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From: Jaime Durand Palacios
To: Maria Mercedes Moreno
Sent: jeudi 28 mars 2002 18:55
Subject: STOP THE COCA WAR NOW !
Dear Sir,
We are in a lot of trouble. Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru are under a US military treatment that is based upon the criminalization of the coca leaf and its byproducts. The sovereignty and democratic future of South America's crawling democracies is imperiled by US military bases placed with the excuse of the Coca War. Or worse, we will have to fight among ourselves for peanuts while they get the beef.
We see media misinformation growing by the day and the US actions to place a military boot upon our countries are clear. We know The People of the US are not represented by these forces and we are concerned about global stability under such central political and economic power.
However, the events in history are fortituitous. The legalization of drugs advocated by the British police is a unique and timely flower that could help to bring peace, happiness and freedom to our land instead of coca prohibition related corruption, war and poverty that leads to more abuse of our natural resources by foreign interests.
Help will be appreciated. Our local media says nothing of your achievments because "there is no political space" for any drug legalization talk. However we know that that is the solution to all the violence the US seems to sponsor. Repression, cohersion and blackmail was part of the Montesinos-Fujimory-USA supported regime that continues to keep the secret agenda towards the militarization of make-believe democracies, centralized Coca drugtrafficking and the political control of our non-renewable natural resources. A little information and education regarding human behaviour could change attitudes here and we could escape war based on the belief that the extermination of the Coca leaf is justified.
Enclosed a short article for diffusion. Thank you.
Jaime Durand and Herman Berger
SAY NO TO WAR – The darker side of drug-trafficking
Considering that war brings about poverty for lack of investment and that such destitution would favour the sale of our natural resources (especially the non-renewable ones) at the lowest prices, we wonder if it is in Peru’s best interest to support the US drug policy. The way it has been designed, this policy would perpetuate – on behalf of the war against terrorism – a regional problem which we might well call the coca war. Washington would be using double standards in their policy if the Justice Department still does not capture and try the untouchable “heads” of cocaine distribution in the US, whilst at the other end (ours) there is the intention of eliminating the intermediaries (FARC included). For this reason we do not believe there is the sincere will to reduce drug trafficking on behalf of those who sponsor prohibition’s spiral of violence. Rather, this war responds to “foreign” economic interests (which control first world governments and armed forces), and is aimed at consolidating the management and increasing the huge profits made from the prohibition of coca and its derivatives. Such prohibition guarantees the high price of cocaine and ensures a handsome market for weapons dealers.
Exhibiting the pretext that coca leaves are a health hazard (WHO, 1992), the US-sponsored military policy pretends to place on the Andean countries the unilateral responsibility of “curing” first world cocaine addicts by means of a lengthy war of coca interdiction and eradication (ecological destruction). But the campaign to eradicate coca is even more nonsensical, for its leaves have healing properties and an agro-industrial value that no crop substitution programme can match. There is a huge international market (awaiting legitimacy) for coca tea, bubble-gum (used as a mild stimulant similar to coffee and tobacco), dyes, textiles, wine, pharmaceutical cocaine, etc.
In the US there are vast plantations of tobacco leaves, a scientifically proved poison, with which cigarettes are made and exported with health warnings, constituting a multibillion dollar business which is unquestionably legal. On the other hand, coca leaves used properly, that is, within Andean and Amazonian tradition, is beneficial and has killed no-one. There should be reciprocity between American traditions. Giving coca leaves a bad name is a pretext to perpetuate, through a lengthy war, the unnecessary and unfair destitution we suffer, resulting from a colonial monetary, financial and privatizations state of affairs.
