and Associated Factors in Colombia, Using Geographically Weight Regression. “This article addresses the expansion of illicit crops (coca) and the associated socio-institutional andgeographical drivers in Colombia between 2001 and 2008. The analysis is based on a GeographicallyWeighted Regression (GWR) models and shows that the relationships between the analyzed variables and the coca crops are not constant over space. Similarly, it is demonstrated that the factors commonly associated with the expansion of coca crops are not constant with respect to time, as changes can be seen between the years of the study (2001 and 2008). The article finds that the models that include the local reality offer the best way of understanding the factors associated with the expansion of illicit coca cropsin Colombia, a fundamental step in the formulation of effective policies in the reduction of crops for illic ituse (coca).ELSevier, March 2013

[2013] Carlos Andrés Prieto: The Barcim and Orgnanized Crime in Colombia Las BACRIM y el crimen organizado en Colombia, FES Seguridad , marzo 2013

[2013] Etc: La organización interna de las ODIN y BACRIM There is not much difference between a Criminal Organization Integrated with the Narcotics Traffic and an Emerging Criminal Band (Bacrim). March 2013

[2013] Alexander Rincón Ruiz, Unai Pascual, Milton Romero:  An  exploratory spatial analysis of illegal coca cultivation in Colombia using local indicators of spatial association and socioecological variables , Elsevier “Ecological Indicators” 2 de abril 2013

[2013] El Espectador: New self-defence groups asked to be taken into consideration in the peace process. Nuevas autodefensas piden ser tenidas en cuenta en proceso de paz - 28 de junio 2013

[2013] Prensa Rural: El Cataumbo The Catatumbo Peasant Association (Ascamcat), was founded in 2005 by regional rural inhabitants. It seeks the Catatumberos’ dignity and development through the defense and right to their territory, the respect of indigenous communities and all members of the community, an end to aerial spraying and for the eradication of the factors that contributed to coca planting…., 27 a 29 de julio 2013

[2013]  Mujeres de Samaniego Nariño Promote alternatives to substitute coca with traditional crops –Vindicate our ancestors’’ coca right –Investigate cases of women who have been accused of narcotic trafficking to find and punish the intellectual perpetrator.Mujeres del Guaico sus apuestas y sus desafíos ,25 de septiembre 2013

[2013] Lilliam Eugenia Gómez Álvarez:  The Global Rural Policy Forum is to serve as social feedback for the Peace Talks between the Government and the FARC . Some of the issues to be discussed are : -Land-access rights; -Non-productive lands; -Legalizing informal land ownership -The agricultural frontier and protecting natural reserve areas; - Development programs with territorial emphasis; -Infrastructure and making land suitable; -Social development , health education, housing and poverty eradication ; - Incentives for agricultural production and cooperative economies; technical assistance, subsidies, loans, income generation, marketing and formal jobs. Sobre El Foro Político Agrario Integral (Enfoque Territorial) , 25 de septiembre 2013]

[2013] National Forum on the solution to the illicit drug problem Report on Thematic Table Number 5 “Illicit drug production and trade” - Issues discussed: 1-Criminal policy; 2-Ancestral, alternative and traditional use; 3-Agrarian Development,; 4-Aerial spraying and eradication; 5- Corrupting and co-opting; 6- Legalization and regulation; 7-Impacts on women; 8- Prevention; 9-Diferential and regional focus; 10-acknnowledgment and participation. Held on 25 September 2013 Foro Nacional sobre la solución al problema de las drogas ilícitas Informe de mesa temática No 3-Solución del fenómeno de producción y comercialización de narcóticos  [submitted 11 de octubre 2013

[2013] Rodrigo Canales in Ted Talks  The deadly genius of drug cartels  November 2013

