The cocaine route that begins in the coca fields along the slopes of the Andes and ends five thousand miles away in thousands of American cities is a route built and maintained by an illicit and often violent cocaine partnership. Millions of workers are involved in producing and shipping the cocaine that eventually finds its way to still more millions of users in the United States. Most of those involved in this cocaine partnership will never meet although they all support this multibillion-dollar-a-year industry in many different ways and at many different levels.

All nations involved in the cocaine trade repudiate the drug. Yet that trade continues to flourish despite attempts to stop it. The success of this multinational illicit partnership in spite of Herculean efforts over three decades to destroy it is a complex and fascinating story.

Effects on the South American Economy