Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: economic, politics, Latin America, Colombia, crime, drug trade
Format: hardcover
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library
Toby Muse takes us on the journey of a kilo of cocaine from the coca fields of Colombia to the smuggling of cocaine out of Colombia. Along the way, he meets and talks to all sorts of people from coca farmers to dealers and assassins to law enforcement and drug lords. It is a fascinating journey that looks at not only the drug trade but also how that trade drives corruption and violence in Colombia. To make matters worse, the U.S. War on Drugs does little to help given that the United States is the largest consumer of cocaine, its biggest customer. Wherever cocaine goes, money, flash, and power follow for some, but after the initial boom soon misery, violence, and destruction follow for most everyone else anywhere near the cocaine trade.
Muse pays attention to detail, and he also weaves an interesting and engaging narrative. Very often the writing is lyrical, poetic, and rich in imagery, specially when describing the countryside. At times you feel like you are there. The narrative is well paced, and it draws you in. It is just a very interesting read. In addition to being entertaining, we learn about Colombia, its people, its politics, and geography. We go from farms to poor slums to night clubs. He also shows how cocaine not only affects Colombia but also affects neighbors like Venezuela and countries further away like Mexico. Cocaine is adaptable, and its traders and drug lords are highly ingenious, challenging those wanting to stop the trade. In that cat and mouse game we get a lot of the story's drama. We also get insight on the politics and history of the region as well as U.S. relations with the region. Muse packs a lot to learn in this book, and he does so in an engaging and interesting way. It is a very well written book.
Overall, this is going to be one of the best books I've read this year. It is interesting and informative. Muse spent 15 years reporting in Colombia, and he brings that knowledge to this book along with stories of those involved in the cocaine trade as the kilo moves along. This is a book I definitely recommend to anyone interested in the topic.
5 out of 5 stars.
* * * * *
Additional reading notes:
Much of rural Colombia is abandoned by the government:
"That the state needed pressure from violent insurgents just to provide services shows how abandoned parts of rural Colombia have been" (2).
I was reading this book in the week of January 6, 2021 when the right wing conservative nutjobs rioted and stormed the U.S. Capitol in their feeble attempt to overturn the U.S. presidential election. The United States was lucky this was mostly a disorganized mob. Insurgents and guerrillas in Latin America are actually organized and had specific ideologies often seeking to help the people (well, at least until they then became narco soldiers. Cocaine does corrupt even the virtuous). Point is in places like Colombia insurgents rebel to demand things like basic human services. Americans in the U.S. throw hissy fits because they disliked the result of a fair democratic election and could not care less who they hurt in the process. Doing something like rising to demand basic human services is not something on Americans' radar. Big difference.
The effect of the Spanish conquest in the region, and this is more than just Colombia:
"The Spanish invasion: genocide, mass rape, slavery, bloody baptisms, entire civilizations destroyed, ancestral dreams snuffed out. Annihilations so complete entire civilizations were erased, with no survivors left to remember them. The Spanish conquest of the Americas, history's greatest atrocity. So grotesque, so obscene it damned the continent. Five hundred years later, the curse lives on and dooms these countries to corruption, bloodshed, stagnation. The past is never dead in the these lands" (14-15).
On Colombia's rural people:
"Everyone here is self-sufficient, able to vet, mechanic, doctor, cook, electrician or farmhand as the moment demands. A lifetime of abandon by the government has made Colombia's rural people a resilient breed" (26).
As usual, U.S. aid in places like Colombia aids the violent and the corrupt:
"Known as the 'false positives,' the scandal broke in 2008. The Colombian army-- backed with US aid-- was slaughtering thousands of civilians and dressing them up as rebels in return for bonuses, promotions, holiday days. It was the logic of a civil war that was judged solely on body counts" (27).
The early boom stage of coca:
"Once a few farmers start planting coca, the price of food goes up as it has to be brought from outside. That pushes more farmers into growing coca. Soon, all the farmers in town are growing coca. Coca's takeover is complete. This is every coca town's golden age-- when they revel in the money. And the killings have yet to begin" (52).
Then the prostitutes come, and eventually the money attracts guerrillas and drug lords and the boom becomes a bust of misery and violence for the locals.
More on the U.S. clandestine involvement in Colombia:
"Colombia was the test run for the United States' latest experiment: to hire private mercenaries to carry out actions in war zones. This policy would be greatly expanded in Afghanistan and Iraq. But it started here, fumigating poor farmers' fields" (70).
The reason the labs that turn coca paste into cocaine are not going anywhere any time soon if ever:
"Weekly, the police launch operations to dismantle these labs, seizing cocaine and blowing up the structures. All it takes is another $50,000 and seven days of construction and you've got another lab ready to produce the cocaine. The demand isn't going anywhere, so neither are the labs" (96-97).
And where is the biggest demand for cocaine? In the good old U.S. of A.
After the jungle and narco militias but before it leaves Colombia or enters local markets, the kilo goes into urban areas. As in the jungles, the urban narcos do create a lot of jobs, even with the violence:
"Ahead is the world of the urban narcos, those experts in getting the cocaine out of the country and the dollars in. The kilos enter into a vast ecosystem of cocaine. Drug lords, accountants, cartel soldiers, killers for hire, lawyers, witches, lovers, and pimps all work together feeding off each other in a world funded by cocaine" (97).
On a side note, it is interesting, to me at least, that many involved in the narco trade are very superstitious and reliance on witches and similar is pretty strong. This going along with the strong Catholicism of Latin America.
The Assassin's Prayer, said in front of the Virgin Mary:
"If there are eyes, don't let them see me
If there are hands, don't let them grab me
If there are feet, don't let them catch up to me
Don't let me be surprised from behind
Don't let my death be violent,
Don't let my blood spill,
You who see all,
Know well my sins,
But also, you know my faith
Don't abandon me. . . Amen" (136).
In a way, drug lords really run Colombia:
"Men like Alex are the shadow power in Colombia, the leaders of an alternate society that runs parallel to the legal one. They are some of the wealthiest men on the continent and wield the power of life and death over all around them. For all the riches, it's a precarious life. Authorities and rivals are always around the corner, waiting to send Alex to prison or to the grave" (171).
The dirty secret of the drug war in Latin America:
"The dirty secret of the drug war in Latin America is how many drug lords start off as police and soldiers. Fighting cocaine, they're exposed to her, seduced by her. It's the perfect training for future traffickers-- they see how the business works up close, learning the chinks in the security forces' armor" (176).
In the end, the government never really loses (even if they are not really in control overall), as Alex the drug lord explains:
"'The authorities never lose. When you think about it, we're the suckers. They work with us and they get rich. And if we go down, then they take the credit for our capture and then they make deals with any trafficker who will replace us' says Alex, with a laugh that says the joke is not funny" (180).