[2013] Lorena Carrillo González: Social Consequences of the Cultivation Of Coca in Afrocolombian Communities in Caquetá: Analysis of the Relationship between the Illicit Economy, Traditional Farming Practices, and Their Role in Food Security. Abstract: “This article presents the main results of an investigation into the consequences of the adoption of the cultivation of coca, the productive logic of the illicit economy, and anti-drug policies of the Colombian State have meant for the safety and food sovereignty of Afro Colombian communities in the State of Caquetá. The work was based on extensive field work carried out in the rural area of inspection of Rionegro, Municipality of Puerto Rico. The text examines the role played by the regional history, the social and economic context in the reasons that help to explain the reason for the presence of coca. It gives an account of the main features of the mode of family production that characterizes the coca in the region and finally, and it shows the impact that the counter-narcotics policy has on food security of the communities in the study area. In order to provide elements for the discussion of the alternatives to the cultivation of coca, the article shows how the production practices in the region, both legal and illegal, do not pass through the construction of a project of food sovereignty and fail to meet the basics of food safety." Consecuencias sociales del cultivo de la coca en comunidades afrocolombianas del Caquetá: análisis de la relación entre la economía ilícita, las prácticas campesinas tradicionales y su papel en la seguridad alimentaria. “LJunio 2013]

FARC’s National Program for Substituting Coca , Marihuana and Poppy Crops Used for Illicit Purposes, 2014/  FARC-EP: Programa nacional de sustitución de usos ilícitos de los cultivos de hoja de coca, amapola o marihuana [14 de enero 2014] /More than 14 years ago the FARC had this proposal>

[2014] Laura Bonilla,For a long time the ELN had a particularly difficult relationship with the narcotics traffic; to the point that, in some regions of the country, the dispute almost annihilated the ELN .In Medellin, on the other hand, in the midst of the war between the narcotics traffic and the government, the ELN came to a tactical alliance with Pablo Escobar who favored the expansion of the urban militias and nucleus while the Medellin cartel bands took care of killing the National Police. It is worth noting that, as concerns the narcotics traffic, in the 1980s, the legal country was not the only one to discuss the narcotics issue which likewise also influenced and modified the relationship between the local populations and guerrilla groups and the economies of the areas where it was implanted. ELN y el narcotráfico: una relación peligrosa (Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris),  El Espectador reproduce un capítulo de esa investigación”. Especial para El Espectador. [7 de julio 2014]]

[2014 Juan Ballestas The agreement between the FARC and the government, the way it is now, seems is basically a roadmap for getting the FARC out of the business with the goal of designing a national crop substitution program in the zones under their influence. It deso not seem to be a serious proposal to dismantle the war economy in the hands of the narcotics traffic. As pointed out by several experts, it has left out several the manifold actors and “links” (the guerrilla is just one of these links). Not to mention the fact that it does not really have a strategy for pulling far-off regions out of the historical backwardness they are immersed in. "Una oportunidad perdida: Las fallas del Acuerdo entre las FARC-EP y el Gobierno de Colombia sobre el punto de Solución al Problema de Drogas Ilícitas, Drogas en movimiento, 18 de agosto 2014

[2014] New Colombia Resources Inc. subsidiary, Sannabis SAS, Announces Product Line of Medical Marijuana Based Products in Colombia -President Emeritus of Cannabis Science (CBIS) helping to build a team of experts. Nov 12, 2014

[2014] Jonathan P. Caulkins, Beau Kilmer, Peter H. Reuter and Greg Midgette: Cocaine’s fall and marijuana’s rise: questions and insights based on new estimates of consumption and expenditures in US drug markets [2014]

[2014] Andy Greenber: Silk Road Reduced Violence in the Drug Trade, Study Argues, June 2, 2014

[2014] Jeffrey Miron: “An Economic and Moral Case for Legalizing Cocaine and Heroin”, Cato Institute, This article appeared on Time on July 28, 2014.

