Critical Analysis 2 of FT article: Armed groups, coca crops and death’: how prices crashed for cocaine’s raw material

This FT article explores the causes and impact of the recent drop of coca prices in Colombia.

Characters

The main characters of the story are the farmers Hugo Rodrigo and Roberto Pena who have directly been affected by the price drops. The interviews with both farmers drive the main narrative of the story — that communities in towns traditionally heavily reliant on selling coca leaves are struggling to make ends meet, resulting in poverty. Indigenous leaders of the same communities are similarly introduced to drive the narrative that the fall in prices and consequential economic hardship is having fatal consequences, shedding light on additional issues such as addiction spreading throughout the regions where the majority are employed as coca farmers. Other characters introduced are Colombia’s President, armed groups and experts who are secondary characters in the story providing context to the coca market and Colombia’s history with drug trading.

Setting

The farmers and indigenous leaders are introduced in the towns in which they live and work. These settings are highlighted in a photo of workers on plantations and a man producing coca paste in the kitchen. It is likely the author chose familiar settings to these characters because they make the story feel more real, and adds to the characters credibility. For example, from looking at the picture of the workers on the farm we can already begin to imagine the type of difficulties the farmers face (working long hours, physical, heat, low pay), which makes the readers feel more empathetic to their story. The president, on the other hand, is referred to in the setting of a “summit”, and we are also introduced to the setting of consumers buying cocaine on “US streets’. Switching between these contrasting settings help the readers understand the complexity and multifaceted (political, social, economic, international etc, micro, macro) issue that is the drug trade in Colombia (which is ultimately the “bigger story” within the article).

Movement

The author’s choice to include multiple characters and settings creates a lot of movement for the story. There is firstly movement between the characters themselves:

• Conflict between the president and the armed groups, as the president changes tactics to stop drug trafficking by seizing exports at sea
• The farmers and the buyers. Before farmers relied on armed groups to buy the leaves, now noone is coming
• Conflict between different armed groups competing in the drug trade following the power vacuum created by the demobilisation of FARC in 2016
• President vs US — president places blame on US and talks about the failure of the war on drugs to stop colombian drug trade
• Current president vs old establishment. The article talks about the first left wing president tackling the drug trade vs previous presidents attempts.
• The government and the farmers — government is trying to tackle the drug trade without providing alternatives for farmers who rely on selling coca leaves

As touched on, movement is also created through the use of various settings. The story is first told from local farms in Colombia producing coca and later moves to other contexts such as, cocaine being sold on streets in the US. The use of the US streets as a setting, keeps readers (mostly westerners, and majority US citizens) engaged because it is a setting they are familiar with. It essentially allows the readers to understand the international context of the Colombian drug trade, and perhaps forces them to reflect on the impact of their own society.

Narrator

The Narrator is effaced. He is telling the story but not including himself in the story. As part of this narration style he has included opinions from experts and locals, for example, he describes that “One indigenous leader in Caloto said that…”, however he has not stated his own opinion. As a news-type feature, he has likely chosen this narration style because it makes the story more objective. However, despite its more objective tone, it is still a feature so it does have a sole purpose to inform. He has likely chosen certain interviews that fit his specific angle on the story, which increases the chances of the audience feeling connection and empathy to and for certain groups over others.

Pacing, Temporality, Duration, Prolepsis, Analepsis

The story covers the period between 2015 to 2023, with a brief flash back (analepsis) to 1980 when a farmer recalls a similar issue happening before causing them to change the crop they produced.The author begins the story in the present at a slower pace, explaining what happened — the news of the price drop and its impact. After this, the pace of the story fastens as the narrator jumps back in time explaining the context and causes of the price drop.. He jumps from government policies in 2015, to the demobilisation of FARC in 2016 and the new president taking power in 2022. This allows the reader to quickly understand the context of the story, and the key turning points in the history of Colombia’s drug trade without going in to too much detail that takes away focus of the main story.The narrator ends the story referring back to the present, again refocusing the reader ion the main point of the story.

Diegesis and Mimesis

The story is mainly told through diegesis, as the author is narrating the story and telling us what has happened, using facts, figures and quotes from experts. There are also points in the artilce where he potentially tries to show us (memesis) the meaning of the story. For example he quotes Farmer Hugo Rodriquez, “We used to wait by the side of the road and people would pass by to buy coca…Now nobody comes”, which is not directly telling us that farmers and their families have become impoverished but allows the audience to deduce that meaning.