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The “Pre-Colombian” Era of Drug Trafficking in the Americas: Cocaine, 1945-1965*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Paul Gootenberg
Paul Gootenberg*
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
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Extract

Before anyone heard of Colombian narcotraficantes, a new class of international cocaine traffickers was born between 1947 and 1964, led by little-known Peruvians, Bolivians, Chileans, Cubans, Mexicans, Brazilians, and Argentines. These men—and often daring young women—anxiously pursued by U.S. drug agents, pioneered the business of illicit cocaine, a drug whose small-scale production in the Andes remained legal and above board until the late 1940s. Before 1945, cocaine barely existed as an illicit drug; by 1950, a handful of couriers were smuggling it by the ounce from Peru; by the mid-1960s this hemispheric flow topped hundreds of kilos yearly, linking thousands of coca farmers across the eastern Andes to crude labs, organized trafficking rings, and a bustling retailer diaspora in consuming hot-spots like New York and Miami. The Colombians of the 1970s, the Pablo Escobars who leveraged this network into one of hundreds of tons, worth untold billions, are today notorious. Yet historians have yet to uncover their modest predecessors or the actual start of Colombia's role: cocaine's “pre-Colombian” origins.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , October 2007 , pp. 133 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2007

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Footnotes

*

The research for this article was done as a fellow of the Wilson Center, Washington, in 1999-2000; Fred Romansky at the U.S. National Archives helped declassify Record Group 170 (DEA historical records). Joseph Spillane, Isaac Campos, Pablo Piccato, and William Walker III all gave critical readings. I presented early versions of this paper in 2004-06 at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (UNAM); Simon Fraser University; the New York City Latin American History Workshop; Boston Area Latin American History Workshop (Harvard); Workshop on Latin America: History, Economy & Culture (New School University); and the European Social Science History Conference (Amsterdam).

References

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6 Archivo Provincial de Huánuco (Peru) (APH), Prefectura, Expediente 463, 1949, Oficio 82, Soberón’s bankruptcy statement; Legado 80/Exp.l212, 1948 (last shipment).

7 In-depth analysis is Paul Gootenberg, “Reluctance or Resistance: Constructing Cocaine (Prohibitions) in Peru, 1910–50,” ch. 3 in. Gootenberg, Cocaine; for the politics of control, Gootenberg, Paul, “Secret Ingredients: The Politics of Coca in US-Peruvian Relations, 1915–65,” Journal of Latin American Studies 36:2 (2004), pp. 233–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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9 Gootenberg, Paul, “Cocaine in Chains: The Rise and Demise of a Global Commodity, 1860–1950,” in Frank, Z., Marichal, C., and Topik, S., eds., From Silver to Cocaine: Latin America Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500–2000 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), ch. 12;Google Scholar or economic laments in Paz Soldán, C.E., La Coca Peruana: Memorandum sobre su situación actual (Lima: SNA, 1936).Google Scholar

10 RG59 LOT 55D607 Far East 311.2125, “Urbina, R.,” July 1940; RG59 State Dept. Decimal Files (Consular reports, hence RG59 DecFile), 823.114, Narcotics-Peru, 7 Oct. 1943; 823.114, 1–1347; 823.114 1–1347, 23 Jan. 1947, 2 Jan. 1948. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1946–47 reports. For “bebop” and cocaine, see Davis, Miles (with Quincy Troupe), Miles: An Autobiography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), pp. 86, 95.Google Scholar

11 RG59, Subject files, Bureau of Narcotics, 0660 South America, Box 30, “Confidential” 6–1998, Peña, 14 Dec. 1948; “Cocaine Renaissance,” RG170 Box 63, Drugs—Cocaine, 27 Feb. 1950.

12 Dorn, Glenn J., ‘The American Reputation for Fair Play’: Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,” The Historian 48 (2003), pp. 59–81.Google Scholar RG59 DecFile 823.114, Peru—Narcotics, esp. Memo of 24 Aug. 1949. On APRA, RG59 LOT 825.53, Chile, 1950–59, “Apristas Protest Bureau of Narcotics Correspondence.” Also in Enríquez, polemical Luis, Haya de la Torre: La estafa política más grande de América (Lima: Ed. Pacífico, 1951), pp. 121–33.Google Scholar

13 RG59 DecFile 825.23, Chile, enclosure #3, pp. 3, 15, March 1950; DecFile 823.114, Peru—Narcotics, 1948–49, esp. Williams, “Illicit Cocaine Traffic,” 17 May 1949; 1 Nov. 1948, 7 June 1949, 14 Dec. 1949. Williams evoked a 27-kilo daily capacity, or 7 illicit tons a year worth $35 million in New York, though Peru’s output of the 1940s was less than half a ton.