[2014] Carlos Fernando Gómez García y Germán Alfonso López Daza: Judicially legalizing personal drug consumption, a challenge to democracy? -Drug use in most of the world has been addressed from a democratic perspective in view of the challenge implied by citizens’ participation in decision making or by the legislative body’s coping with the issue. But Colombia has been the exception since permissiveness and restriction of consumption has been a matter developed by the courts. It is s the Constitutional Court that on the occasion of its various statements has defined the way consumption and the person who consumes should be dealt with. This paper ponders this legal problem. It highlights the Colombian case as compared to that of other countries in Latin America. The research sought to determine whether legalization of psychoactive substances through court rulings is challenging the democratic system or if instead the constitutional body empowered the Courts to intervene in this debate. We have identified and analyzed the regulatory treatment that has been given to the use of psychoactive substances in some of the countries of Latin America. La Legalización por vía judicial del consumo de la dosis personal de droga: ¿un desafío al sistema democrático en América Latina? Justicia Juris, ISSN 1692-8571, Vol. 10. Nº 1. Enero – Junio de 2014 Pág. 102-116

[2015] Maria Mercedes Moreno Andean Until It's Legalized? August 21, 2015

[2015-2016] The law Rural, Economic and Social Dvelopment Aeas /“Zonas de Interés de Desarrollo Rural, Económico y Social (ZIDRES)” was finally passed in 2016 (Law 1776 of 2016) despite enormous academic and social opposition. In 2015, Oxfam and other organizations (many of them peasant organizations and environmentalists) highlighted the fallacies behind this law. Oxfam states that it is a instrument that legalizes irregular land-accumulation by large national and international companies. The hitch is that these are public lands ; land concentration/dispossession of small owners is at he root of the country’s historical internal conflict; and the law does not incorporate peasants as owners or producers but solely as hired hands. Environmentalists, for their part, point out the dangers of letting large agro industries (with their lot of agrochemicals, among other) take over extensive swaths (18 millon acres) of public lands in protected areas and giving them entry with invasive roads and other infrastructure. [2015] Prensa Rural : Zidres: Contrarreforma agraria “Las Zonas de Interés de Desarrollo Rural y Económico son el modelo de desarrollo contrario a la paz y a una reforma agraria integral con visión campesina. La agroindustria se quiere tomar el país. [25 de junio 2015] /Oxfam Colombia: las falacias detrás de ZIDRES, una ley de “subdesarrollo rural” [2015] / Universidad del Rosario  Las ZIDRES: ¿Desarrollo rural o una nueva ley de baldíos? [14 de diciembre 2015] / [2016] Aaron Tauss Sobre la Ley de Zidres, la “reforma rural integral” y el desarrollo capitalista del campo colombiano /[2016] Presidencia en Memoria Histórica: Lo que debe saber de la ley Zidres /Zonas de Interés de Desarrollo Rural, Económico y Social, Ministry of Commerce -invest in Colombia 2016 2016] Hernan Pedraza et a.: Zidres vs Zonas de Reserva Campesina   ¿Cómo entra en Colombia la dinámica mundial del acaparamiento? Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris [21 de septiembre 2016]

UNODC Alternative Development in Colombia

[2015] Jack Grounds: Alternative Development: The market solution to the global supply of illicit drugs in Colombia “This paper looks at how Alternative Development has become the main policy approach in reducing the supply of global illicit drugs. This is the process by which coca farmers are encouraged to switch alternative and licit crops such as coffee and cacao. The paper moves on, to analyse how effective these projects are reducing the supply of licit drugs and improving the lives of the farmers and their communities. This is done by looking at how much drug production has been reduced and how resistant these projects can be in the long term, taking what is known as the balloon effect into consideration. It goes further by examining other local initiatives which have the potential to also reduce poverty and dependency on the cultivation of illicit drugs. It goes on to see how the initiatives such as food sovereignty can be integrated into the export driven economy of Colombia.  It considers the impact of the ongoing peace talks, which may include land reform and rural development. It concludes that a hybrid model of development based on encourages adding value to produce is the most sustainable livelihood option for rural farmers in Colombia.” Aalborg University [2015]

