Behind the war on drugs
Amnesty International, and the Peace and Justice Service, as well as the political fronts and parties of Latin America (in particular those grouped in the Sao Paulo Forum), are beginning to mobilize against this US aggression and in solidarity with the Colombian people. Also diverse
NGOs, solidarity groups in Europe, the US
ONE of the fictions that the US Plan Colombia is based upon is and Canada, together with personalities that the aid destined for the Colombian military and police is part like Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano,
Jose Saramago, Dario Fo, and Danielle of a war on drugs being waged in the name of civilisation.
Mitterrand, among others, have signed a
Manifesto for Peace and Human Rights in
GEAROID O LOINGSIGH*
Colombia.
All these mobilizations and campaigns demand: full respect for national
THAT the US government is interest-
Stage two: The second stage involves sovereignty and human rights; the dismantling of paramilitarism, the immediate end to that unfolds in US cities many of which when the trade began it was the drug lords state terrorism, and the ending of impunity for those guilty of innumerable massacres; the withdrawal of the 300 US military "advisors" and an end to any foreign intervention; as well as respect for the autonomy of the social, peasant and indigenous movements — including in the zones controlled by the armed insurgency and "dialogue with social justice" as a condition for peace.
7. The sections and sympathizing and fraternal organizations of the Fourth International participate in these movements and campaigns and in the battle against the media intoxication that, beneath the cloak of the war against drugs, seeks to neutralize the actions of a great number of NGOs and social and democratic movements. Simultaneously, we insist on the necessity of engaging in the development of a broad, plural and unitary campaign of solidarity with the popular and indigenous movements and organizations, not just in Colombia but also in Ecuador and Peru, which are directly targeted by the repressive strategy of Plan Colombia.
The forces of the Fourth International agree also on the necessity of emphasizing the class nature of this war and the legitimacy of insurrectional struggles which are in practice struggles of anti-capitalist resistance against the local oligarchies and the expression of a concrete anti-imperialism. In such conditions, the next World Social Forum (Porto Alegre, January 2001) is a militant opportunity to incorporate the consequences of the Colombian and regional conflict into the discussions and debates against capitalist globalization, and on political and social projects for a radical transformation of society. *
Led in waging war on drugs would be laughable were it not for the tragedy were opened up to the international drugs market by US officials in dirty deals to finance counter-insurgency operations in Latin America. However, within this fiction there is another equally dangerous lie and that is that the peasant farmers who grow the raw materials for drug production, i.e coca leaves and heroin poppies, are the people behind the drugs trade alongside the armed insurgency (FARC and ELN). Common sense would indicate that this is not so. It is worthwhile though taking a look at who actually does control the illegal drugs trade.
### Six stages
There are six stages in the production and distribution of cocaine. As we advance along the chain of production the actors involved change as does the value of the product, needless to say so also does the profit margin.
Stage one: This primary stage involves the clearing of land for planting. Given that coca is grown mainly in the Amazon and Orinoco watersheds planting of coca often involves the clearance of tropical rainforest. In the case of Colombia peasant farmers engaged in coca production are colonists officially awarded tracts of jungle as part of "agrarian reform". Most of these peasants have fled precarious economic situations in other parts of the state and increasingly they have been forced off better more productive land in other parts of the country by state backed paramilitaries engaged in "counter-insurgency" operations. Within six months of planting the coca plant will give its first crop and will give five or six harvests per year thereafter.
the peasant farmer breaking down the harvested leaves into a coca base. Initially who broke the leaf into a paste. However, the technology required to make coca base is quite rudimentary and the capital investment required is relatively low compared to other stages thus making it inevitable that peasants would eventually branch into this stage of production. The primary ingredients are cement, gasoline and sodium bicarbonate, all relatively cheap and easily accessible. We say relatively because whilst these substances are almost household items the transportation costs of getting them into the Colombian Amazon are quite high.
Upon sale of the base the peasant receives U$1,000 per kilo. Each hectare of land produces five or six kilos of base per year. The average amount of land under coca production per peasant is three hectares. So a peasant can expect to earn between U$15,000 and U$18,000 dollars per year. At first glance this seems to be a hefty sum in country where the mass of the population live in poverty. However, the peasant's profit per kilo is only one tenth of that, i.e US100 dollars per kilo or US1,500 to U$1,800 per year given the high cost of the raw materials needed. This, coupled with the higher cost of living in jungle areas where everything has to be imported and where little infrastructure exists to facilitate the movement of goods, leaves the peasant farmer in poverty. (The lack of infrastructure for the movement of goods is also a factor in the production of coca base. Peasants who cannot profitably get their produce to markets in saleable condition encounter no such problems with the non perishable coca base which is moreover collected by the buyer and is small enough to be transported upon one's
International Viewpoint #326 December 2000 17
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Colombia *
* Colombia person requiring no investment in mules or river transport).