14 El Comercio (Lima), all April-May 1949; UN CND E/NR 1950/07, “Peru, Annual Report for 1950,” pp. 35–40, add. “Cocaine and Crude Cocaine,” 17 Jan. 1952.

15 RG59 DecFile 823.114, 7 June 1949 (Prados) and DecFile 823.114 8–2548, “Fabricación de cocaína clandestina” (Ayllon); DecFile 823.114 Narcotics, No. 302, 7 Dec. 1948.

16 APH (Huánuco), Prefectura, Leg. 80, #905, 3 July 1948. DecFile 823.114, Peru-Narcotics, 25 Aug. 1948, “Clandestine Traffic…”; UN CND “Peru, Report for 1950,” pp. 35–36.

17 Documents stumbled on in RG170 Subject files 0660, Ecuador, Box 8, “Illicit Narcotic Traffic in Peru,” 7 May 1953; López to Anslinger, 30 April 1953; and “A Report on Observation in Peru regarding Illicit Drug Traffic,” 24 April 1953. Llosa, Mario Vargas, A Fish in the Water: A Memoir, transl. Lane, Helen (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994), p. 147, for an account of same local cocaine scene.Google Scholar

18 Cases from RG59 DecFile, Peru/Narcotics, all 1949–55 (various, press clippings); plus RG170 Box 30, Trafficking, Mexico, March 1961.

19 RG59 DecFile 825.53 Narcotics-Chile (1955) 000254, “Control of Narcotic Drugs” (Jan. 1959); RG170 Box 19, Drugs—Cocaine, 4-29-52 (excerpt); Vistazo 331, 20 Jan. 1959; also “Soy un Traficante de Drogas Heroícas” Vea, 29 Jan. 1959. INTERPOL “Illicit Traffic,” 1959. UN CND E/CN.7.388, p. 79 (also 1962); FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1959.

20 UN EC.SOC, E/CN.7/420 add. 1, “The Question of the Coca Leaf: Report by the National Health Services of Chile,” 2 March 1962, p. 3.

21 RG170, Subject files, Box 30, Trafficking, Mexico, 13 March 1961.

22 RG59 Dec File 825.530, Chile 1960–63, 29 Jan. 1963; UN GEN/NAR/64Conf.2.6, Inter-American Consultative Group on the Coca Leaf, Chile report “Illicit Traffic in Cocaine,” 1 Sept. 1964, pp. 6, 14. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1964, pp. 18, 31.

23 UN TAO/LAT/72, “Report of the UN Study Tour of Points of Convergence of the Illicit Traffic in Coca Leaf and Cocaine in Latin America,” 28 Feb. 1967, pp. 14, 44; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Study Mission to Latin America., The World Narcotics Problem: The Latin American Perspective; cf. Senate Judiciary Committee, 14 Sept. 1972, “World Drug Traffic and its Impact on U.S. Security,” for $10 million Miami cocaine find on Squella-Avendaño, former air-force officer “slated to receive an important post in Allende government.” E-Com., Daniel Palma A. (Santiago), Feb. 2006.

24 Schwartz, Rosalie, Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1997) p. 24;Google Scholar Cirules, Enrique, The Mafia in Havana: A Caribbean Mob Story (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2004);Google Scholar Rovner, Sáenz, Conexión cubana, chs. 2, 6, 8;Google Scholar Mary K. Crabb, “Critical Care: An Ethnographic Journey into Health, Health Politics and Revolution in 20th-century Cuba,” ms., ch. 12.

25 FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1957, “Cuba” (also 1960, 1962 reports); INTERPOL, UN CND E/CN.7 “Illicit Traffic,” “Clandestine laboratories” reports, 1953–61.

26 Messick, Hank and Goldlatt, Burt, The Mobs and the Mafia: The Illustrated History of Organized Crime (New York: T. Crowell Co., 1972), pp. 5,Google Scholar 202–4. RG170 Box 54, Inter-American Conferences,” 1960–64, “Statement of the USA Delegation,” Rio, Feb. 1960.

