AYACUCHO CONTACTS TALK OF NARCO-ECONOMY,

UNCLAS LIMA 004516

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR PHUM SNAR PE
SUBJECT: AYACUCHO CONTACTS TALK OF NARCO-ECONOMY,
NARCO-CULTURE

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Summary:
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1. (SBU) Ayacucho's economy turns on narcotrafficking, local
contacts told Poloff during a Nov. 8-10 visit. They cited
coca-growing in the Apurimac and Ene River Valley (VRAE) as a
key source of jobs, particularly for area youth who migrate
to the VRAE during school vacations. They alleged that a
major candidate for Regional President, Rofilio Neyra from
the Fujimori Party, was financing a campaign of lavish
giveaways with drug money. (Neyra lost, but remains
prominent.) The extent of narco-penetration in Ayacucho is
surprising, and suggests a tough fight ahead for licit
alternatives. End Summary.

Students: "Spring Break" Coca-style
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2. (U) Narcotrafficking from the Apurimac and Ene River
Valley (VRAE) sustains the economies of the cities of
Ayacucho and Huanta, according to a range of local contacts
interviewed by Poloff during a pre-election visit to the
region, Nov. 8-10.


3. (U) To the person, contacts alleged that the drug trade
is financing a mini-economic boom in the city and region.
This includes: new houses in Huanta, new businesses in
Ayacucho (opened by people with no visible source of
financing) and, above all, a surge in youth spending, in the
form of packed discotheques on weekends, high levels of
alcohol consumption, and abundant cell phones. According to
several contacts, high school and university students
(Ayacucho is home to the 8,000-student state-run University
of Huamanga) frequently head to the VRAE during vacations to
work for 1-2 month stints in coca fields to help their
families or finance their studies.


4. (U) Other fortune-seekers also head to the VRAE in the
hopes of getting rich quick. One contact told Poloff of a
cab driver who takes 3-4 months off to visit his "little
shack" in the VRAE, where he cultivates 4-5 hectares of coca
plants. The contact estimated that one could earn USD 3,000
in four months and noted how the cabbie, like many,
rationalized his participation in the drug trade, saying he
was "only growing the leaf," not actually selling the drug
("Es solo hoja...."). The contact alleged that many, if not
most, of working age in Ayacucho believe that anyone who
would pass up this kind of opportunity would have to be a
"chump" (cojudo). (USAID Note: The cab driver is likely an
absentee landlord who employs full-time VRAE peasants to tend
to his fields and who hires others during harvest periods.
End Note.)

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Regional President Says VRAE Coca Cultivation Up
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5. (SBU) APRA Party Regional President Omar Quesada
confirmed the account of increased coca production. Having
recently completed a pre-election campaign swing through the
VRAE, Quesada said coca production was up "tremendously" and
that this had created a migratory pull of peasants from the
highlands to the jungle in search of work. (USAID Note:
According to USAID field offices in the VRAE, increased coca
production results from both increases in hectarage as well
as the application of high-tech farming techniques. End
Note.) Quesada maintained eradication policies would fail in
explosive fashion in the VRAE. Instead, he said the GOP and
others had to take the "oxygen" out of narcotrafficking with
better interdiction, both of drugs leaving the VRAE and of
precursor agents headed into the area, and increased
investment in alternative development, working closely with
the regional government.


6. (U) Several contacts echoed Quesada's comments about the
need for more interdiction. They say that the Police make
little or no attempt to inspect shipments that come out of
the jungle to Ayacucho. They alleged that wood and other
products borne by trucks often camouflage drug shipments.

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Narco-Political Influence
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7. (SBU) A wide range of local contacts alleged that
Fujimori-party candidate for regional president Rofilio Neyra
as narco-financed. They claimed Neyra's wealth came suddenly
and from unknown sources, and that he was using it to finance
a rural-based campaign of lavish giveaways to local peasants,
including a bank of computers to one school and tanks of gas
to various families. Neyra, they said, had also pledged to
construct a propane gas plant that would cut the cost of gas
in half in Ayacucho. (Note: Neyra did not win the regional
presidency in the elections, but he remains well-known in the
region. The new Regional President, Ernesto Molina of the
local Movement for Regional Innovation (MIRE),has promised
to "industrialize" coca production and build roads. The Lima
press has brought to light similar allegations of candidates'
narco-connections in the capital covered in septel. End
Note.)

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Locals See Dangers: Consumption, Narco-Peonage
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8. (U) Evangelical Pastor Jerry Santistevan as well as other
contacts described how drugs are not just flowing through
Huanta and Ayacucho, but are increasingly being used by
people in the area, particularly youth in the cities. (NAS
Note: the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is
preparing a study of drug usage in Peru which will reportedly
confirm a steep rise in drug consuption in Ayacucho. The
study is slated to come out in February-March 2007. End
Note.)


9. (SBU) Along with drug use, the narcotics trade is
impoverishing those in the countryside. Regional President
Omar Quesada noted the irony of coca production was that it
generates fast money for a few while turning the peasants in
the VRAE into virtual "peons" of narcotraffickers and causes
extensive environmental damage.

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Comment:
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10. (SBU) Narco-penetration of Ayacucho, while not unknown,
proved to be far more extensive than one would have guessed
before this recent trip. Local experts mentioned ideas to
limit the drug trade, including investment in infrastructure,
more interdiction, and alternative crops like the
oil-producing nut sachainchi. Nonetheless, their more
extensive descriptions of increasing narco-influence in
Ayacucho suggest that these alternatives have a long way to
go if they are to gain traction at the expense of the area's
thriving trade in illegal drugs.
STRUBLE