CUBA: FARC rebels say coca leaf should not be erradicated

Record ID: 349801

  • Title: CUBA: FARC rebels say coca leaf should not be erradicated
  • Date: 28th November 2013
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (NOVEMBER 28, 2013) (REUTERS) FARC REBELS ARRIVING FOR TALKS CAMERAMAN FARC REBELS MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (SPANISH) REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA (FARC) LEAD NEGOTIATOR IVAN MARQUEZ, SAYING: "If we agree coca is not the same as cocaine, it seems illogical that in order to end with the problem of drug trafficking, we would have to eradicate a plant tha
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2WKL8LX2AK5NSRDZ0P2OCRU1J
  • Story Text: As Colombian government and FARC negotiators in Havana begin discussing illicit drugs - the third item on a five-point peace agenda - FARC negotiator Ivan Marquez said on Thursday (November 28) that eradicating the coca leaf was not the answer to reducing cocaine production.

    "If we agree coca is not the same as cocaine, it seems illogical that in order to end with the problem of drug trafficking, we would have to eradicate a plant that could provide benefits to humanity. The rigour of repression and the punitive measures taken against the criminality that goes with the processes of production, commercialisation and the consumption of the so-called illicit drugs, derived from processing coca lead or other plants, should not fall on the farmers, when the main benefits of the illegal business are the financial empires of the world," said Marquez at the start of a new round of peace talks in Havana.
    Over the last decade, the Colombian government has cracked down on cocaine labs hidden in the jungle and the small-scale farmers producing coca, the raw ingredient used to make cocaine.
    Notorious drug cartels have been dismantled, and a U.S.-backed military offensive against the drug-funded FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and other insurgent groups has helped cut shipments of cocaine overseas.
    A peace deal between FARC rebels and the Colombian government would greatly help cut cocaine production in Colombia, but officials fear new crime gangs could fill the gap while anti-narcotics police fight a new scourge: synthetic drugs.
    The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has been fighting the government in a jungle and urban conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people in the five decades since it began as a peasant movement seeking land reform.
    The slow pace of talks left many believing the latest effort would fail as had previous attempts to end the bloodshed.
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