Cañón del Micay (Colombia) (AFP) – Coca plantations blanket the mountains along the narrow Micay canyon, the heartland of Colombia’s holdout guerrillas who rule their fiefdom like a mini state. In makeshift laboratories, farmers openly mix coca leaf with gasoline to extract a paste used to make the pure cocaine that is one of Colombia’s top exports. Micay canyon is a major source of tension in negotiations between the government and the Central General Staff (EMC) rebels who broke away from the FARC when it signed a 2016 peace deal.