Reuters: Latin America has most unequal land distribution, Colombia fares worst - charityColombia, where two thirds of agricultural land is concentrated in just 0.4 percent of farmland holdings, fares the worst, Oxfam said in a report analysing land censuses and policy in 15 countries over the last 50 years, November 30, 2016

Oxfam: Unearthed: Land, Power and Inequality in Latin America “In Colombia, drug traffickers and paramilitary groups have channeled part of the profits obtained from cocaine trafficking into purchasing land; they now own approximately 5 million hectares, 15 percent of the total area of the country, on which they have established oil palm plantations and cattle ranches.“

[2015] Maria Mercedes Moreno: A Colombia without Coca : A Historical Proposal 15 de enero 2015

[2015] Johann Hari: Chasing the Scream –The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs Batmans Bad Call, Bloomsbery , 2015 

[2015] Clara Álvarez Hoy Clara Álvarez, through a series of interviews, case studies and portraits in difficult and dangerous areas of Colombia, tells us the story of drug production in Colombia, the was it is organized and the effect it has on the people involved in coca and poppy growing, os:  Los pequeños cultivadores de coca y amapola en Colombia _entre ilusión y a miseria/ Petits cultivateurs de coca et de pavot en Colombie -entre illusion et misère, L'Harmattan, 15 de enero 2015

Dr. P. Terrence Hopmann and Dr. I. William Zartman (editors) Conflict Management Program Colombia Understanding Conflict 2015 -Student Field Trip to Colombia [2015]

Paul Gootenberg: Cocaine’s Malleable Past, Stony Brook University, in Beckley’s Roadmaps to Regulation [2016]

María Mercedes Moreno: Growers’ Issues: On the 25th of January 2016, the John Mordaunt Trust under the initiative of Andria E-Mordaunt of Users Voice organized a meeting in the House of Lords on the Need for Drug-Policy Reform in the UK. The meeting was hosted by Baron Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat, and chaired by Francis Sealy, co-founder of the GlobalNet21: Recreating Our Futures networkers which brings people together to discuss pressing issues of the 21s century.

Panacea Chronicles Coca Leaf, Cocaine & People. 1880 vs. 2015. What Has Changed? “….approximately 5000 people per year have died from Cocaine over the past decade, with 2006 at the peak year with nearly 7000 deaths. [ …] On the one hand that is a lot of people – but on the other hand, do 5000 deaths a year out of 1.5 million regular US users justify the enormous police oppression of Cocaine, led worldwide by the US? When you consider that 400+ Tons of Cocaine arrives in the US every year, that means that proportional to what’s coming in not many people die from Cocaine use – not nearly enough to justify the brutal worldwide network of militarized police that “battles” the perhaps largely mythical Cocaine scourge.”

[2016] Amy Sue Biondich and Jeremy David Joslin Coca: The History and Medical Significance of an Ancient Andean Tradition, "The bulk of toxicology research is based on the pure isolate, cocaine, from coca leaves; therefore the extrapolation to the toxicity of whole coca is somewhat limited. However, of the studied biologically active alkaloids in coca, cocaine is the limiting factor in reaching a toxic dose. The physiologic effects of other alkaloids are considerably less than that of cocaine [2]. A toxicity study performed on rats found that the alkaloids benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester did not produce toxic manifestations when infused at rates that were found to be toxic for cocaine [9]. In fact, 30- and 60-fold higher doses of these alkaloids were necessary to produce any neurobehavioral changes, which ultimately proved to be mild. Benzoylecgonine did not prove to be lethal even when given in doses greater than 100 times that of cocaine. [...] The pursuit of continued research from a physiologic or medical perspective will add to the respect of cultural traditions by trying them to give them a venue in which to thrive in our modern world.", Emergency Medicine International [2016]

