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Secret Ingredients: The Politics of Coca in US–Peruvian Relations, 1915–65

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2004

PAUL GOOTENBERG
PAUL GOOTENBERG
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University (New York).
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Abstract

This article explores the hidden politics around so-called ‘Merchandise No. 5’, a secret formula extract of Peruvian coca-leaf used in the American beverage Coca-Cola since the early twentieth century. It analyses the peculiar early political economy of US cocaine control which by the 1920s lent the Coca-Cola Company (and its associate, Maywood Chemical Co. of New Jersey) special roles in drug diplomacy with Peru. It then follows the paradoxical transnational politics of this coca flow during the era of emerging world restrictions on cocaine and coca (1915–65). Coca-Cola was deeply engaged in drug politics with Peru.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , May 2004 , pp. 233 - 265
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The author thanks the Wilson Center, Washington, for the year of research and writing that produced this article. This article is based on declassified DEA Record Group 170, documents on coca at the US National Archives. Dr Steven Karch alerted me to their possibilities and NA archivist Fred Romansky vigorously helped to declassify them via the US Freedom of Information act. Laura Hein, among others, commented on earlier drafts.