By Jesper Klemedsson – The Vrae valley in Peru is one of the worlds leading producers of coca for cocaine. Colombia and Peru are flip-floping as the world’s largest supplier of coca and producer of cocaine.
Every year coca leaves sufficient to produce 285 tones of high quality cocaine are harvested in Vrae. At the same time 92 percent of Vraes inhabitants lives below the poverty line and nearly 47 percent lives in extreme poverty. The farmers are at the very bottom of the cocaine food chain.
Coca farmers harvest the coca plant in the village of Santiaro. In Vrae, a state of emergency is in place since 30 years. Some 70 percent of Peruís total coca production are produced in Vrae.
Colombia and Peru's flip-flop as the world's largest supplier of coca and producer of cocaine.The Vrae valley, Peru. Sacks of coca leafs are loaded at dusk. The village of Villa Progresso are as the rest of Vrae, impoverished. The latest statistics from UNICEF showed that 92 percent of Vraes inhabitants lived below the poverty line and nearly 47 percent lived in extreme poverty.
Every year coca leaves sufficient to produce 285 tones of high quality cocaine are harvested.Vrae Valley, Peru. When school is finished, work takes over. 14-year-old Miguel Eguabil fills sack after sack of sun-dried coca in the village Santiaro. That children help out with the harvest is more the rule than exception.Clothes are hanging out to dry in Santiaro. Margins for Vraeís coca farmers are nonexistent. That is why most farmers rather sell to drug cartels, who pay almost the double to what the state owned Empresa Nacional de la coca, Enaco, pays.The village Unido Mantaro. During the Peruvian civil war, coca farmers where trapped between the army and the guerilla Sendero Luminoso. So the farmers organized themselves, and the government armed the farmers to fight the guerilla. They are now disarmed at most places in Peru, but the ronderos of Vrae have refused to put down their weapons.Rozario DueÒas Valvin, 22 years old, in Unido Mantaro.Stuffed bags. Of the domestic coca production, only a tenth, goes to what can be described as traditional consumption. The rest goes through a chemical process to become cocaine. Cocaine that later are exported to the European and North American market.The sun sets over the village Santiaro. The last couple of hours of sun are being used to finish the ongoing football game.Coca fields as far as the eye can see.Early morning in Unido Mantaro. Susan Sanchez Diaz, 23 years old, with her daughter in the lap. The latest statistics from UNICEF showed that 92 percent of Vraes inhabitants lived below the poverty line and nearly 47 percent lived in extreme poverty.A local business provides canned food, toilet paper, pasta and other products that are imported from other parts of the country.The self-defense committee of Unido Mantaro, the so-called Ronderos, has called an early morning meeting. Residents stand in line while the fog lifts over the jungle.Teodoro DueÒas Lezorbe, 40 years old in the village Unido Mantaro.Maria Gonzales Huaman on her way to wash clothes on the outskirts of Unido Mantaro. Her daughter Maria Isabel and niece Emerin walk by her side.Coca dries in the sun. Vraeís economic dependence of the coca plant is a product of ecological circumstances as well as political factors. Tropical fruit thrives in the tropical climate, but the regions infrastructure is severely neglected, making it difficult to export fruit to nearby cities. Alternative crops such as coffee and cocoa give only one harvest a year, compared with coca that gives three harvests. Additionally they give a lower price per kilo. What remains is the resilient and constantly demanded coca plant.
