Andean Region, Coca/Cocaine, Crime, Feature, Insurgency, Law & Justice, Lima, Politics, Provinces

Peru military Joint Chiefs commander: coca eradication in cocaine-producing jungle valley “an error”

The head of Peru’s military Joint Chiefs of staff said it would be a mistake to start eradication of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine, in the Apurímac and Ene river valleys, VRAE, because of the social chaos it would cause among the majority of the poor inhabitants who eek out their living on the illicit crop.

Peru is the world’s second largest producer of coca, after Colombia, and its government has long carried out manual eradication in the the country’s Nº 1 coca-producing region, the Upper Huallaga Valley, but not in the VRAE.

The isolated jungle valley is a hotbed for drug traffickers and their hired guns — mostly guerrilla remnants of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency — who regularly carry out deadly roadside ambushes against police and assassinate local officials in retaliation for raids on cocaine processing labs.

“You can’t do in that zone what has been done in the Huallaga, which is forced eradication … at least not this year,” Navy Adm. José Aste Daffós told journalists in comments widely reported in Peruvian newspapers Friday. “There won’t be eradication, at least for now, since we don’t want a social explosion.”

Production of the alcoloid-packed leaf in the VRAE has risen steadily from 14,170 hectares in 2002 to 16,019 hectares last year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

“Ninety-five percent of the zone is dedicated to the cultivation of coca leaf and if we go in to eradicate, we would generate a very big social social problem. I believe it would be better to establish a subsidy for farmers to replace the coca planting,” Aste said. “It’s fundamental that we win over the population.”

The malnutrition rate hovers above 50 percent in the valley, located that confluent river borders separating the rural departments of Ayacucho, Cusco and Apurímac, and 60 percent of the population earns a monthly average of 450 soles, or about $155, Aste added.

He said the priority now is to intercept and limit the flow of the toxic chemicals used to distill and process coca into cocaine: kerosene, hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, acetone and ether.

The armed forces and the national police of Peru are finishing up the elaboration of a plan to hit the most critical points and decrease the entry of these chemicals,” he told daily Peru.21. “This plan must begin as soon as possible and, for that reason, in the next few days I am going to meet with the director of the Peruvian National Police.”

Defense Minister Antero Flores Aráoz, reacting to Aste’s comments, told daily La República that erradication is necessary, but “one must know when.”

“You cannot leave this population without a living overnight. You cannot erradicate if you don’t first have an alternative for these people,” he said.

Comments are closed.