Peru: Gringo Ambassador Sides with Coca Growers' Leader

And it’s no joke. The United States ambassador to Peru, don James Curtis Struble, just made a certain statement that, of course, the press agencies and commercial media “forgot” to mention. While speaking about the case of narco-trafficker Jorge Chávez Montoya, alias “Polaco” (“The Pole”), who the U.S. government has been wanting to extradite for some time (he even escaped from them in Miami), Ambassador Struble agreed with Peruvian coca growers’ leader Elsa Malpartida.

Before sending Curt Struble – as the State Department knows him – a bouquet or roses in recognition, we’re going to tell you the whole story, and then we’ll move closer in to investigate… let’s go… It turns out that Jorge “Polaco” Chávez Montoya was, as I was saying, locked up in Miami in 1995 for being a narco. But he reached an agreement with prosecutors to let him go (probably by giving up his bosses, but that part isn’t clear). He only had to show up for a hearing where they gave him a minor sentence… and then he fled to Peru, where he is free, though on parole until 2012 for similar crimes there.

And well, the United States wants him back, and is pressuring President Alejandro Toledo’s government to allow his extradition. And this issue has now dragged out for four years. “The Pole” is actually top Peruvian drug boss Fernando Zevallos’ lieutenant.

This afternoon, Struble, tired of not receiving satisfactory responses to his demands, recalled what coca growers’ leader Elsa Malpartida said some time ago about “pursuing the narco-traffickers who wear collars and ties.”

“[Malpartida] is right. These criminals’ offense is the most reprehensible of all in this dirty business. They amass fortunes trafficking deadly products and using that money to corrupt state institutions… We should send a clear message to  these suit-and-tie criminals. We will have their extradition.”

Nice, isn’t it? Now it turns out that what the Bolivian and Peruvian coca growers, the Colombian peasant farmers, several nongovernmental organizations, and many others have been saying for years (that we must catch the real criminals, the ones with power and money), was actually the most sensible idea. Thank you, don Curt, for recognizing in Elsa Malpartida what we have been saying all along.

Now, kind readers, let’s go investigate what could be so important about “Polaco” for the U.S. government that the ambassador doesn’t even mind siding with a Peruvian coca farmer. The issue doesn’t seem quite so simple… stay with us.