Years of efforts to reduce coca crops in the Andes by aerial spraying and manual eradication and, to a lesser extent, alternative development programs have had little success. UNODC estimated that combined coca cultivation in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru largely remained stable at a high level between 2004 and 2006. ONDCP now admits not only that 2006 may have seen higher production figures than the peak year of 2000 but also that the 2007 flow of cocaine out of South America exceeded previous record highs. Andean cocaine production potential and availability of the drug in the U.S. and European markets has stabilised at a high level.
Transnational trafficking organisations and cocaine retailers across the Americas and Europe have not been controlled. To the contrary, they have proven capable of adjusting to law enforcement and interdiction by adopting new forms and methods, exploring new routes or reopening old ones and expanding their reach. Despite an increase in seizures worldwide until 2006, there are no convincing indications that availability has been interrupted for any significant length of time in the U.S. and Europe, or the growing Southern Cone markets. Experienced traffickers avoid ostentatious displays of money and power and opt for stealth and corruption in moving hundreds of tons of cocaine annually, relying on street and criminal gangs as retail distributors.
Political tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, which has become an important trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine, U.S. inability to control its 2,000-mile border with Mexico and limited EU disposition to coordinate among member states on more rigorous interdiction efforts are major obstacles to supply reduction. The latest flare-up between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, following Colombia’s raids on a FARC camp in Ecuador, while seemingly resolved by diplomacy, is likely to futher complicate border cooperation. But while more cooperation on and from both sides of the Atlantic is certainly needed to reduce cocaine supply, it will never be sufficient. It is, therefore, at least equally important to focus on preventing coca cultivation in the first place through more ambitious alternative and rural development programs in the source countries.....
Latin American Drugs
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