DRUG TRAFFICKERS' RELATIONS WITH THE MEDIA IN COLOMBIA, BOLIVIA, AND PERU

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00287R001101370001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 8, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

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Central Intelligence Agency
Drug Traffickers' Relations with the Media in
Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru
Summary
Drug traffickers in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru increasingly
recognize the ability of the media to influence public
perceptions about their activities. Colombian and Bolivian
traffickers have undertaken extensive, highly visible efforts in
recent years to enhance their images and activities, to build on
the general public acceptance of the drug trade, and to discredit
government control programs through manipulation of the print and
broadcast media. Peruvian traffickers, on the other hand, have
used violence to discourage journalists from focusing attention
on their illegal activities.
Colombia: Traffickers Take The High Road
Traffickers' exploitation of the media in Colombia has built
upon ambivalent public opinion and the longstanding belief that
controlling drug trafficking and drug abuse is a "norte
americano" problem. The particular emphasis has been the notion
that Latin American countries have cultivated coca and marijuana
This memorandum was prepared by International 25X1
Security Issues Division, Office of Glob al Issues. The analysis
is based on information as of 8 March 1984. Comments and queries
are welcome and may be addressed to Chief, Strategic Narcotics
Branch, OGI 25X1
GI M 84-10047
March 1984
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for traditional uses for centuries and that U.S. attempts to
direct narcotic control programs represent interference in
Colombia's internal affairs. Some major Colombian traffickers
have used their access to the press to portray themselves as
national heroes or as public-spirited benefactors interested in
promoting betterment of the population and maintaining national
integrity.
Access to the Press
Cocaine giant Carlos Lehder Rivas has been especially
successful in using the media to his advantage. Stressing the
issue of nationalism, Lehder has financed full-page ads in
Colombia's major newspapers and magazines opposing the
government's anti-drug efforts in general, and the US-Colombian
Extradition Treaty in particular. He has granted interviews
knowing they will command coverage by radio, television, and the
press. In July 1983, he startled even those accustomed to his
outspokenness by openly admitting his involvement in narcotics
trafficking which he justified as bringing badly needed dollars
into the Colombian economy.
Lehder has insured regular dissemination of his views
through the Ouindio Libre, a weekly newspaper he purchased in his
native Department of Ouindio in 1982. The paper serves as a
platform for the political party he founded in 1983--the Latin
National Movement--which he has described as a "simple civic
movement representing a small forgotten people." Lehder's
unrelenting attack on the US-Colombian Extradition Treaty in his
paper and other publications helped create the unfavorable
political climate that blocked the US request for extradition of
two major Colombian traffickers in late 1983.
Another major trafficker, Pablo Escobar Gavira, commands
space in the press by paying for it, in the opinion of some
Colombian journalists, or by his political activities. In early
1983, an article suspected as Escobar-inspired appeared in the
popular magazine Semana, ranking him not only as one of the
wealthiest men in Colombia, but also as one of the most powerful
men in the world. The feature depicted him as a local hero in
his native Department of Antioquia, a great benefactor and
promoter of his city. Ouindio Libre frequently carries
unsolicited, favorable articles on Escobar, praising him as a
"critical, independent thinker." Escobar's local influence and
financial contributions have secured him an appointment as an
alternate Liberal Party member of Congress. Embassy reports
indicate his desire to exert more direct political influence, a
goal his efforts to publicize a glorified popular image would
support.
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Access to the Airwaves
Through the purchase of radio stations, narcotics
traffickers in Colombia have acquired the capacity to convey
their stand on drug-related issues to an. even larger audience.
According to US Embassy reports in late 1983, known cocaine
traffickers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez purchased Colombia's
fourth largest radio network, Grupo Radial Colombiano, which
includes twenty- "nree stations that effectively cover the
nation. In addition, the Rodriguez brothers obtained ten new
broadcasting licenses and have launched a second network, Radio
Rumbos. Broadcast personnel have told Embassy representatives
that-these networks enjoy large operating budgets and employ
veteran radio personalities who were lured away from other
networks by enormous salaries.
Anti-drug Media Efforts
Although traffickers have successfully flooded the media
with their message, the anti-drug forces in Colombia have some
respected supporters in the media. Mauricio Gomez, director of
Colombia's popular 24 Horas news program, won the 1983 Simon
Bolivar Prize for Journalism, Colombia's most prestigious
journalism award in the category of Investigative Television
Reporting for his five-part series The Cocaine Connection.
