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In Peru's Mountains, Indigenous People Turn from Coca to Legal Crops
FrontLines - August 2009
By Marcela Cardenas
Pongo De Caynarachi, Peru—The highway is amazingly
smooth and modern and we are making good time. Then suddenly,
we round a bend on the mountain road and come upon a small landslide that happened just moments before, and our four-truck caravan comes to a halt.
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Sangamayoc residents undertake the eradication of 25 acres of
illicit coca in their community.
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Paul Weisenfeld, USAID’s director in Peru, right, is greeted
by Sangamayoc Mayor Decio Angulo.
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The road, which is part of a key network that will eventually connect the Atlantic to the Pacific through Peru and Brazil, is vulnerable to the harsh geographic
and weather conditions of the northeastern Amazon rain forest. This section was recently completed by private builders who won the right to manage and maintain it through a Peruvian government concession process supported by USAID.
Luckily, we are rescued by the private sector cavalry: a maintenance crew in a bulldozer
removes the rocks, trees, and red mud from the road.
In 15 minutes we’re on our way.
We are traveling with Office Director Paul Weisenfeld to Sangamayoc, one of 924 communities working with the USAID Alternative Development (AD) program.
When a community decides to join the AD program, it commits to a coca-free lifestyle, and calls in the Peruvian government to eradicate the illegal coca grown in the community. In the case of Sangamayoc, the community discovered
a short time ago that 25 acres of coca had been planted in their area, but they didn’t want to wait for the government agency to get rid of it.
A community assembly discussed
the situation and decided to eradicate the coca themselves,
and to do it immediately, before narcotraffickers could harvest it. Taking advantage of the Holy Thursday holiday, a group of about 50 men, women, and young people brandishing machetes set out for the coca-riddled area.
Decio Angulo, mayor of Sangamayoc, had some uncompromising
words to say on the occasion:
“Today we have undertaken a fight against drugs with a protest
march for the welfare of the population and particularly the children.
“People from outside the community have come to taint the image of the community. They only came here to sow and harvest the coca for their dirty business. Coca cultivation is like bacteria that must be
eradicated out of the community.
Today we will get rid
of the coca crops that were trying
to creep on us like bacteria.
“This is a historic day in which we will remove things that are a serious problem for the population. We are all marching together: men, women, and children, and we are eradicating that vermin from our society.
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Jenny Vernooy of USAID’s Alternative Development Program in Peru breaks a ceremonial pottery
vase containing corn liquor in Chirikyacu during the inauguration of an electrification project.
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Sangamayoc community members sing the Peruvian national anthem.
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“We have chosen the licit life because with illicit crops, people are never happy. There can be no progress for the people
because although they can get money in no time at all, it is money which is ill-obtained. It is money that does not bring peace and which leads your children by your example, even as infants, through a very dangerous
path.”
Seven hours later, the job was done. Hundreds of fully grown coca plants were slashed and ripped out of the ground in a joint community activity known as minka in the Quechua native language. Sangamayoc was once again coca-free.
Upon arrival, we are greeted with fresh coconuts from which we sip while taking part in a community assembly that is celebrating
the recent joint action. Several speakers reaffirm their commitment to a licit lifestyle and wax poetic about their bountiful
cacao crops which USAID has helped to plant and improve. One after the other, their remarks make it plain: Sangamayoc is finished with coca and the violence
it brought to this community.
Nunca mas coca.
After the assembly and visiting
some community highlights, we are regaled with lively indigenous music and dancing provided by a band and a group of women and children in bijao fronds Amazonian attire. These are the wonderful perks of
our job.
We travel on to Yurimaguas, which is gearing up to be the key Amazon basin port for commerce between Brazil and Peru. The next day begins before daylight as we depart for Chirikyacu, another AD-supported community located at a higher elevation.
The excellent highway again allows us to make good time, but after a couple of hours we have to take the dirt road leading
to our destination. The recent tropical downpours have turned the road into a sea of mud, forcing the drivers to make the most of their skills and the rest of us to hold on tight and stare out in utter disbelief throughout the two-hour drive.
We arrive at the community, where we are to take part in the inauguration of an electrification project that will bring power to the indigenous communities of Chunchiwi, Aviacion, and Chirikyacu. With USAID providing
the investment and the community the labor, we have been able to bring modernity to a very remote area.
The native Quechua-lamita culture is evident in everything in sight. The women are dressed in their colorful best, with ample skirts, dozens of ribbons and necklaces, and an almost stern attitude, which is typical of these people, while the men wear their head and neck kerchiefs
with utmost dignity.
Children shyly sing a welcome
song for us in Quechua and the ceremony gets started with the words of the Apus of each of the three communities. Apu in Quechua means mountain, but it is also, fittingly, the title of the leader of the community. They all acknowledge the importance of having left behind the days of violence and uncertainty when illegal coca was grown in their territories, and thank USAID for its assistance, which includes profitable cacao and coffee crops in addition to the electrification.
Weisenfeld speaks about true development depending upon community participation and close collaboration with local authorities and, above all, the efforts of families and individuals
who seize the future in their own hands. He tells the attentive audience to keep their eyes on the prize, which in the context of development is a safer, healthier, and more prosperous future.
The actual inauguration includes the unveiling of a plaque, the breaking of a corn liquor pottery container, and, finally, the climax is reached when Weisenfeld and the three Apus turn on three ceremonial light bulbs which are hanging in the center of the town square amid tropical flowers. The electrically charged moment is followed by much cheering and clapping.
Afterwards, we visit a carpentry
shop which can now use electricity for sawing timber, and one of the homes that owns a TV set. The USAID-supported
health post now has a computer holding all the community records. The possibilities seem endless.
The time to leave Chirikyacu has come. We have to catch the plane to Lima and the road is now blocked by a couple of trucks stuck up to their axles in mud. We’ll have to take another road, one which crosses a river with no bridge, which is rapidly rising with the last copious days of rain. But that’s another story… .
Marcela Cardenas is a program
management specialist in USAID’s Peru office. She traveled
to program sites in April with Peru Office Director Paul Weisenfeld and Alternative Development Program chiefs Mike Greene and Jenny Vernooy.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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