The recent bloody events in Bolivia resulting from the forceful closure of the coca-leaf market, the manipulative silence of the media, the disinformation concerning US-sponsored “anti-drug” activities during the dictatorial regime (1990-2000), the meddling in Peruvian politics by the current US ambassador, and US President George W. Bush’s visit to Peru, associated to an escalation in the violence and militarization of the region, suggest that those who participate in coca-leaf eradication campaigns are not being consequent with the principles that lead to democratic and free civilization, which we deserve. Encouraging the coca war, prohibition and the subsequent militarization hinders the democratic development of the Andean world. In consequence, we believe that de-criminalizing coca and its derivatives, together with its free trade, would lower its price, and without the wealth to buy weapons, a war that we do not deserve would be averted.
Jaime Durand and Herman Berger
A LA GUERRA DILE NO - La otra cara del narcotráfico
Considerando que la guerra genera pobreza al no haber inversión y la miseria favorecería la venta de nuestros recursos naturales a precios viles (especialmente los no-renovables), nos preguntamos si es de interés nacional apoyar la política antidrogas de los Estados Unidos. Tal como está diseñada, esta política perpetuaría - a nombre de una guerra contra el terrorismo - un problema regional que bien podemos denominar la guerra de la coca. Habría doblez en la política de Washington si el Departamento de Justicia aún no captura y pone ante la ley a los intocables “capos” de la distribución de la cocaína en los EE.UU., mientras en el otro extremo (el nuestro) se intenta eliminar a los intermediarios (las FARC incluidas). Por esta razón no creemos que exista un interés sincero en disminuir el narcotráfico por parte de quienes auspician el espiral de violencia prohibicionista. Más bien, vemos que esta guerra responde a intereses económicos “de ultramar” (que dominan a los gobiernos y fuerzas armadas de los países más poderosos) y que está dirigida a consolidar la administración y a aumentar las enormes ganancias producto de la prohibición de la coca y sus derivados. Esta prohibición garantiza el alto precio de la cocaína y asegura un atractivo mercado para los vendedores de armas.
Con el pretexto de que la hoja de coca es dañina (OMS, 1992), la política militar que auspicia EE.UU. pretende delegar a los países andinos la responsabilidad unilateral de la cura de la drogadicción en los países desarrollados mediante una guerra prolongada de interdicción y erradicación de la coca (léase destrucción del ecosistema). Pero la campaña de erradicación de la coca es una insensatez, pues su hoja es medicinal y tiene un gran valor agroindustrial. Existe un mercado mundial para productos como el té de coca, chicles de coca (usado como estimulante semejante al café o al tabaco), tintes, textiles, vinos, cocaína farmacéutica, etc.
En EEUU existen extensas plantaciones de hoja de tabaco, un veneno científicamente demostrado, del que se fabrica cigarrillos que se exportan con advertencia de salud, resultando esto en un gigantesco negocio que es incuestionablemente lícito. Por otro lado, desde antes de Hipólito Unanue se reconoce que la coca, usada correctamente, es decir dentro de la tradición andina y amazónica, tiene propiedades benéficas y no mata a nadie. Las tradiciones americanas se deben reciprocidad. La satanización de la hoja de coca es un pretexto para perpetuar, a través de una guerra prolongada, la innecesaria e injusta miseria que vivimos, producto de un estado colonial en lo monetario, financiero y las privatizaciones.
En Bolivia, los recientes eventos sangrientos por el forzado cierre del mercado de la hoja de coca, el silencio chicha de la prensa, la desinformación sobre la actividad “contradrogas” del régimen fujimontesínico, la intervención del actual embajador de EE.UU. en la política interna, la venida del Presidente Bush al Perú, asociado a la escalada de violencia y militarización en la región, nos hacen pensar que los partícipes de las campañas de erradicación de la hoja de coca no son consecuentes con los principios que conducen a una civilización democrática y soberana, como nos corresponde. Fomentar la guerra de la coca, la prohibición y la consecuente militarización, atenta contra el desarrollo democrático del mundo andino. Creemos consecuentemente que la descriminalización de la coca y sus derivados, así como su libre comercio, bajaría su precio, y al no haber con qué comprar armas se evitaría una guerra que no nos corresponde.
Jaime Durand y Herman Berger
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