http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us Hi Everyone, after some months waiting for the story to come out, I can finally post the links to the cocaine coverage that I just published on Mother Jones Magazine, showing the effects of drug trafficking on the indigenous people of Bolivia. PHOTOGALLERY: http://www.motherjones.com/photos/bolivia-cocaine-traffickers/ ARTICLE: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/bolivia-a-bitter-leaf.html VIDEO MOTHER JONES: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/coca-stompers-of-bolivia.html VIDEO on YOUTUBE (faster loading): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25r9NV1dbuY I will be also shooting a 90min. video documentary on this story, from September to January. Take a look at: http://www.rethinkentertainment.com/productiondevelopment.html Every comment, suggestion or advice is wellcome. Hugs, Marco Vernaschi Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:53:00 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story I've only made it through the gallery... BUT IT'S BRILLIANT. I love every image. I love your use of black through out the piece, some dark shadows, the dark boots. Love it. Amazing piece of photography, and amazing piece of journalism. What access. Couldn't wait for the next photo. Great stuff. When I have a bit more time, I'll be reading the article and checking out the video. Thank you for sharing this. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:02:15 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125631 complimenti marco. lavoro molto interessante. when you going back in there? Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:40:54 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125635 Very impressive, unbelievable how kids get involved in it. How did you manage to get people recognizable on your photo's and film? Regards, Michiel Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:08:06 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125644 Buenisima marco. Felicitaciones Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:53:10 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125663 Hi all, Thanks a lot for your comments and questions. The people I've been working with in Bolivia were happy to share their stories and reality. I simply explained them that my point wasn't to denounce them or the cocaine trafficking, but to show the readers how the growing demand for cocaine affects the life of those who are someway forced to produce it. MICHIEL: As for the legal issue of showing their faces: we must approach that thinking as the lawers do. No one can prove that the white powder and rocks in the bags are cocaine. There is no material evidence about that. That's why the counter narcotic police make chemical test on the drug they size - even though it's obvious that is cocaine - before to proceed with the arrest. Beside the legal issue, it's almost impossible that the Bolivian police will see this essay, and even though the would they will never spend time looking for this people. They simply don't need my pictures to arrest this farmers, and frankly they are not their prioritary target. MARCO: I'll be back in September through January, for the documentary. CARLOS: Gracias. Como anda todo por alla? Espero tu proyecto siga bien. Abrazo Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:50:51 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125686 Congrats, amazing photos, finally the other side - hope it makes a daily - more people need to realise the war on drugs just devastates lives & offers no real solutions - as all wars do! Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:51:18 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125696 Ya lo sabes; esta es mi reportaje preferida y vos mi fotografo preferido :) espero que puedas seguir asi, contando la verdad. Gracias!!! Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:07:13 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#125753 Gracias Zara - espero verte pronto algun dia... porfavor, muestrame tu nuevas fotos!! - Abrazo Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:37:11 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126007 Very weel done Marco! Bravo! Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:02:59 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126036 A mi también me gustó, Marco. Te adentraste en un territorio difícil y sacaste un buen reportaje que abarca distintos ángulos del problema. Felicidades. The missing part, always, is the driving force. The invisible ones who make all the profit off of peoples´misery. That´s the truly dangerous story, the one that people die trying to tell. Perhaps it´s just there in the Hummers, the big parties, and the posh, respectable hotels, etc. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:46:00 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126040 Hi everyone, I want to thank all of you who sent me emails with comments and questions. I wouldn't ever expected such interestin this issue. To answer to all the questions at once, I decided - maybe against my own interest - to publish here a part of the story that nobody in the US seems to be interested to talk about. Why? Read and you'll understand. PS: I apologize for my English, just remember that I'm Italian.... The First thing that must be clear is that coca and cocaine are two different things. There's a lot of confusion on that... Cocaine doesn't have ANY medicinal value, while the coca leaf does. Behind the coca leaf there's a big issue: The billionaire interests of the pharmaceutical industry, especially in the US. An international UN law bans the trade (import/export) of the coca leaves, as the plant is listed as a primary ingredient to make narcotis. For this reason, the US Gov. provides a unique, special licence issued by the Drug Enforcement Administartion (DEA)to a US based chemical company, which name is Stepan. This licence is in total contrast with the international agreements. An Illinois-based chemical company, the Stepan Company, is the only one in the planet allowed to import coca leaves from South America. Stepan Chemical Company have a special licence issued by the DEA that allows the exportation of tons of coca leaves every year, mostly form Perù and Bolivia. Stepan sells the coca syroup to CocaCola, which use it to flavour the popular soft drink, after processing the leaves to extract the alkaloid of the cocaine. CocaCola make almost 500.000 bottles of beverage per day, turning the cheap leaf into gold. Moreover, Stepan makes more billions selling the cocaine alkaloid to the pharmaceutical industry, in the US and in Germany. At this point, some big contraddictions need answers: First, why should the US Administration fight to eradicate the coca crops, being the coca plant the essential base for a billionaire