27 FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1961–64 reports.

28 RG170 Box 30, Subject file, Traffickers, “Cocaine Traffic between South America, Central America and the United States,” New York, 1961, enclosures, and 19 July 1960; RG170 0660, Country file, Cuba; RG170 Box 19 “Drugs-Cocaine Thru Dec. 1962.” RG170 Box 54 Inter-American Conferences, file 0345, “Correlation between Production of Coca Leaf and the Illicit Trafficking in Cocaine Hydrochloride,” Nov. 1962.

29 RG170 0660 Box 8, Cuba, 1958–59; RG59 DecFile 837.53, Cuba, 1955–59, #1037, 19 March 1959. DecFile 837.53, 23 March 1962, “Rejection of Cuban Note on Narcotics,” Walker, William III, Drugs in the Western Hemisphere (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1996), pp. 170–72.Google Scholar

30 Harry J. Anslinger Papers (Pennsylvania State University Library), Box 6, Scrapbooks, press clippings, June 1962; RG170 0660, Country file, Bolivia, Box 6, 1955–62, Confidential, “Report of U.S. Delegation,” Rio Conference, 1961.

31 UN Gen/NAR/64Conf.2.6, “Illicit Traffic in Cocaine,”l Sept. 1964, Memo for Inter-American Consultative Group on Coca-Leaf Problems, La Paz, Nov. 1964, pp. 3–4; RG170 0660 Bolivia documents; alsol962 UN E/CN.7 R.12/add. 31, p. 3.

32 INTERPOL, E/CN.7/388,447 1959, 1962, and PCOB “Traffic in Narcotic Drugs”; INTERPOL, “Clandestine Laboratories,” 1945-60 (Paris, 1961—no UN class), pp. 72–73. RG170 Box 30, Subject: Trafficking, 12 Oct. 1960.

33 UN CND 14th Session, Gen. E/CN.7/R.12, Restricted, add 24, “Illicit Traffic, Brazil,” 1959, add. 31 (1962), pp. 2–5 (Source: DEA Library).

34 UN CND 15th Session, Gen. E/CN.7/R.12/add.31, “Illicit Traffic, Brazil,” 1962, pp. 4–5; Parreiras, D., “Data on the illicit traffic in cocaine and coca leaves in South America, with an annex on narcotics control in Brazil,” UN Bulletin on Narcotics, vol. 13/4 (Oct.-Dec. 1961), pp. 33–36.Google Scholar

35 Agnew, Derek, Undercover Agent—Narcotics: The Dramatic Story of the World’s Secret War against Drug Racketeers (London: Souvenir Press, 1959), ch. 10. 1960:Google Scholar UN CND E/CN.7/393, April 1960, Illicit Traffic, “Inter-American Conference on the Illicit Traffic in Cocaine and Coca-Leaf,” Rio de Janeiro (various designations, delegation reports).

36 UN GEN/NAB/64/Conf.2/6, p. 5–6 Nov. 1964, “Illicit Traffic in Cocaine,” Inter-American Consultative Group on Coca-Leaf Problems.

37 RG170 0660 Box 8, Colombia (1960s) is sparse (12 Jan. 1959, Cuba file on Herrán-Ologaza); UN TAO/LAT/72, “UN Study Tour of Points of Convergence of the Illicit Traffic …,” 1967; PCNB, 89th Session, E/OBAV7A.1, “Mission to Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador …,” 5 Sept. 1966, p. 8; FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1961; RG59 DecFile 819.53, 1956–60s. Mary Roldán, “Colombia: cocaine and the ‘miracle’ of modernity in Medellín,” ch. 8 in Gootenberg, Cocaine; Colombia trailed in Camacho-Guizado, Alvaro and López-Restrepo, Andrés, “From Smugglers to Drug-Lords to Traquetos: Changes in the Colombian Illicit Drug Organizations,” in Welna, C. and Gallón, G., eds., Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights in Colombia (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), pp. 65–69,Google Scholar reliant on Sáenz-Rovner, Eduardo, “La prehistoria del narcotráfico en Colombia,” Innovar (8 July-Dec. 1996), pp. 65”90,Google Scholar translated U.S. documents that show little “pre-history.” RG170 0660 Box 10, Ecuador, 1961; on Blades, RG170 Box 161, Panama etc., “Subject: South America,” 31 July 1964.

