Coca and Cocaine: An Andean Perspective

This remarkable analyis of the problems of coca leaves and cocaine traffic in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru provides an Andean perspective on drug production and consumption. The Peruvian Peace Research Association has compiled an expert in-depth study of the historical and political aspects of drug traffic in the Andes, relationships between the governments of the producing and consuming nations, and the need for worldwide collaboration to develop a global approach to drug control. This study is must reading for students, scholars, and policymakers dealing with drug use and trafficking and for all who are interested in Latin American concerns.

Following a foreword by Giuseppe di Gennaro, executive director of the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control, the study defines the coca-cocaine phenomenon in Bolivia, the socio-economic and political impact of drugs in Colombia, and the illicit drug trade in Peru. Key proposals for working out common solutions to the problem of drugs in Latin America are presented in the last chapter.

FELIPE E. MAC GREGOR, S.J., editor and president of the Peruvian Peace Research Association, is the author of Violencia Estructural en El Peru: Marco Teorico (1990). Other works on the drug problem and violence in the Andes are in progress.