market that makes the USA rich, and fuel some of the strongest lobbies that endorse the Government? Second, how the US Administration would explain the contraddiction of the same Federal Agency, the DEA, simultaneously trying to destroy every single leaf of the holy plant and then granting a chemical Company with a unique licence that allow to trade the same plant? Beside the previous questions to be answered, the former coca-farmer and current President of Bolivia, thought it would make sense for his Country to enter this exclusive business, being Bolivia one of the three only Countries in the world where coca grows. How to blame him? One of the answers to such questions has to be searched in the multibillionaire machine that feeds the lobby close to the US Gov. through a 660.000 million per year contract given to the DynCorp, a paramilitary private contractor that works in the Coca region (Bolivia – Colombia – Peru – Ecuador). As for Bolivia, DynCorp is officially training “police forces”. Such police forces are actually some paramilitaries loyal to the extreme right-wing Bolivian party Nacion Camba led by Branko Marnovich who is preparing to destabilize Morales’ Gov. Morales aims to enter this market, turning the coca crops into one of the Nation’s economical strengths. Before Morales was elected, Stepan Chemical used to buy huge quantities of leaves from Bolivia, and they also built a factory/storage in the Chapare region on this purpouse. But after the indigenous President came into office the Company moved on to Peru to buy most of the leaves, turning Bolivia into a marginal supplier. In order to offer to the chemichal and pharmaceutical industry - and to CocaCola - the essential element which is at the base of their business, Morales’s Government - with the aid of Hugo Chavez - invested 400.000 USD to build the first factory ever to process the coca leaf in the Bolivian region of Chapare, and he’s working to change the UN law that bans its trade. The UN response to his efforts, however, is discouraging. The UN released an official act in March 2008 asking the Bolivian and Peruan Gov’ts to ban even the traditional use of the coca leaf in their territories, transforming an already complicate political issue into a cultural issue. In the same time Internation Crisis Group released in late March 2008 an historiacal report about the failure of the War on Drug in South America. If the Nation may rely on a legal and rewarding coca-based business, it would be logic to think that the indigenous people of Chapare would gradually move toward a legal business, leaving the cocaine production behind, not to mention the interest of the foreign pharmaceutical companies to invest in the Country. Morales’ controversial friend Hugo Chavez and the revolutionary chages brought by the policy of nationalization of Bolivia’s natural resources – including the coca crops – led the US Gov’t. to study a special plan, in order to keep control over tha nation. If Morales should achieve his goal on the legal coca market, the US would lose a billionaire market and the chemical and pahrmaceutical industry that lives on the cocaine alkaloid may choose to invest in Bolivia, dealing with better prices and a more flexible tax regime. This would virtually cut the US out of the heart of Latin America: Perù may follow the example of Bolivia. Colombia would remain the only South American Nation where the US still have control, but surrounded by enemies in and out of its borders. To avoid this scenario the Bush Gov’t. sent a special person in Bolivia: the current US Ambassador Philip Goldberg. Golberg was the Department’s Bosnia Desk Officer who studied and organized the fragmentation of the Balkans in the 90’s, known as Balkanization. He was previously based in Pristina - Kosovo - and he was suddenly displaced in Bolivia few months after Morales came into office. He brought with him a lobby of investors from the Balkans, who are represented in Bolivia by Branko Marinovich (Bolivian leader of the Morales opposition) – ...but not a tipical Bolivian name. The goal is to replicate the fragmentation scheme of the Bakans in Bolivia. The indigenous President is facing now facing a political war in his own Country, against the right-wing opposition. Their strategy is to move the Capital City from La Paz to Sucre, creating a block of Eastern regions (called the Half Moon) that would isolate the left-wing, western regions that support Morales. The Half Moon is the rich area of Bolivia, where oil and gas reserves supply Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and where a flourishing agriculture make the difference between the poor regions of the Altiplano and Tropic of Cochabamba. The Half Moon is mostly inhabited and ruled by mestizos and european descendents who letterally hate the indigenous. The strategy to achive the separation of the Country is throwing fuel on the burning fire of racial hate. Just like it happened in the former Jugoslavia, in early the 90’s. The opposition party, La Nacion Camba, is secretly training some paramilitaries with the suspected endorsement of the US Govt., and the on-site supervision Philip Golberg. THAT'S ALL - hope it helps to have a more clear idea of the real situation. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:41:37 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126075 Marco Thanks very much for sharing this information. It's sinister, indeed. I just met a white Bolivian woman at the airport who was making a strong case for removing Evo Morales. It's good to have a more informed opinion of the situation, more than just a racially motivated attack on an "indigenous" president. ahi estamos en contacto. DAvid Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:10:04 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126079 Marco Felicitaciones, por fin un reportage con el tiempo y la profundidad que el tema se merece en Bolivia. Dado Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:47:08 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126166 Great work Marco, well done! Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:47:09 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126178 Great Work, Marco! Keep on! Cheers, Armando Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:20:25 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126205 Wow, Marco! Photo #9 struck me deep. Keep up the fantastic work. Alex Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:54:58 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#126324 great job!! Now i'm working on a story about 'ndreangheta, an italian mafia that is the first trader of cocaine in europe, when i finished i want to show you the story, cheers Filippo Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:53:00 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/cocaine-story#128023