38 Astorga, Luis, “Cocaine in Mexico: a prelude to ‘los narcos’” in Gootenberg, Cocaine, p. 185;Google Scholar Astorga, , Drogas sin fronteras, pp. 296–98, 300–4, similar incidents based on RG170 FBN-FBND.Google Scholar

39 UN CND E/CN.7/388, INTERPOL, 26 March 1956. RG170 Box 30, Trafficking, “Cocaine Trafficking b/n S. America, Central America and the U.S.” 15 Nov 1959; RG170 0660, Mexico, Box 1961, July 1960, Aug. 1960 memo; FBN-FBND, Traffic in Drugs reports, all 1958–65.

40 RG170 Box 30, “Cocaine Trafficking”; RG170 0660 Box 10 Foreign Countries, Mexico, 1964–65; RG170 0660 Foreign Countries—Mexico, Box 161 “Case: George Asaf de Bala,” Nov. 1959; Astorga, Drogas sin fronteras, pp. 300–3; Astorga (oral communication, Aug. 2004) links these pioneers and 1980s Sonorans, who learned cocaine trade from Cubans incarcerated in Mexico.

41 Dunkerley, James, Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggles in Bolivia, 1952–1982 (London: Verso Press, 1984), and pp. 308–26Google Scholar on post-1970 cocaine politics; for coca, see detailed consular “Coca Reports,” for FBN, e.g., RG170 Box 8, “Drugs—Coca Chewing,” 1937–1963.

42 RG170 0660, Foreign Countries, Bolivia, Box 19, Williams, 8 March 1950; 15 Feb. 1950; 11 April 1950, Peru origins, “Information from Confidential Source,” 19 June 1950; “Alleged Smuggling of Cocaine to Brazil,” 16 May 1950.

43 RG170 0660 Box 19, 23 July 1951; “Bolivian Police Uncover Narcotics Organization” 16 Oct. 1951; “Further Developments in … Narcotics Trade,” 28 Nov 1951; 5 March 1953. RG59 DecFile 824.53/4-450, Narcotics—Bolivia, 23 July 1951; RG 170 Box 1, Ecuador, April 30, 1953.

44 RG59 DecFile 824.53/8-1253, 12 Aug.-2 Sept. 1953, clippings; DecFile 824.53/5-554, 5 May 1954. DecFile 825.53/254 Embassy, Santiago, “Control of Narcotic Drugs,” 22 Jan. 1959.

45 RG170 0660, Foreign Countries, Bolivia, 1957–64; also RG59 DecFile 824.53/2.2956, 27 Feb. 1956, 29 Feb. 1956; DecFile 411.24342 Jan.-Feb. 1961, July 1962. RG170 Box 6, 13 April 1962; UN E/CN.7.INTERPOL, 1953–60; FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1955, “Cocaine”; Spitzer, Leo, Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge From Nazism (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998);Google Scholar Jews as drug traders in Block, “European Traffic,” pp. 324–25.

46 RG59 DecFile 824.53/22956, Narcotics-Bolivia, 23 March 1956; DecFile 824.53/5-2958, “Fábrica de Jabones y Champú se elaborada Cocaína en Gran Escala,” La Nación, 29 May 1958.

47 RG170 0660, Bolivia, “Investigation of cocaine smuggler BLANCA IBANEZ DE SANCHEZ of La Paz, Bolivia,” 12 Nov. 1958 (and 4-16-58); RG170 Box 54, Conferences, “The Blanca Ibáñez de Sánchez Gang of International Illicit Cocaine Traffickers,” 26 Nov. 1962; RG 170 O660 Bolivia; RG170 0660 Cuba, 28 April 1961, “Cocaine Traffic,” 15 Nov. 1961.

48 FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1960, “Bolivia,” pp. 41–42; RG59 DecFile 824.53/5-260, Narcotics-Bolivia, 2 May 1960; INTERPOL E/CN.7/388, “Illicit Traffic” 1960, Argentina; INTERPOL “Clandestine Laboratories,” 1960, p. 73.

49 RG59 DecFile 411.24342/2-761, “Narcotics Trafficker: Blanca Ibáñez de Sánchez,” photos; Dec-File 824.53/5-2460, 24 May 1960.

