Business is still booming in the land of Escobar
aiming their land and people who ave offered to substitute coca for ther crops like coffee and cocoa nder a government scheme. People hose land was stolen and who have emanded it be returned have also een targeted. Land is at the heart of the armed conflict here. The paramilitaries and ELN buy arms and ammunition from coca leaves, illegal mining and palm-oil plantations.”
In Nueva Esperanza back down the river villagers spoke of an army helicopter ELVIA FLORES ON ARMY RAID AGAINST HER VILLAGE bomb attack as recently as December. They had to scramble for shelter in the dead of night as soldiers strafed their homes to flush ELN rebels from a hideout in the forest.
We are taken down a track on motorbikes to be shown fragments of the bombs that were dropped and bullet casings from the raid.
Erasmus Ortiz-Sierra, 74, tells me they are “always under threat”. “We have had to learn to protect ourselves,” says Erasmus, who was forced here in the late 1990s after FARC militia took his home village. “It is still bad today. Where we have narco-traffickers
we have armed groups. As
Mirror’s Tom Parry at secret drugs lab
Casings picked up after paramilitary attack long as we have coca crops on our territory, we are affected. They are fighting for rent of the land.”
Mum-of-four Elvia Flores chips in: “The paramilitaries are a terrible worry. They have made us all anxious. We are on the front line.
“That raid was so terrifying, so loud, the houses were shaking. The children were screaming, shouting for help.”
Her children stop playing, becoming quiet as their mother talks.
For them, cocaine is not a harmless recreational drug, but the fuel bringing violence into their lives. DRUGLORDS El Chapo and Pablo Escobar COLOMBIA remains the undisputed cocaine capital of the world.
The trade, exploited for decades by ruthless druglords like the late Pablo Escobar, has been fictionalised in a string of films and TV series including Netflix hit Narcos.
But the grim reality is production hit record levels in 2017, rocketing by around 31% yearon-year to some 1,400 tonnes – worth $2.7billion (£2billion) in the local market.
The white powder is shipped to countries all over the world including Britain and the US, which is the world’s largest consumer. Colombia, backed annually by around $400million from the US, has fought for years against cocaine farmers.
Schemes have included using drones to spray coca crops with herbicide, which sparked criticism after the World Health Organization warned the chemical could be linked to cancer.
In 2017, the South American nation signed a $300million agreement with the UN to compensate farmers who switched from growing coca to other crops.
But the cocaine trade still thrives despite a peace deal in 2017 that ended five decades of armed conflict with rebel group the FARC.
And it was back in the spotlight last week when Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was found guilty in a New York court of drug trafficking.
El Chapo, who led the Sinaloa Cartel, became the most powerful narcotics boss in the world by shipping cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the US.
The billionaire, who faces life in prison, has bragged of killing around 3,000 people.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted last month that he was worried by increased coca leaf production in Colombia, adding that the two countries would work together in a bid to halve output by 2023.
He said: “The United States remains deeply concerned about the surge in cocaine production in Colombia since 2013.
“We know we must do our part to reduce demand in our country and we’ll work alongside you here as well.”
Colombian president Ivan Duque, who was elected last August, said more than 80,000 hectares of illicit crops were destroyed in 2018 and the government would target a further 100,000 hectares this year.
But Colombia says more money is needed to persuade farmers to grow less lucrative crops. MIKE POMPEO US SECRETARY OF STATE
We are on the front line. The raid was so terrifying, the houses were shaking. The children screaming for help
The US is concerned about the surge in cocaine production