Government will shoot down planes used in trafficking.

The New York Times

BRASILIA, Brazil -- After hesitating for six years, in large part because of pressure from the United States, Brazil has announced it will begin shooting down aircraft used in trafficking illegal drugs in its airspace.

Only Colombia, the source of much of the cocaine and heroin sold in the United States, has such a policy in effect. But Brazil's northern Amazon corridor has become an increasingly busy and essential route in the global drug trade and is used for smuggling arms, gold and diamonds.

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Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidency with the election slogan "Love and Peace". But after 18 months in office his pacificist leanings are being tested by the growing menace of drug trafficking.

An influx of cocaine and other narcotics is blamed for many of the 370,000 deaths by violence in Brazil during the 1990s. Drugs have financed arms purchases and intensified turf wars between gangs in Rio de Janeiro and other cities.

Now, amid rising public anger at the level of urban violence, Mr Lula da Silva is to authorise Brazil's air force to shoot down any unidentified aircraft suspected of smuggling narcotics.

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Brazil is close to adopting a plan to shoot down aircraft suspected of carrying narcotics over the Amazon jungle, the government has said.

Colombia and Peru called a halt to the controversial practice in 2001 after the Peruvian air force mistakenly shot down a plane carrying missionaries.

But experts say cocaine smugglers are violating Brazilian airspace to reach regional cities and markets abroad.

Brasilia and Washington may share information to combat drug trafficking.

Series of safeguards

"It is the kind of measure one hopes never to have to enforce," said Defence Minister Jose Viegas, according to the O Globo news website.

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Brazil will start shooting down aircraft used by drug traffickers under a government policy to be implemented by the end of the month.

Peru and Colombia abandoned the controversial practice after the Peruvian air force, with the help of US intelligence in 2001, accidentally shot down an aircraft carrying American missionaries.

Experts say that partly as a result of that suspension, traffickers have been able to increase their flights and drug supplies from Colombia, heightening pressure on regional governments to take tougher action.

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Minor Drug Offender, Sent Back To Brazil, Slain Amid Desperate Plot To Return To U.s.

CAMPINAS, Brazil - An Ohio man deported to Brazil four years ago for a minor drug infraction was gunned down here by drug-dealing teens. Friends say he had sought the teens' help to smuggle guns into Brazil and use the proceeds to sneak back into the United States.

The case of Joao Herbert, 26, gained international attention in 2000, after his adoptive parents' inability to obtain citizenship papers for him, along with newly toughened immigration laws and Herbert's first-offense conviction for selling marijuana forced his deportation.

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At Least 10 Killed in Slum Violence

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Rio de Janeiro's state authorities appealed Tuesday for the Brazilian government to deploy troops in a drug war in the city's biggest slum that has claimed at least 10 lives and forced the closure of many schools.

With police at every corner, Rio de Janeiro's hillside Rocinha slum had its first night of calm since violence started Friday. But state governor Rosinha Matheus said although the police had stemmed the conflict for now, she wanted the military to safeguard Brazil's second-biggest city and tourist mecca.

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Tourists Shocked By Shooting; Mayor Wants Federal Police Brought In

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- More than 1,000 police stormed into two Rio slums Monday, attempting to halt a violent dispute among drug traffickers that has left at least 10 people dead.

Automatic weapons fire crackled as police swept through the Rocinha favela, or slum, and the nearby Vidigal slum -- both of which overlook the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods and trendy beaches.

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The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved last Thursday a bill that removes the possibility of arrest or prison sentences for people charged with drug possession. Earlier in week, a meeting of the Latin American Harm Reduction Network (RELARD in its Spanish acronym) in Sao Paulo dissolved in acrimony amid allegations of corruption surrounding one of the group's most prominent members and charges of dirty doings during voting to choose new leadership.

But while Latin American harm reductionists were recovering from the bout of infighting, the Brazilian lower chamber was making history. If enacted by the Brazilian Senate, which has already passed one version of the bill, drug users would be subject to community service, but not jail, for drug possession offenses.

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Grants Military Continued Control Over Anti-Drug Agency

The Brazilian government announced Monday that the Brazilian anti-drug office, known as SENAD for its Portuguese acronym, will continue to be headed by a general and will remain part of the national security cabinet. The announcement runs contrary to the official position of President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva's Workers' Party (PT) and Lula's own campaign pronouncements. It also further unveils a deep divide in the Lula administration between those, such as Minister of Justice Marcio Tomas Bastos and Minister of Health Humberto Costa, who argued for placing a harm reductionist in the post and moving SENAD leadership to the justice ministry, and advocates of a more doctrinaire approach to drug policy based on the US model.

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WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - Brazil is working with Peru and Colombia on a set of common rules to cover when civilian aircraft suspected of carrying illegal drugs could legally be shot down, Brazil's defense minister Jose Viegas said on Friday.

