The townhall of Pichari has arcades and large, mirrored windows, shimmering in orange. A very typical Andean architecture, that looks strange in the middle of the humid rain forest. On the square in front of the townhall, a location where in most villages bronze statues of national heroes can be found, in Pichari there is a pintoresque row of man-sized, green concrete coca leaves. A monument to the source of wealth in this remote jungle area. They date from the time when the drug was transported in the pickups of the city administration, hidden underneath a layer of brick or cement. Until recently, there was also an annual "Coca Festival”, where beer was abundant and the party was animated by popular music groups flown in from the capital. The new mayor Edilberto Gómez decided, for image reasons, to change the name into "Festival of the Rainforest". At the entrance to his office, a very young secretary in a very short miniskirt hacks an official letter in stilted, bureacratical language into the computer. Even the air conditioning working at refrigerator temperatures is not able to prevent the mold from attacking the yellow wall.

Gómez is a jovial professional politician, trying to win his visitors over with his openness: "During the civil war, we all survived thanks to the coca business. There was no market for legal products”, he admits. "Our enemy was the guerrilla, the drug mafia was our ally", the 50-year-old adds. Gómez, known as "Loco Edy", the crazy Edy, is part of an extended family which owns one of the "companies" that control the drug trade. Gómez ' cousin Oscar called "Turbo" is in jail; the mayor himself was caught with a pickup from his cousin’s drug fleet in 2009 and got away without a charge. Officially, he earns his money with gas stations.