COLLUSION BEHIND COCAINE PROFITS

The Big Issue: Drugs And Ethics

Cocaine is not the cause of Colombia's problems. (World, last week). The
guerrilla war started long before the cocaine trade took off. Poverty and
inequality, exacerbated by unfair international trade laws, are to blame.

Coffee used to be Colombia's biggest export, but since the rich countries
destroyed the international coffee pricing agreement in 1989 the coffee
price has collapsed, causing misery not only in the Colombian countryside
but across Latin America. Peasants grow coca-leaf because it is the only
crop from which they can make a living.

Grace Livingstone London N6