He produced this documentary in the United States with US
assistance. Although the Colombian government is only beginning
officially to acknowledge the problem of domestic drug abuse, the
Colombian media has been attempting to enhance the public's
awareness. For example,
? El Tiempo, Bogota's major daily newspaper, has urged the
state to recognize growing drug abuse among the young as a
serious national problem; and
? EL Espectador, Colombia's second. largest daily, has given
thorough and balanced coverage to the herbicide issue and
has written about the connection between drug traffickers
and insurgents.
Bolivia: Grassroots Approach
Publicity efforts sponsored by Bolivian drug traffickers are
directed at the campesinos who grow and refine coca, and seek to
exploit the view widely held in. Bolivia that the illicit drug
industry helps support large segments of the population. The
dominant themes have been that coca cultivation is an economic
necessity for many hard-pressed farmers and that the use of
herbicides in eradication will poison vast portions of the
environment and the population for generations. Heightened
awareness of their stake in the issue has prompted large numbers
of campesinos to join organizations such as the Coca Congress and
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the Chapare Farmers' Federation which serve as strong defenders
of coca cultivation. According to US Embassy officials, even
though these organizations are masterminded and largely financed
by traffickers, they provide a rallying point for the individuals
most directly affected by government eradication plans.
Reaching the Masses
Cocaine proponents in Bolivia produced an expensive, prime-
time television show in September 1982, The Legend of Coca.
According to the US Embassy, this was an extremely effective
propaganda device in a country where the literacy rate is sub-
stantially lower than that of Colombia or Peru. According to US
Embassy reports, the film was the brainchild of journalist
Gonzalo Lopez Munoz and financed largely by narcotics trafficker
Jose Paz Hurtado. We concur with the view of the US Embassy that
it was a skillful blend of a few facts and many distortions, such
as blurring the distinction between coca and cocaine. At the
urging of US officials, Bolivia's Minister of Information refused
to allow a second showing of the film, fired the director of
Bolivian national TV, and rebroadcast the [ISIS documentary, The
Continuing War on Drugs, which had been shown a year earlier.
According to press and Embassy reports the leading
trafficker behind the media campaign that reached a peak in 1982
was Roberto Suarez Gomez--known in Bolivia as the "king of
cocaine." Suarez adopted a direct personal approach to the press
but unlike Carlos Lehder in Colombia, steadfastly denied any
involvement in the drug trade. He cultivated the "local boy
makes good" image, attributing his wealth to cattle ranching. In
a series of open letters, Suarez charged President Reagan with
forcing coca eradication in Bolivia to protect purported
extensive coca plantations in California, denying the struggling
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Bolivian farmer both his birthright and livelihood.
With a great deal of fanfare, Suarez flew radio and news-
paper journalists to his ranch in the Beni in July 1983 for a
series of interviews during which he described a sophisticated
defense system to protect himself from possible apprehension by
agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration who, along with
the US Ambassador, he claims have made slanderous charges against
him. Suarez offered to surrender to US authorities to prove his
innocence of drug trafficking charges pending against him in the
United States on the condition that the United States pay the
Bolivian foreign debt.
Achieving Results
Efforts by traffickers succeeded in influencing or altering
some government efforts. For example, in the spring of 1982
controversy in the press over the use of herbicides prompted the
government of General Torrelio to renounce further use of
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The Legend of Coca
Broadcast nationally, the film retold the ancient Andean
legend of how a sympathetic god gave the gift of coca to the
longsuffering Andean people to enable them to withstand the cold
and hunger of the mountains. Since the gift was intended only
for the pure of heart--anticipating current US problems with
cocaine--the televised version of the legend claimed: "If the
cruel men of the north, the white conquerors". ."should touch the
leaves, they will only find in it poison for their bodies and
madness for their minds, because their hearts are hardened."
The Legend of Coca defended coca's biological benefits:
increasing respiration, safely alleviating anxiety and de-
pression, and even serving as a food substitute with nutritional
value superior to other, unspecfied South American foods. Dire
warnings about the biological dangers of the herbicides used in
eradication increased the volume of misinformation that has
created widespread public fears about herbicides. The film ends
with a call to legalize, nationalize, and industrailize coca,
directing it towards the manufacture of concentrated food,
anesthetics and anti-depressive medication. The film argues that
the medicinal market rightfully belongs to the coca-producing
countries, but through extensive marketing efforts, foreign
transnational corporations have created a preference for their
synthetic drugs which, though inferior and marred by dangerous
side effects, net billions of dollars. Thus, the film concludes
that the major reason the United States is trying to eradicate
Bolivian coca is to better compete in this lucrative market.
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herbicides for such purposes, bringing the US-funded pilot
eradication project in Yapacani to a halt. Similarly, the
national broadcasting of The Legend of Coca in September 1982
probably strengthened the inclination of the Torrelio's
successor, General Vildoso--since replaced by Herman Siles--to
defer action on its five year coca control plan.
