Back to #2567 - Mariana van Zeller, with Mariana van Zeller.
Why Did a Colombian Hauler Want to Be a Dentist?
Mariana van Zeller went to Colombia and watched people make cocaine. Locals spotted the cameras, so she and the crew ran out of the jungle with no light in the middle of the night in the Amazon. She also filmed the young hauler who carried the cocaine out, dozens of kilos on his back, day after day, because he wanted to become a dentist.
The work was dangerous, and he had seen many friends killed. His family were poor farmers, and he could not afford college. Hauling cocaine was the only job that let him save toward school. She asked why he wanted to be a dentist. He said the ads in his hometown were big posters of people with big smiles for a dentist's office, and he wanted to make people smile too.
He was still bringing cocaine that comes to the United States. Mariana van Zeller said the trade is a really complicated issue.