Background: The valley of the rivers Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro (VRAEM) is the main center of coca production in Peru. This is a jungle area located between southern highland regions, and is notorious for the presence of drug-trafficking and the last remnants of Shining Path guerrillas. As a result, it occupies a central place in security policies in Peru, and has been "demonized" in the national imaginary.
Objective: This article explores the current situation, recent history, and most important collectives of the VRAEM, challenging stereotypes about it.
Methods: The article is based on short-term fieldwork undertaken in the VRAEM in March 2008, and long-term research conducted in Ayacucho in 2008-2009; and it is contextualized in relation to the literature on coca producing areas and drug policies.
Results: The negative image of the VRAEM started in the context of the 1980s-1990s coca boom and Peruvian armed conflict. State policies in the area since then have been mainly based on militarization and repression, contributing to maintain that negative image, which differs of a complex and nuanced local reality. A coca eradication campaign started in 2014, bringing major changes.
Conclusions: The negative image of the VRAEM is largely unfair, and has been mainly based on stereotypes and prejudices. This negative stereotyping contributes to justify and maintain inefficient and pernicious state policies in the area, and to criminalize local people. There is an urgent need for fieldwork-based studies in the area to counteract those negative stereotypes and monitor current events.
Keywords: Drug policies; Peru; VRAEM; coca eradication; cocalero areas.