[2016] Peasants from the Nudo de Paramillo gathered in Tarazá (Antioquia Colombia) to discuss with the Santos Government regarding their situation with coca-leaf crops in this region and to find strategies to defend their right to work. The communities defend their territorial sovereignty. Coca is currently their only livelihood, something they do not do because they want to but because they need to.Primero Foro Cocalero del Nudo de Paramillo 16 de febrero 2016

[2016] Chronology of the history of extradition in Colombia  [2016] Cronología de la historia de la extradición en Colombia 6 de febrero 2016

[2016] Thomas Grisaffi  and Kathryn Ledebur Citizenship or Repression? Coca, Eradication and Development in the Andes, March 31, 2016

[2016] Radio Colorado: Can Marijuana Policy In Colorado Be A Model For Cocaine In Colombia? April 18, 2016]

[2016] NGO Comunidad Tawantinsuyu (Perú), in collaboration with the University of Cauca – CICAFICULTURA Project (Colombia), Open Society Foundations (USA), the Research Centre Drugs and Human Rights-CIDDH (Perú),  the Observatory for Agriculture and Human Rights OCDI GLOBAL-INDEPAZ (Colombia) and MamaCoca (Colombia) are pleased to invite you to this year's version of the : VII Coca Leaf International Forum “The Green Coca: Industrializing, Commerce and Well-Being for the Andean Community” [11-12 de agosto 2016

[2016] Insight Crime: Colombia Elites and Organized Crime, (pdf) 2016

[2016] Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP : The Final Agreement highlighted the fallacy which holds that the FARC is a narcotics trafficking cartel. It showed that our ad hoc interventions in this value chain, particularly through taxation mechanisms, have been a means to fund our rebellion and not to develop a criminal enterprise for te enrichment of its members. Tesis de discusión de la X Conferencia de la  FARC-EP - Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia –

[2016-2017] Beckley Foundation "Roadmaps to Regulation : Coca, Cocaine and Deerivatives (in process) [2016]

[2016] Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The progress made in the drug issue on the peace agenda is good instrument for measuring overall advancements. There is, however an unanswered question which is whether Colombia seeks a country without narcotic traffic or a country without illicit-drug use. Las Drogas y La Paz [22 de diciembre 2016]

[2016] UNODC World Drug Report 2016 -Cocaine market developments Strong decline in coca bush cultivation since 1998- El mareo de las cifras: Global cocaine production 746-943 tons ; cocaine seized 655 tons ; global numbrof users 18.3 million ---"The deduction of purity-adjusted seizures from cocaine production shows a reduction in cocaine available for con - sumption over time, irrespective of whether estimates are based on the “old” or the “new” cocaine conversion ratio. At the same time, global prevalence of past-year cocaine use among the population aged 15-64 remained largely stable over the period 1998-2014, fluctuating between 0.3 and 0.4 per cent, while the number of cocaine users increased (by 30 per cent) from some 14 million in 1998 to 18.3 million in 2014. The increase in the number of cocaine users is attributable to population growth. [2016]



BBC: Club drug testing 'may be useful' says police chief "In Swiss cities like Bern and Zurich, clubbers can drop drugs off for testing midweek and get the results back on a Friday. They phone a drug councillor who gives out harm reduction advice and tells them what is in their sample and its strength. This is all part of a more relaxed view to drugs in Swiss society. Drugs like ecstasy remain illegal in Switzerland but attitudes to small personal possession are more relaxed. Where testing happens, the police appear to turn a blind eye. In Switzerland harm reduction is one of the key parts of national drug policy and testing is part of that." , November 24, 2016

