Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,soc.culture.colombia
From: [S--Y--A] at [SUVM.SYR.EDU] (Sergio Rivera)
Subject: Re: War on drugs
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 03:52:13 GMT

                   Copyright 1992 Westview Press, Inc.
                             War on Drugs
              Studies in the Failure of US Narcotics Policy
                                1992
 
SECTION: Part two: Latin America's cocaine traffic; Chapter 5; Pages 93-
124
HEADLINE: Colombia's cocaine syndicates
BYLINE: By Rensselear W. Lee, III; Rensselaer W. Lee, III, is an
associate scholar of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in
Philadelphia, a consultant on international narcotics enforcement, and
author of 'White Labyrinth: Cocaine and Political Power.'
 
   Considerable evidence documents turf disputes between Peruvian (and
Colombian) traffickers and the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)
guerrillas. However, Sendero has made inroads into the cocaine paste and
base industry in the Upper Huallaga Valley by exploiting both conflicts
between Peruvian traffickers and their sense of nationalism (i.e., their
hostility toward the Colombian buyers). The trafficker-Sendero balance of
power in the Upper Huallaga Valley now favors Sendero, which reportedly
collects an estimated $ 20 million to $ 30 million each year by taxing
the cocaine trade, largely shipments rather than laboratories. Buyers for
the Colombian cartels have negotiated prices for coca paste and cocaine
base directly with guerrilla representatives. (28) The significance of
such payments must be viewed in context, however: traffickers sometimes
pay off local military commanders, the anti-narcotics police, and Sendero
for the same planeloads of cocaine leaving the Valley. A source at the
Institute of Liberty and Democracy in Lima reports that for one shipment
of cocaine flown out of the Uchiza municipal airport in late 1991,
traffickers paid bribes totalling $ 13,800: $ 1,200 to the police guard
at the airports, $ 3,000 to the local military command, $ 2,800 to the
town of Uchiza (for civic improvements), $ 4,800 to the Peruvian anti-
narcotics police at Santa Lucia (a nearby staging area for interdiction
missions), and $ 2,000 to Sendero Luminoso. (29)
 
   A second and related axiom holds that the narco-guerrilla nexus is
much*stronger in the upstream phases of the industry (cultivation and
low-level processing) than in the downstream phases (refining and
distribution). Guerrillas in both Colombia and Peru provide political
guidance and armed protection for coca-growing peasants who must contend
with government eradication programs and exploitation by drug dealers. In
Peru, for example, Sendero has established a floor price for coca leaves
in the areas that it dominates politically and militarily.
 
Notes
 
(28) ''Con sofisticados equipos terroristas orientan a avionetas de
     narcotraficantes.'' 'El Comercio.' June 29, 1991, p. A12. See also:
     Gordon McCormick. 'The Shining Path and the Future of Peru.' Santa
     Monica: Rand. 1990, p. 22.
 
(29) Interview at the Institute of Liberty and Democracy. Lima. October
     1991.