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In this July 18, 2015 photo, four-year-old Isbeth Estela rests on a dead tree outside her home in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, an area where framers' coca crops were pulled up by a government drug eradication program. Estela lives with her grandfather, mother and brother on a farm where they grow coca and raise pigs and chickens. Coca destruction in 2013-2014 marked a 30 percent decrease in land planted with coca, and the government says itâs on pace to destroy nearly two-thirds as much this year. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_1_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, German Estela sits on a log as he poses for a portrait in his coca field, where his plants were pulled up in a government eradication program in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru. Estela lives with his daughter and two grandchildren on their farm where they grow coca and raise pigs and chickens. However it's the coca crop that the family was counting on to pay a $1,000 dollar debt for German's medication to treat mental illness. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![APTOPIX_Peru_Cocalero_Garc]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, Edma Duran, 40, left, walks home through thick mud with her daughter Miguelina and Jack after salvaging damaged coca leaves on their farm that were affected by a government eradication program two days prior in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru. After a government crew uprooted it for the first time in 2013, Edma Duran and her husband Evaristo Diego planted bananas. But when the fruit ripened, the river that connects them with the nearest market town was dry. So they trekked for five hours with a hundred bananas between them. The buyer paid them just one dollar, said Duran. They went back to planting coca. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_2_]()
This July 18, 2015 photo shows the one hectare coca farm of German Estela in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, an area where farmers' coca crops were pulled up in a government eradication program. Under Peru's current president, eradicators largely cleared the Upper Huallaga Valley, the cradle of the cocaine trade, but the cocaleros simply moved elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_3_]()
In this July 19, 2015 photo, people wash their clothes in the Santa Isabel River in El Dorado, Peru. Every family's coca crop in this town was pulled up in 2013 as part of a government coca eradication program. Many farmers say they tried alternative crops, like bananas, coffee and cacao, but that it was less profitable and logistically difficult to get to market. Most farmers returned to growing coca which is harvested four times a year and some buyers even pay for it in advance. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![APTOPIX_Peru_Cocalero_Garc_2_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, rubber boots hang to dry outside the Diego family home in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, two days after their coca crop was uprooted by the government's eradication program. The cocaleros say they want eradication halted until the government offers viable alternatives. Nobody buys anything but coca, said Edma, Duran, wife of Evaristo Diego.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_6_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, Hermelinda Estela returns home with freshly washed clothes for her children in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, where framers' coca crops were pulled up by a government drug eradication program. Estela and her two children live on a farm with her father, where they grow coca, and raise pigs and chickens. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_7_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, German Estela wears a pair of rubber boots that he cut down into shoes, on his farm in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru. Estela lives with his daughter and two grandchildren on their farm where they grow coca and raise pigs and chickens. However it's the coca crop that the family was counting on to pay off a $1,000 dollar debt for German's medication to treat mental illness. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_8_]()
In this July 19, 2015 photo, Sandra Medina plays cops and robbers with her brother Nelson in Camantarma, Peru. Every family's coca crop in this town was pulled up in 2013 as part of a government coca eradication program. Despite the government's eradication program, Peru remains the worlds top cocaine-producing nation, and its most dense coca fields grow undisturbed, far from this town's ravaged plots. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_10_]()
In this July 17, 2015 photo, a boy watches police during a protest by coca farmers in Ciudad Constitucion, Peru against the government's eradication of their coca fields. Since the cocaine boom ignited in Peru and neighboring Colombia and Bolivia in the 1970s, thousands of families migrated to coca-growing areas on the Andes eastern slope to live off the cocaine economy. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_4_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, a dog rests under an outdoor stove at German Estela's home in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, an area where framers' coca crops were pulled up by a government drug eradication program. Counternarcotics police Sgt. Miguel Ore says the people who flee when police arrive with eradication teams are almost always processing coca leaves into pasta basica in maceration pits, but plenty stay put. They are very poor people, he said. They drop to their knees and beg us to leave them a little, because thats what they live off. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_5_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, a motorcycle taxi drives past farms along an unusually empty road on the outskirts of of Ciudad Constitucion, Peru, during a protest by coca farmers that paralyzed the town. Motorcycle taxis are the most popular way for residents to travel to and from their farms to the state capital to buy food and supplies. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_13_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, Lidia Diego returns home in the early morning after feeding the pigs on her family's farm, in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, where the family grows coca, onions and raises cattle. Last year, according to Perus government, 43,000 families got support to compensate for destroyed coca fields. But half a million people live off the crop in Peru and many eradication victims dont get assistance or, like Lidia's family, have rejected what was offered. They give you a machete and a few cacao seeds and then they forget about you, complained Lidia's mother, Edma Duran. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_14_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, the Diego family prepares dinner inside their palm roofed home in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, two days after their coca crop was torn out by the government's eradication program. Their village of 110 people lacks electricity, telephone and running water and is five hours from the nearest doctor. In November, officials arrived offering cacao seeds to supplant their coca crops, but the family turned them down, after having already lost a previous investment in bananas. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_9_]()
In this July 17, 2015 photo, an aircraft that once belonged to drug trafficker Abelardo Cachique is displayed on the side of the main avenue in Ciudad Constitucion, Peru. The plane was placed here in tribute to to Cachique who flew it in the 80's. He was later arrested and jailed. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_11_]()
In this July 17, 2015 photo, riot police walk past a statue of Peru's former President Fernando Belaunde Terry during a coca farmers protest and strike that paralyzed the entire town of Ciudad Constitucion, Peru. Belaunde Terry is respected for his development of entire cities in the jungle, located in the center of the country known as "Selva Central," or Central Jungle, where his government built most of the roads people use today. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_17_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, Edma Duran, right, works with her children Miguelina Diego and Jack Diego to salvage the still sellable coca leaves after their crop was torn out by the government two days before in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru. Thefamily plannedto sell the usable but damaged coca leaves below market price. This is what we live off, says the 40-year-old mother of six. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_16_]()
In this July 17, 2015 photo, four-year-old Natalia Diego, left, stands with her brother Jack Diego, 8, right, and two-year-old cousin Roy Duran outside their kitchen before dinner in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, two days after their family's coca crop was eradicated. Thousands of families similarly stripped of their income source complain that government programs designed to ease the shock of eradication havent reached them. Critics call it a recipe for social explosion. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_15_]()
In this July 17, 2015 photo, a coca plant lays uprooted on the Diego family's small coca farm in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru, two days after the coca crop on their one hectare of land was torn out by the government. The family is one of thousands affected by Perus campaign to eradicate the plant used to make cocaine. In 2013-2014, the Andean nation dropped to No. 2 behind Colombia in area cultivated with coca. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)![Peru_Cocaleros_Photo__Garc_12_]()
In this July 18, 2015 photo, items sit in the kitchen window of the Diego family home in Nuevo Canaveral, Peru. The Diego family depends on their one hectare coca crop for cash, and also survive by raising cattle and growing onions on their farm, located five days away by boat or foot from the nearest town. On Sundays they travel those five hours to shop at the market for food. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)Peru's coca farmers struggle after plantation destroyed
According to Peru's government, 42,000 families got financial support or help with alternative crops last year after their coca fields were destroyed
Move Forward
- Peru's coca farmers struggle after plantation destroyed