[2017] The history of (illicit) coca in the Bajo Cauca in Antioquia goes back to the 1990s, when this plant pushed mining ventures out. The coca leaf brought with it an economic boom dominated by the paramilitary. Today, this area is known as Antioquia’s cocalero center. It brought abundance but also persecution. In 2008, the State started spraying and the peasants began feeling the consequences and getting displaced. The most affected areas were Valdivia, Tarazá and Caucasia. In 2009, Puerto Valdivia protested against aerial spraying and blocked the highway that connects the interior of the country with the Caribbean coast thus forcing the government to look its way. For the government it is obviously easier to eradicate than to substitute; the former is forced and needs no agreement while the latter demands a financial investment ..…Los desencantos del cultivo de coca [2017]

[2017] ONDCP Releases Data on Cocaine Cultivation (sic) and Production in Colombia Washington, D.C. – Tuesday, March 14, 2017, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the results of the annual U.S. Government estimates measuring cocaine cultivation and production for Colombia. According to the annual estimate, Colombian cocaine cultivation (sic) increased 18 percent, from 159,000 hectares in 2015 to 188,000 hectares in 2016. That figure is a record high. Potential pure cocaine production in Colombia also surged to record levels, increasing by 37 percent, from 520 metric tons in 2015 to 710 metric tons in 2016. Despite increases in Colombian cocaine cultivation and production in the past several years, cocaine use in the United States has remained relatively constant over the last five years—though the latest measures are indicating a slow rise. [14 de marzo 2017]

[to 2017[ National Library of Australia Trove _search ressources

[2017] Juan Carlos Garzón and José Luis Bernal Cocaine Consumption On the Rise? Think Again, InsightCrime 22 de septiembre 2017

[2017] The Economist: Blowing up Britain’s cocaine glut -The drug has become more plentiful—and more potent, December 7, 2017

[2018] Dora Lucila Troyano Sanchez and David Restrepo: Coca Industrialization: A Path to Innovation, Development, and Peace in Colombia, / OSF, ,/Open Society Foundations/ March 2018

Economic Rockstar: Chris Blattman on Crime, Cocaine, Chicago Gangs and the Colombia Mafia. Ep 150, July 29, 2018

[2019] The Guardian: The new drug highway: Pacific islands at centre of cocaine trafficking boom “Explosion in number of boats carrying cocaine and meth from Latin America to Australia is causing havoc for islands on the way.” , June 23, 2019

[2020] Adam Isaacson: The Costs of Restarting Aerial Coca Spraying in Colombia, “Charting eradication and cultivation estimates since the 1990s shows this quite clearly. The 2003-2007 period saw aerial spraying increase to levels never again reached. During that same period, Colombia’s coca crop increased, according to both U.S. and UN estimates. During the 2008-2013 period, coca cultivation went down even as aerial spraying declined, suggesting that the correlation between spraying and reduced cultivation is weak.” WOLA, February 11, 2020

[2020] Kata Karáth: Pandemic upends Colombia’s controversial drug war plan to resume aerial spraying, A 2016 study also found that aerial spraying was costly and inefficient compared with other methods. Planes had to spray 32 hectares in order to achieve a 1-hectare decrease, and the authors estimated spraying cost $2400 per hectare, meaning it cost about $57,000 to eliminate a single hectare of coca. Science, June 11, 2020

[2020] Observatorio de Tierras Forced Eradication: A policy that Kills. “a multimedia report in which we show incidents (confrontations between the public forces and rural populations or other disturbances) that occurred in the midst of forced manual eradication of illicit crops. It draws on a database, created by the Observatory for the Restitution and Regulation of Agrarian Property Rights, which includes records of this type of event starting 2016. We continue to update the database as new such events are registered.” July 14,2020

Crisis Group -Deeply Rooted: Coca Eradication and Violence in Colombia “Coca gives Colombian small farmers a stable livelihood but also endangers their lives, as criminals battle over the drug trade and authorities try to shut it down. Bogotá and Washington should abandon their heavy-handed elimination efforts and help growers find alternatives to the hardy plant.” Report 87 / Latin America & Caribbean 26 February 2021


[2021] Why Colombians Are Resisting May 7, 2021