In the 1960s, the Spanish government evicted a historical village that was supposed to get flooded by the waters of a new reservoir. Only it never did.
A drive down Bolivia's infamous "Death Road" takes travellers into a world where two resources have provoked fascination, misunderstanding and controversy for centuries: coca and gold.
Why cocaine has become a lifeline for Peru’s coffee farmers
On one hand, planting coffee creates more work than profit. On the other, coca leaf offers unmatched security to debt-ridden cultivators. A woman sells coca for traditional chewing in the VRAEM, Peru. | Thomas Grisaffi, Author provided
A slump in world coffee prices has pushed farmers in Peru’s central jungle to rip up their plants and replace them with coca leaf – the raw material used in cocaine. This countrywide trend has driven coca leaf production close to 55,000 hectares or up to 500 tonnes of cocaine annually – enough to satisfy annual demand in the United States three times over.