Thatcher Wanted to Infest Peru With Coca-Eating Moths: New Docs

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telesur

Thatcher Wanted to Infest Peru With Coca-Eating Moths: New Docs



The Eloria noyesi moth exclusively feeds on coca leaves. | Photo: Reuters

Published 30 December 2016



An idea to introduce a coca-eating moth to Peru to eradicate the drug without the country's permission was an "ingenious solution," wrote the former UK head of state.

Margaret Thatcher wanted to eradicate cocaine in Peru with moths, according to newly-released documents, which also reveal the then-British government's top-secret strategy in combating acid house parties and soccer hooligans.

Her peer in the Labour Party, Lord Victor Rothschild, suggested in 1989 that to tackle drug production in Peru, “One might think of aerial sprays, with or without the connivance of the government concerned; and various other methods of introduction, covert as well as overt.”

The moth, Eloria noyesi, is known for its exclusive diet of the coca plant. “While virtually everyone agrees that those who take cocaine or crack, in the various ways available, should be punished, everyone, I think, agrees that it is the ‘drug baron’ who must be mercilessly ‘put down,’” Rothschild also added.

Read more: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Thatcher-Wanted-to-Infest-Peru-With-Coca-Eating-Moths-New-Docs-20161230-0017.html

[Yurovsky]

1. I didn't realize the U.K...

was fighting the same bullshit "war on drugs" the US was. I thought even Thatcher's UK was more humane & focused on treatment...

[Warpy]

3. The US has forced it on nearly the whole planet.

[Warpy]

2. And that raving, right wing lunatic gave no fucks

about all the people in the region who rely on chewing coca leaves to cope with the altitude.

Too bad they never invited that horrible woman to experience altitude sickness first hand, no oxygen tank in sight.

[elmac]

5. British Prime Minister Theresa May is welcoming sniffles with open arms

hoping she will have that special relationship with him like thatcher did with reagan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/britains-leaderbreaks-with-kerrys-condemnation-of-israel/2016/12/30/33371564-ce97-11e6-a87f-b917067331bb_story.html?utm_term=.c43f3bea79c9

[LeftishBrit]

11. She just wants to have any country at all assisting us after the Almighty Mess of Brexit.

But she needn't bother applying her lips to the Unspeakable's royal rump, as he seems only to want a special relationship with himself, and possibly Godfather Putin.

[suffragette]

9. Same as she didn't care about the people Pinochet tortured

Completely vile.

[Eugene]

4. The Bush 41 Administration proposed using the coca-eating caterpillars around the same time.

The story broke in February of 1990 and the proposed targets
were Colombia and Bolivia. The main reaction I remember
from that time was revulsion.

And the idea was proposed again in 2015.

[LeftInTX]

6. Better than herbicides which were spread by airplanes

[Crash2Parties]

10. Sure, until they run out of food and turn to Cacao plants instead!

She'd probably have done it too, risked the world's chocolate supply for the War on Drugs (tm).

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Inevitable result: cocaine farmers become massive consumers of moth-killing pesticides ...

... sprayed endlessly, in massive overdoses, on coca fields, poisoning the environment downwind and downstream, and affecting thousands of laborers and nearby residents.

There is no excuse for this 'unanticipated consequence' to be unanticipated; it is pure free-market economics. Thatcher should have been disgraced for considering such a plan.

Please spare us any further "ingenious solutions".

[Sunlei]

8. a south american moth and reported differently in online information

The coca tussock moth is a beige moth whose larvae feed on coca plants. It is found mostly in Peru and Colombia. The government of Colombia has proposed a plan to release large numbers of these moths to destroy the coca crops in their country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloria_noyesi




FOOTNOTE from wiki is from OLD 2005 article- http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8156573/#.WGfmR-kizRY

[dembotoz]

12. How would we feel if someone took out Iowa corn

[truthisfreedom]

13. Somebody parse this statement for me.

“While virtually everyone agrees that those who take cocaine or crack, in the various ways available, should be punished, everyone, I think, agrees that it is the ‘drug baron’ who must be mercilessly ‘put down,’” Rothschild also added.

---------------


Virtually everyone? He must mean in government. Why did that statement start with "While virtually everyone" when he had no intention of countering that idea?