Where cocaine raw materials are used as cash

(Baonghean.vn) - While the Colombian government is close to a historic peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, the country's authorities are also struggling to contain the increase in coca cultivation, the raw material used to make cocaine.

Police stand guard at a coca growing area in Cano Lajas, Guaviare province.

In the Guyabero region, where many people work on coca plantations, locals exchange coca paste for food at local stores.

The leftist FARC rebels agreed in 2014 to cut ties with drug traffickers, help eradicate illegal crops like coca and help combat narcotics production.

But authorities accuse the rebels of failing to eradicate illegal coca growing areas and of maintaining their ties to drug trafficking.

The bandaged hands of farmers harvesting coca leaves.

Transporting coca leaves back to prepare for coca powder processing.

The latest UN figures show a significant increase (44%) in coca cultivation in 2014, reaching 69,000 hectares in the South American country. The US government estimates it was 159,000 hectares in 2015.

Many farmers, who earn an average of $1,000 a year, are aware of the dangers of the crops, but say they have no other choice, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Coca-Cola powder settles to the bottom of the plastic bottle.

The coca powder, after being filtered and concentrated on the stove, will become "money" to buy necessities for local farmers.

“The government doesn’t want to solve the big problems we have here,” said Orlando Castilla, president of the Guaviare Farmers Association. “We look like we’re rich, millionaires at the national and international level, but in reality we don’t know what to live on.”

Férin Oviedo, representative of the Guayabero Regional Farmers Association, said that coca, unlike the government, helps local people have “a way to sustain their family life in all circumstances.”

The food portion is worth the equivalent of 55 grams of coca powder (110,000 Colombian pesos, equivalent to 800,000 VND).

7 grams of coca powder will exchange for this much chicken, fish and eggs.

Even Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas, who has deployed some 7,000 troops to eradicate coca in the country, has admitted that production of the crop is likely to increase until 2018.

“That is if everything goes well,” he added.

Central and South

(According to Reuters)