Colombia is the largest producer of coca and cocaine in the world. This is reflected in hundreds of videos published on TikTok, in which young Colombians show their work in coca plantations and clandestine laboratories, where coca leaves are processed to produce cocaine. One of these young people, contacted by our newsroom, says that many peasants live from coca, but that drug traffickers are the ones who control this industry.
According to the UN, two-thirds of coca crops in the world are found in Colombia: in 2020, the country recorded 143,000 hectares of coca planted. It is the world’s largest producer, ahead of Peru and Bolivia.
The coca leaf plays an important role in Andean cultures, due to its stimulating properties, among others. However, it is also used to produce cocaine, the use of which can be extremely addictive. Colombia is the world’s leading producer of this drug: according to the UN, 1,228 tons were produced in the country in 2020, shipped largely to North America and Europe.
Producing coca and cocaine is illegal in Colombia. However, many young Colombians post videos on TikTok showcasing their work in this sector. Several of these videos have up to tens of thousands of views. We share some in this article, but we delete the names of the TikTok accounts that spread them, to avoid putting their authors at risk.
“Raspachines” in coca plantations… and on TikTok
Most of the videos show sunny coca plantations, sometimes accompanied by upbeat songs. Some “raspachines” – the workers who collect the coca leaf – are visible.
Montage of three videos recorded in Putumayo, showing coca plantations. In the first, the following is heard: “Friends, I send you greetings from Putumayo. See, it’s the famous ‘pecueca’ (name of a kind of coca, NDLR). This crop is to be harvested this week.” In the second video, a “raspachin” is at work. © TikTok.
In one of the videos, a “raspachin” explains how he bandages his hands, in order to protect them, before starting to remove coca leaves from a bush.
“Hello friends (…), I am going to make this video for those who (asked) how I tied my straps,” says this young man, at the beginning of the video recorded in Putumayo. Then he shows his technique to protect his hands, with straps. ©TikTok.
Several videos also show “raspachines” that raise imposing bags, full of coca leaves.
Montage of three videos recorded in Putumayo and Cauca: they show “raspachines” that lift large bags full of coca leaves. ©TikTok.
“In Putumayo, many people live from coca”
‘Juan’ (pseudonym) is a young man active on TikTok. He stopped studying around the age of 13, and began to grow coca several years ago, in the department of Putumayo (border with Ecuador), mainly for economic reasons.
I have a one-hectare piece of land, where I grow a type of coca called “orejona blanca”, but there are many species.
Video posted by Juan, recorded in Putumayo: you can see the land where he grows coca. ©TikTok.
In one hectare, 220 arrobas (2,750 kilograms, NDLR) of coca leaves can be harvested every three months. The price of an arroba is 32,000 pesos (7 euros, NDLR), so I can earn 7 million pesos (1,585 euros, NDLR) every three months. But there are a lot of expenses too, so I only have about 1.3 million pesos (294 euros, NDLR) left over every three months. The expenses include the poisons I use against the insects, the payment of the workers who help me to harvest the leaves…
In addition, I also work on larger plots of land, which belong to relatives. There, we grow coca, harvest the leaves, and process them in a laboratory (clandestine, in order to produce cocaine, NDLR).”
Video published by Juan, recorded in Putumayo: it shows a piece of land that belongs to his relatives. In the audio that accompanies the video, you can hear: “I prefer to get involved in drug trafficking than to fall in love again, it hurts less.” ©TikTok.
In the laboratory, first, we grind the coca leaves with a machine, and then we add lime and ammonium sulfate. Then we grind everything again.
Montage of three videos recorded in Putumayo and Cauca (the first was published by Juan): coca leaves can be seen being ground in clandestine laboratories. ©TikTok.
Video posted by Juan, recorded in Putumayo: a person adds lime and ammonium sulfate to ground coca leaves. ©TikTok.
Then, we pour this mixture of leaves into a tank, where there is gasoline. An hour later, you have to separate the leaves from the gasoline, which comes out through a tube”
Video published by Juan, recorded in Putumayo: at 0’06, you can see a bucket, where the gasoline arrives, after being separated from the mixture of coca leaves. ©TikTok.
At that time, you have to pour acid water into the gasoline, and mix everything. That generates a liquid that looks like oil. Then there are additional stages, with more chemicals [soda cáustica, entre otros, NDLR], to produce the “base” of coca. It’s what we do in the lab where I work. And to produce cocaine as such, there is one more stage [que implica el uso de ácido clorhídrico, NDLR]…
Montage of two videos recorded in Putumayo, showing some stages of the manufacture of cocaine. ©TikTok.
When I work on the land of my relatives, they pay me between 40,000 and 80,000 pesos [entre 9 y 18 euros, NDLR] per day: it depends if I only harvest the leaves or if I have to help them in the laboratory.
“The advantage of working in illicit crops is that you can meet your goals faster”
Basically, with that and what I earn with my own land, I can earn between 1 and 1.2 million pesos. [entre 226 y 271 euros, NDLR] per month. If I had a legal job, I would not earn more than 900,000 pesos [es decir 203 euros; en Colombia, el sueldo mínimo es de 253 euros, pero hay que descontar varias cotizaciones sociales, NDLR]. Several years ago, I worked in a supermarket: it was not that interesting financially. The advantage of working in illicit crops is that you can achieve your goals faster: for example, buy a motorcycle, build a house…
Personally, I started working in coca because there is a lot of work in this sector. In Putumayo, many people make a living from that.
According to the UN, more than 200,000 families worked on coca plantations in Colombia between 2016 and 2018, that is, around one million people (2% of the population).
Video recorded in the south of Colombia, in which a worker fumigates coca leaves. ©TikTok.
“Clearly it is not the peasants who earn the most, but the drug traffickers”
Alexander Sánchez is a social leader in Putumayo, spokesman for the National Coordinator of Coca, Poppy and Marijuana Growers (COCCAM). This organization defends the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the government and the former FARC guerrilla, especially the points on “comprehensive rural reform” and the “solution to the problem of illicit drugs.”
In Putumayo, and in Colombia in general, there are not enough jobs. There are young people who finish their studies and who cannot find work. [Oficialmente, la tasa de desempleo era de 13,7 % en el 2021, pero de 21,5 % entre los jóvenes, NDLR.] So many people go to work on illicit crops, as they require a lot of labor, especially at harvest time. For example, eight people are needed to catch 200 arrobas [2.500 kg, NDLR]. It is a real source of employment.
Also, the advantage of working in this sector is that people can earn more, if they work hard. However, it is clearly not the peasants who earn the most, but the drug trafficking groups to whom they must sell their products.
The government is responsible for this situation, because it does not attend to the needs of the people, it does not make social investment”
Expect the second installment of this report soon.
This article was adapted from his original in french