50 RG170 0660, Foreign Countries, Box 6, Bolivia, Enforcement, 10 July, 18 Aug. 1957; Vice-President Lechín, 15 Sept. 1961; Karambalas file (nd, 1962).

51 RG59 DecFile 824.53/9-1561, Narcotics-Bolivia, 15 Sept. 1961, enclosures. RG170 0660 Box 6, Bolivia 1955–62, “Controversy over Illegal Narcotics Activity in Argentina.”

52 RG59 DecFile 824.53/11-1161, #246, 15 Nov. 1961, Karp to Embassy, press enclosures.

53 Dunkerley, Rebellion in Veins, p. 108. RG59 DecFile 824.53/11-1161, clippings Ultima Hora, El Diario, RG170 0660 Box 6, “Press Round-up on Luis Gayan,” Dec. 1961. RG170 Box 6, Bolivia, Jan.-Feb. 1962. UN CND E/CN.7/L257, 24 April 1963, “Question of the Coca-Leaf,” Consultative Group on Coca-Leaf Problems, Lima 1962; “Report of Delegation to 2nd Meeting of Inter-American Consultative Group,” Jan. 1962; Rio report, Nov. 27-Dec. 7 1961, p. 15.

54 RG59 DecFile 824.53/1246, Bolivia-Narcotics, “Arrest of Members of Narcotic Ring,” 4 Dec. 1961; RG170 0660 Bolivia, 30 March 1962. RG170 0660 Box 6, Various 1962–65, “Bolivian Cops Sniff Way to Coke Cookers,” Sunday News, 11 July 1965. On Che, René Bascopé Aspiazu, La veta blanca: coca y cocaína en Bolivia (La Paz: Eds. Aqui, 1982), p. 60.

55 UN C/CN.7/L.257, “Question of the Coca Leaf,” Minister of Health, 24 April 1963, pp. 5, 30, “Classified Report of U.S. Delegation” (Rio), 2 Dec. 1961, in RG170 0660 Bolivia, Box 6; “Illicit Traffic in Cocaine,” 1 Sept 1964, Inter-American Consultative Group,” pp. 4–5 ; UN CND, E/CN.7/R. 11, add. 40 “Illicit Traffic—Brazil,” 7 April 1961. RG170 0660 Box 6, 1957–64. McVicker, Cochabamba, 18 Nov. 1965, Box 6, “Control of Narcotics,” 20 July, 22 Aug. 1966.

On lowland migration, see Sanabria, Harry, The Coca Boom and Rural Social Change in Bolivia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 RG170 0660 Bolivia, Box 6, Durkin to INTERPOL, 2 June 1967; “Bi-Annual Summary … of Manufacture, Traffic, and Consumption of Narcotics in Bolivia,” July-Dec. 1966.

57 Block, , “European Traffic”; Meyer, and Parsinnen, , Webs of Smoke; Kenney, Pablo to Osama.Google Scholar

58 UN TAO/LAT/72, “UN Study Tour of Points of Convergence of Illicit Traffic…,” 28 Feb. 1967; RG170 Box 10, Conferences and Commissions, UN Latin American Study Tour, 1969; RG170 Box 54, Conferences, “Cocaine Project,” Dec. 1968; “International Aspects of the Narcotics Problem” (92nd Congress, Foreign Affairs Committee), 1972; “The World Narcotics Problem: The Latin American Perspective” (93rd Congress), 1973; “Cocaine: A Major Drug Issue of the Seventies” (96th Congress, Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control), 1979.

59 I do trace out some of the connections to Colombia’s later role in my forthcoming book, Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug, 1850–1975 (ms., 2007), ch. 8.

60 Facts are scarce: Castillo, Fabio, Los jinetes de la cocaína (Bogotá: Ed Documentos Periodisticas, 1987), ch. 2;Google Scholar Bentacourt, Darío, García, M.L., Contrabandistas, marimberos y mafiosos: Historia social de la mafia colombiana (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo Eds., 1994);Google Scholar Escobar, Roberto, Mi hermano Pablo (Bogotá: Quintero Eds., 2000);Google Scholar Los archivos privados de Pablo Escobar (documentary, Marc de Beaufort, Director, 2002); Grinspoon, Lester and Bakalar, James, Cocaine: A Drug and its Social Evolution (New York: Basic Books, 1976/85), pp. 53–54.Google Scholar