Language

Super coca?

Submitted November 26, 2007 - 4:05 am by Dan Feder
The central argument of this text is one that Kalmanovitz and others have made many times before. But it has been a long time since the once-vocal legalization movement in Colombia was really speaking out on the issue. Seeing this article in today’s El Espectador by such a high-profile writer, soon after the victories of potential allies in October’s local elections here was quite hopeful.

But a couple things should be said Kalmanovitz laments the appearance of “genetically engineered” coca. More than three years ago, journalists began repeating rumors of these new strains of “super-coca.” No real evidence ever surfaced and the rumors were debunked by Narco News and others at the time.

And given the emphasis he places on the guerrillas’ role in trafficking, we should mention that really very little of the drug trade’s profits reach the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The government’s own Financial Information and Analysis reported in 2005 that the FARC’s annual take from drug trafficking was only around $11 million – not chump change by any means. But if that figure is true, compared to the one percent of GDP ($4 billion) Kalmanovitz cites as the total drug trafficking profits that stay in Colombia, the guerrillas’ income is a just tiny fraction.

Reply

Our Policy on Comment Submissions: Co-publishers of Narco News (which includes The Narcosphere and The Field) may post comments without moderation. All co-publishers comment under their real name, have contributed resources or volunteer labor to this project, have filled out this application and agreed to some simple guidelines about commenting.

Narco News has recently opened its comments section for submissions to moderated comments (that’s this box, here) by everybody else. More than 95 percent of all submitted comments are typically approved, because they are on-topic, coherent, don’t spread false claims or rumors, don’t gratuitously insult other commenters, and don’t engage in commerce, spam or otherwise hijack the thread. Narco News reserves the right to reject any comment for any reason, so, especially if you choose to comment anonymously, the burden is on you to make your comment interesting and relevant. That said, as you can see, hundreds of comments are approved each week here. Good luck in your comment submission!

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

User login