Peru: Trafficking and the Media
Trafficker-instigated violence against investigative
journalists has reached a significant level in Peru. Journalists
attempting to examine the suppliers of drugs have been the
objects of violence or intimidation on several occassions:
? A dynamite attack in July 1983 destroyed the automobile of
newsman Edgar Puertocarrero, a correspondent for the
Peruvian newspaper La Republica and the BBC, London, who
was investigating drug trafficking in the city of Tarapoto
in the northern Amazon region of Peru. Puertocarrero
reported he had also received threats against his life.
? Carlos Vegue, director of the weekly Selva, was severely
beaten, and the house of Manueal Areval, correspondent for
opposition newspaper, El Diario, was set afire. Both men
were publishing articles critical of drug traffickers.
? Both the radio and newspapers reported the January 1983
arrest of Catalino Escalante Calvo, known as the drug
trafficking czar of Tingo Maria, during a cocaine
seizure. Escalante was also charged with murdering
journalist Orlando Carreras in September 1982.
Articles linking reprisals with investigative reporting on
trafficking have been published as warnings to other
journalists. Citing personal experience, authors have stated
that a reporter who attempts such a project "is taking his life
into his hands."
Notwithstanding these attempts at intimidation, the Peruvian
press continues to report drug arrests, seizures, and trials, in
a straightforward, objective manner. President Belaunde's strong
public statements against the drug trade receive thorough
coverage, as do the details of government control efforts. The
Peruvian media also pursue the problem of domestic drug abuse
aggressively, with frequent articles, editorials, and surveys.
The press, for example, has highlighted a serious increase in the
dangerous practice of smoking coca paste, known as basucas.
Using coca in this semi-refined state, the smoker inhales harmful
impurities, including kerosene and cement. The clearly damaging
nature of this substance has generated widespread concern about
the effects of drug consumption on users and society.
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While there is general agreement in Peru that smoking
bazucas is harmful, debate over marijuana consumption continues.
The press reflects the arguments in favor of legalization but
balances its coverage by including arguments against legalization
as well. For example, in 1983 Lima's El Observador, published
the results of a survey on the attitudes of university students
toward legalization of marijuana. Seventy-five percent favored
legalization for the following reasons: marijuana is widely
used; its dangers are not documented; and legalization would
eliminate one of its major attractions, i.e., that it is
forbidden. To counter student arguments the article quoted a
prominent Peruvian psychiatrist who argued that: marijuana use
can cause genetic damage in the children of users; users become
mentally sluggish; and marijuana in users tend to progress toward
stronger, more dangerous drugs.
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9 MAR 19$4
SUBJECT: Use of the Media by Latin American
Drug Traffickers
25X1
1. The attached memorandum examines the use of the media by
drug traffickers in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru to influence
public opinion. 25X1
2. This memorandum was prepared by
25X1
International Security Issues Division, Office
Issues.
25X1
3. Oueries and comments are welcome and may be addre
ssed to
the Chief, Strategic Narcotics Branch, OGI,
25X1
Attachment:
Drug Traffickers' Relations with the Media in
Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru
March 1984.
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SUBJECT: Drug Traffickers' Relations with the Media in
Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru
OGI/ISID/NAR/
Orig. - (See Addressee List)
1 - SA/DDCI
1 - Executive Director
1 - DDI
1 - DDI/PES
1 - N IO/Narcotics
1 - CPAS/ILS
1 - D/OGI, DD/OGI
2 - C/ISID .
2 - ISID/NAR
8 - OGI/EXS/PS
(8 March 1984) 25X1
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SUBJECT: Drug Traffickers' Relations with the Media in
Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru
OGI/ISID/NAR (8 March 1984)
Mr. Clyde Taylor
Deputy Assistant Secretary for
International Narcotic Matters
Department of State
Dr. Carlton Turner
Special Assistant to the President
for Drug Abuse Policy
Old Executive Office Building
Mr. J. Philip Hughes
Deputy Assistant to the Vice President
for National Security Affairs
Old Executive Office Building
Mr. Gary Liming
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Intelligence
Drug Enforcement Administration
Mr. Jon Wiant
Special Assistant to the Director
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Department of State
Captain James Haas
Chief, Intelligence and Security Division
US Coast Guard
US Coast Guard Headquarters (G-OIS)
Mr. Douglas Mulholland
Special Assistant to the Secretary
(National Security)
Office of Intelligence Support
Department of the Treasury
ie n ernational Terrorism and
Unconventional Targets, (G-1)
National Security Agency
Mr. George D. Heavey
Acting Director, Information Division
Office of Enforcement
U.S. Custom Services
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