Where cocaine raw materials are kept as cash

DNUM_AIZAGZCABG 15:46

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

Cảnh sát đứng gác tại khu vực trồng coca ở Cano Lajas, tỉnh Guaviare.
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 powder 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 fight narcotics production.

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

Bàn tay cuốn kín băng của nông dân thu hoạch lá coca.
The bandaged hands of farmers harvesting coca leaves.
Vận chuyển lá coca trở về chuẩn bị cho công đoạn chế biến bột coca.
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 their crops, but say they have no other choice, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Bột coca lắng xuống trong chai nhựa.
Coca-Cola powder settles to the bottom of the plastic bottle.
Bột coca sau khi được lắng lọc và cô trên bếp sẽ trở thành ’tiền’ để mua các nhu yếu phẩm cho nông dân địa phương.
The coca powder, after being filtered and condensed 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.”

Phần lương thực có giá trị tương đương 55 gam bột coca (110.000 peso Colombia, tương đương 800.000 đồng).
The food portion is worth the equivalent of 55 grams of coca powder (110,000 Colombian pesos, equivalent to 800,000 VND).
7 gam bột coca sẽ đổi được ngần này thịt gà, cá và trứng.
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 through 2018.

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

Central South

(According to Reuters)

RELATED NEWS

Featured Nghe An Newspaper

Latest

x
Where cocaine raw materials are kept as cash
POWERED BYONECMS- A PRODUCT OFNEKO