We are...

a network of active citizens who care for their peoples and countries: academics, activists in peace organizations, specialists in the field of crops used for illicit purposes, agrarian leaders and researchers from the Americas and Europe. Our initiative was born in response to the growing militarization and environmental destruction of the Andean Region as of the focus given to the Plan Colombia. Initially, we developed a social transnational network —the Plan Colombia and Illicit Crops Network— to exchange information which would allow us to analyze and join efforts against the escalation of Colombia's internal conflict, against criminalization of indigenous and peasant coca-growers, against the displacement of Colombians from their homes, and against the threat of biological warfare.

With Mama Coca we are proposing a journal from which to open a public debate with the analytical and well-supported elements required to grasp the complexity of Colombia's domestic conflict and the particularities of the 'drug' issue in the Andean-Amazon Region.   We wish to propose fact-founded and viable alternatives to the simplistic military proposal of the Plan Colombia in order to temper growing regional militarization, the Andean Counterdrug Initiative. The publication of this journal is a manifest attempt at promoting a think tank through which we might exchange valuable information with our fellow academics, activists, analysts and journalists with the aim of furthering the understanding required to put forward collective, regional, feasible, peaceful proposals for the Americas.

The ties among the people that developed Colectivo Mama Coca owe their first start to Darío González Posso's knowledgeable co-coordination and wise counselling and to Gonzalo Sánchez's encouragement. To the cooperation of academics from the Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales (IEPRI) de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia and to professors, such as Jaime Caisedo and Jairo Estrada and others from this same university. To Ricardo Ávila's down-to-earth approach and Margarita Serje's alternative outlook. To the generosity of those who have sent in their studies for this and later publications; to  Bruce Bagley, Charles Bergquist and other academics from the US, Canada and France. To the timely response of Pierre Salama and Alain Labrousse founder of the former OGD. To the open-minded possibilities offered by France, crossroads of multiple influences and the Institute des Hautes Études de l'Amérique Latine (IHEAL) and its contribution to a pluridisciplinary approach of the Latin Americna issues. To Jean-Michel Blanquer. To our Bolivian colleagues Mauricio Mamani and the Yatiri Carlos Yujura. To Mama Coca Friends our dear Peruvian colleagues, Baldomero Cáceres, Nancy Obregón Peralta, Hugo Cabieses y Ricardo Soberón. To dedicated researchers such as María Clemencia Ramírez, Bernardo Pérez Salazar y Henry Salgado Ruíz. To Yamile Salinas, Astrid Puentes and Elsa Nivia (Rapalmira) and their advocacy and exhaustive research on fumigation. To the path to peace opened by Anthony Henman, Camilo González Posso and Eurpean and US scholars and activists through their experience and alternative proposals. To the dedicated translations of Mónica Lalinde-Moreno and Jean-Marc Langé's linguistic support. To the valuable contribution made by the Illicit Crops Network of the Universidad de los Andes and technical support of Andrês A. Medina. To the social leadership of Mama Coca Friends David Curtidor, Fabiola Piñacué and Alejandro Mejía Rengifo and the interest shown by our readers which makes this pluralistic debate possible by expanding our knowledge and outreach.  To so many others whose support, advice and proposals have made it possible for María Mercedes Moreno to coordinate this project.

Mama Coca encompasses those of us who wish to think, research, write, and inform with the endeavor of reorienting regional plans towards the building of more equitable societies where peace and local empowerment may prosper.

Mama Coca is founded on the dream that other worlds are possible and would like to thank the Tides Foundation for making this plural social advocacy possible.

We require your interest, participation and initiatives. We convene those interested to send in their articles, proposals and suggestions. To this end, please contact: mamacoca@mamacoca.org

—INCOMUNICADO—

Mama Coca whishes to state that it is an autonomous civil-society association and acts with complete independence as regards other institutions, political movements and parties. That the documents posted, disseminated and written by those of us who constitute Mama Coca do not necessariy represent those of all of Colectivo Mama Coca's pluralistic friends, unless explicitly acknowledged.