Pubdate: Sun, 01 Oct 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
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Author: Stephen Buckley, Washington Post Foreign Service

BRAZIL FEARS FALLOUT OF DRUG CRACKDOWN

TABATINGA, Brazil ญญ By 9 a.m. on most weekdays, the border here is thick 
with traffic as Brazilians and Colombians stroll and drive unencumbered 
across the frontier to shop, work and attend school. But such free passage 
has also had a bitter downside for residents of this steamy city: an 
illicit cross-border drug trade.

Now, with Colombia's renewed determination to strangle drug trafficking and 
end a four-decade-old civil war, Brazil is fortifying the 1,000-mile 
frontier to bring relief to such cities as Tabatinga and to avoid spillover 
from the Colombian campaign. Brazilian officials say they fear Colombia's 
efforts could produce a swell of refugees and bring more drug use and 
manufacturing and arms trafficking to Brazilian soil. The government also 
says it fears that Plan Colombia--backed by $1.3 billion from the United 
States--could, at some point, draw American soldiers to the border region.

Brazil last week unveiled the cornerstone of its plan to combat the 
dangers. The three-year, $10-million effort known as Operation Cobra will 
increase police presence at border crossings, on the waters between the two 
countries and in air space covering the frontier.

The plan, which will employ seven federal agencies including the army, also 
is expected to ensure that waters are not contaminated by chemical runoff 
from drug plantations and laboratories closed by the Colombian government.

In addition to Operation Cobra, the government has announced that it could 
send 6,000 troops to the border in the next six months.

"We can't really predict what will happen with Plan Colombia," said Mauro 
Sposito, head of Special Units for the federal police force in the state of 
Amazonas, where Tabatinga is located. "But we have to be ready for whatever 
might happen. Our main job really is prevention."

Such proclamations are greeted with weariness and cautious hope in this 
rundown city of 40,000. Residents say the spillover effects of Colombia's 
drug trade have been a reality for them for two decades. With Peru south 
and west across the Amazon and the Colombian border a five-minute drive 
north through town, people here have long felt trapped by the drug 
trafficking that flourishes in this region.

 From Peru comes basic cocaine paste; through Colombia comes the refined 
drug. Both are bought by dealers in Tabatinga, sold on its streets and 
transported by ships from its port. Tabatinga has become so synonymous with 
illicit drugs that tourists and other international visitors often come 
through here specifically to find cocaine, as evidenced by the Greek, 
Lebanese, and Japanese prisoners being held in the city jail.

The historically lax law enforcement along this triple border region, as it 
is known, also has proven an irresistible temptation to those seeking to 
ship drugs out. Tabatinga residents have been arrested in such places as 
Germany and the Netherlands after trying to take cocaine over those 
borders, and Brazilian police say they routinely seize hundreds of pounds 
of drugs along the frontier here.

Clandestine flights pass through the region daily, gliding undetected below 
radar. Sposito said that in the past three years, Brazilian and Colombian 
authorities have dismantled 16 jungle landing strips near the border.

Yet residents accuse the Brazilian government of not doing enough to stop 
the local or international drug trade and its accompanying violence. In 
July and August, at least eight people were killed in drug-related 
shootings, according to police.

"You're afraid in the street, even if you're not involved [with drugs]," 
said Advani Basto, a traffic officer and community activist. "You don't 
want to see the wrong thing because you're afraid that they'll come back 
and get you the next day."

Police say that is exactly what happened to Joao Gomes Mariano in late 
August, when the 22-year-old motorcycle mechanic apparently saw a man chase 
down another near the plaza of the city's largest Roman Catholic church and 
blast at least eight bullets into his victim. Police say Mariano agreed to 
testify in court against the shooter. But three nights after witnessing the 
killing, Mariano was shot nine times in the head, neck and chest, then left 
sprawled in the middle of a dirt road less than 100 yards from his home.

Sposito said Brazilian police have not focused on Tabatinga's local drug 
problems because they are "interested in the people who run these 
organizations, the people at the top." Other Brazilian officials said the 
government has not cracked down because of logistical, personnel and cost 
considerations.

Colombian guerrillas stock up on food, fuel and other necessities in 
Leticia, just across the border in Colombia and have never used Tabatinga 
as a base or resting area, according to officials and residents here. Now, 
residents worry that guerrillas could seek refuge in Tabatinga and other 
places on this side of the border once the Colombian government clamps down 
on the rebels.

"That possibility certainly exists if the Brazilian government doesn't do 
anything," said Tabatinga Mayor Raimundo Batista de Souza. "It's what we're 
all afraid of."
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