Coca's roots (35 images)

Coca, the sacred leaf, has lived with the Andean people for more than seven centuries. Aymara, Inca, and Spanish colonizers used the properties of the leaf on their profit. For indigenous people it is strength, life and spiritual food, for the Andean workers it is healing, energy and food.
Coca, the damn leaf, has lived with the Andean people since 1859. Criminal gangs, governments and even politicians have used the properties of the alkaloid on their profit. For the corrupt governments...
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Coca, the sacred leaf, has lived with the Andean people for more than seven centuries. Aymara, Inca, and Spanish colonizers used the properties of the leaf on their profit. For indigenous people it is strength, life and spiritual food, for the Andean workers it is healing, energy and food.
Coca, the damn leaf, has lived with the Andean people since 1859. Criminal gangs, governments and even politicians have used the properties of the alkaloid on their profit. For the corrupt governments it is power, money and decline, for Western governments it is an enemy, epidemic and death.
Around 21 million people use cocaine in the world and there is a world production of 850 metric tons. This phenomenon provides employment to thousands of farmers and modifies the rural environments where it is cultivated.
But it is from the 80s when major changes occur in this environment. The emergence of drug trafficking as the great global enemy brought undercover wars and narco-states to these rural areas, which were profoundly affected and changed forever the traditional and ancient structure.
Today, farmers faces a new war, in this case an ideological war to wash the global awareness about a product, the coca leaf, that they consider honorable and necessary for their culture. Unlike other rural, coca allows unique survival rates and prevent mass migration to cities.
On the other hand the security forces of the states affected by the scourge of drug trafficking are under pressure by the occidental countries to eliminate and combat cocaine production. Mostly with small means despite the international aid. This has led to internal clashes between security forces and peasants, creating a climate of hatred and intolerance in rural societies.
The future of these farmers and the men who form the security forces depend on decisions made by powerful men hundreds of miles away from their home, decision affecting both legal and illegal area of this plant sacred or damn by the prism used.
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