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The coca-paste phenomenon may prompt South American governments to tackle the drug problem with new resolve. Nonetheless, many of the kings of cocaine remain so powerful that they continue to challenge authority with impunity. Flamboyant Colombian Coquero Lehder, for example, established his own newspaper, as well as his own political party, the Latino National Party, to wage war against the U.S.-Colombian extradition treaty. He has publicly admitted to purchasing an entire island in the Bahamas, Norman's Cay; it has been developed to serve as a cocaine distribution and transshipment center. He has also persisted in taunting his pursuers like a computer-age Scarlet Pimpernel: earlier this winter, Lehder agreed to meet reporters from the leading Colombian weekly Semana, on the Guaviare River deep in the llanos. Steering his own motorboat to the rendezvous, Lehder coolly assured the journalists that he enjoyed the support of many sectors of Colombian society. Said he: "I'll be around longer than President Betancur." On that defiant note, he gave his boat full throttle, and disappeared round a bend in the river.
FOOTNOTE: *The coca plant (Erythroxylum coca) is a shrub approximately 3 ft. high that grows most commonly on the mountain slopes of Bolivia, Peru and Java. The plant's leaves contain the alkaloid cocaine.