Once the base has been sold the peasant's contact with industry ceases. It is then in stage three taken to technologically advanced laboratories requiring a relatively high capital and technological investment where it is industrially processed and turned into cocaine. It is at this stage that cocaine begins to acquire a real lucrative value. In the 1980s this industrial stage was controlled by Colombian Mafias, the now infamous Medellin cartel led by Pablo Escobar and the state sponsored Cali cartel. Today however, the power of these two cartels is no more and other competitors have flourished both within Colombia seen either as criminals but as victims of these same Mafias.
These illegal Mafias are not the only North American European capitalist companies that make a profit from the drugs trade. In such. This is not to say that no front of the and in other Latin American countries each stage of production there is a parallel ELN has had any involvement or contact Mexico in particular is one country which may come to dispute Colombia's dominance of the industrial production of cocaine.
### Importation
Stages four and five involve the importation into the northern markets and its wholesale. It is between these two stages that the cocaine changes hands and its value rockets. Having changed hands the product is now in the hands of North American and European Mafias who make most profit. 85% of all the profits made in the cocaine trade are made in the north by these same mafias. If we consider that the peasant farmer initially sold on the coca base for U$1,000 the same kilo (there is a slight loss in volume in the processing but for our purposes a kilo of base produces a kilo of cocaine), this is then sold in the US for U$100,000 and in Europe for US150,000.
We are of course talking about pure cocaine before it is adulterated previous to street sale, the ultimate stage. Although we have talked about cocaine the same chain of production is to be found with heroin. Synthetic drugs such as ecstasy, however, are produced by capitalist Mafias in the north requiring no raw materials from the south. It is quite obvious that the peasant farmer is not in control of the chain of production. Lacking the technology and capital for the stage of industrial refinement of the coca base he is hardly in a position to have any say in subsequent stages. The peasant farmer should be seen not as a narco-trafficker but as cheap labour for international Mafias. Likewise the consumer and the addict should not be 18 International Viewpoint #326 December 2000 legal economy which like its illegal coun terpart is more lucrative at each stage. From the initial stage where the peasant buys cement to further stages where transport is required and arms bought both legally and illegally. In the industrial production stage the Mafias require acetone and ether in order to make the paste into cocaine. The two largest suppliers of acetone and ether to the legal market in Colombia are the US and Germany. All of this is money is legally generated although it forms an integral part of the illegal drugs industry. Indeed the illegal drugs industry would have difficulty surviving were it not for the parallel legal economy which accompanies it.
### Tax havens
We have not yet mentioned the banking and stockbroking companies through which the profits of the drugs industry are laundered. There are many tax havens that ask few if any questions about where the money has come from. Even where there are obstacles to the laundering of profits they are not insurmountable. It was calculated by the OECD in the 1990s that the international drugs trade generated profits in the region of half a trillion dollars per year. Of this 56% flowed into the US financial system alone!. The US government has not pursued either the chemical companies or the banking institutions.
What then of the FARC and the ELN? Of the two guerrilla groupings it is the FARC which has the most problematic relationship with the drugs trade. ELN has publicly stated that it considers the drugs trade to be a crime against humanity and should be punishable as with the drugs trade. The FARC on the other hand control some of the largest coca producing areas in Colombia. They levy a tax on the export of coca paste from the areas they control. This tax is paid by the drug baron and is calculated on the basis of street sale price in New York. Here begins and ends the FAR's relationship with the drugs trade; or at least all evidence would seem to indicate that this is the case. Even the US State Department's report on Colombia for 1999, published in March 2000, states that there is no evidence to link the FARC to the importation of drugs into the US and reaffirms that the FARC levy taxes on the coca base. The report interestingly enough does point to paramilitary involvement in the drugs trade.
The drugs trade is a northern industry. It is controlled by Mafias in the north which make most of the profits and it is an essential industry to the maintenance of the capitalist financial system which can ill afford to suddenly lose half a trillion dollars. Hence little action has been taken against those who really matter in this industry.
The criminalisation and demonisation of peasant farmers in Colombia owes more to political expediency than any reality about the control of the drugs trade. If every last peasant farmer in Colombia were to stop producing coca the people who dominate all of the other profitable stages in the chain of production would simply source their raw materials elsewhere as all good capitalists do. * *This article is primarily based upon a seminar given in Dublin May 2000 to addicts and community workers by the Corporación René García as part of Latin America Week 1. Noam Chomsky Cuadernos Africa-América Latin 1996.
End "all out war"!