Word: cocas
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...tobacco or alcohol. (However, the study also found that the U.S. is among the leading countries in the percentage of respondents who have tried tobacco and alcohol). As for the popularity of cocaine, the reason may simply be the close proximity of South America, the world's only coca plant producer. And finally, Anthony notes, it's a matter of culture: the U.S. is home to a huge baby boomer population that came of age when experimenting with drugs was a part of the social fabric. "It became a more mass-population phenomenon during a period when there were...
...victories to show these days. The secret to its survival from here on out, according to many FARC-watchers, is not military muscle but drug money. Life in the Cordillera Occidental, where TIME recently spent three days with the 18th Front, revolves around cattle ranching and coca cultivation. The FARC collects what it calls "revolutionary" taxes from coca farmers and drug traffickers, both of whom pay a $90-per-kg duty on every sale and purchase of unrefined cocaine in that area. Similar tariffs nationwide - and ransoms earned from kidnapping - are said to net the FARC hundreds of millions...
...drugs has been used for war against the guerrillas," Comandante Alberto notes. Plan Colombia, which has afforded Colombia's military U.S. hardware like Black Hawk and Huey helicopters, making it difficult for the rebels to concentrate in large units, has been successful in hobbling the FARC. But coca cultivation in Colombia rose in 2007, according to a new U.N. report. A widespread fear is that the remaining members of the FARC will become full-fledged drug lords...
...gains in recent years, the comandante is confident in his front's abilities to defend its own turf. As soon as the military enters the 18th Front's territory, the FARC usually hears about it from its large network of civilian informants. Many of them rely on FARC-protected coca cultivation for their livelihoods, but others are simply poor rural residents who have been beaten down for decades by the military and still believe in the FARC's original social-justice crusade. The guerrillas dress in civilian clothes and can be hard to distinguish from local farmers, and the difficult...
...teachers, farm laborers, health workers and even locals who have spent more than a year outside the area must secure the FARC's permission before they can enter. The 18th Front remains the only authority for miles around, executing thieves, suspected informants and anyone who tries to evade the coca taxes. And despite the area's narco-economy, drug consumption of any kind is strictly forbidden - to such a draconian extent that a few days before TIME arrived, guerrillas executed two drug addicts in the nearby town of Puerto Valdivia...