Both Colombia and Peru are preparing to relaunch the U.S.-sponsored drug air interdiction programs, suspended since an accidental downing of a small aircraft in Peru in April 2001 that killed a missionary and her young daughter.

U.S. officials often cite Brazil as a drug transit country, with traffickers using its vast Amazonian jungle to ferry out cocaine with planes and river boats.

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RIO DE JANEIRO - Every evening at 6, a chant echoes through the cellblocks of Bangu I, the city's largest maximum-security prison. It is the voice of the drug trade and its largest syndicate, the Red Command.

"Comando Vermelho!" the convicted "vapor men" and "mules" yell in Portuguese. "For justice and freedom! To the streets now!"

In this city's favelas, or slums, the soldiers of the drug trade call themselves "the movement." That term, like the chant inside Bangu I, hints at the quasi-political ideas now circulating among the Red Command and the city's other dominant drug syndicates, the Third Command and the Friends of Friends.

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Sao Paulo Newspaper Claims that Marijuana Causes "Insomnia, Nausea, Muscular Pain," and "Loss of Appetite"

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL: As the country of Brazil moves closer to more humane and democratic drug policy, the vested interests - led by the "drug treatment" lobby - are trying desperately to pull it back to the Stone Age. The spear used by these Neanderthals of drug policy comes in the form of knowingly false statements about marijuana users and efforts to corral them into "treatment."

Even as hundreds of drug war critics met in Rio de Janeiro at the event co-sponsored by Narco News last Friday, a U.S. government-funded advocate of "marijuana treatment" had arrived in Sao Paulo to promote his fledgling industry: "Treatment" for marijuana smokers.

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RIO DE JANEIRO - Ten police chiefs lost their jobs and two officers lost their lives yesterday in Brazil's spreading war with drug barons which has killed at least 100 in two weeks.

Turf battles that until recently took lives in the shanty towns around Rio de Janeiro have spilled over into the tourist city's neighbourhoods.

In the face of unprecedented drug-related violence, Rio de Janeiro's Public Safety Secretary, Anthony Garotinho, replaced 10 battalion commanders of the military police.

Garotinho announced on Saturday that the occupation of several shanty towns, controlled by drug kingpins and where the fighting is concentrated, would continue indefinitely.

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Drug crimes strike in Rio de Janeiro By Kevin G. Hall Washington Bureau

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - After drug traffickers sprayed university students with gunfire last week, Rio de Janeiro's top cop made it official: Drug violence in Rio, he said, is "out of control."

Drug gangs, who used to confine their violence to the slums they live in, also torched several more public buses last week. They fought pitched gunbattles in daylight against police along the main thoroughfares linking the airport to Rio's storied Ipanema and Copacabana beaches.

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Police Are Not 'Prepared To Fight This'

RIO DE JANEIRO - After drug traffickers sprayed university students with gunfire this week, Rio de Janeiro's top cop made it official: Drug violence in Rio, he said, is "out of control."

Drug gangs, who used to confine their violence to the slums they live in, also torched several more public buses this week. They fought pitched gun battles in daylight against police along the main thoroughfares linking the airport to Rio's famous Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. In recent months, they also have attacked government buildings and shopping malls.

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Slum Rio das Pedras Is Seen as Urban Utopia By Residents Who Cheer Lack of Crime, Drugs

RIO DE JANEIRO -- For Maria de Lourdes Luna, home is a one-room hut shared with five relatives. The stench of sewage fills the alleys, and refuse gushes past the shanties from an open ditch after a hard rain.

Yet for her and many others, the slum of Rio das Pedras is an urban utopia -- one of the few Brazilian shantytowns, or favelas, not tormented by drugs and drug-related violence. Children fly kites and play ball free from fear of ricocheting bullets. People sleep with doors unlocked and windows ajar. Even petty crime is rare.

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RIO de JANEIRO - THE long-standing war between municipal authorities here and the drug trafficking gangs that control many of the city's teeming squatter slums has escalated to the point that tourist sites are affected. Early this month, gunmen fired at the train station where visitors leave for the statue of Christ atop Corcovado Mountain, one day after a bomb went off just outside a luxury hotel in Copacabana.

Both incidents took place in predawn hours and no visitors or local residents were injured, leading city officials to argue that the attacks were intended not to disrupt tourism but to intimidate them into easing up on their campaign to crush powerful criminal organizations. But threats have also been made against Sugar Loaf, another tourist site, famous for its spectacular views, and shopping malls, police stations and buses have been attacked.

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From a Salon in Rio de Janeiro, the Future is Being Born

MARCH 25, 2003; RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL: Thirty-five people gather from distant corners of this giant country in a hotel in Copacabana; twenty-three of them are women, the faces shine an authentic prism of hues, some of them pale but not pallid, and most of them, mulatto to black.

In a sharp contrast with the seats of power in this and other American nations, there is not a suit or tie to be seen in the room, nor a power skirt, nor a Rolex watch. This room reflects a more accurate photo of the majority.

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Celia Szterenfeld's "Pedagogy of Harm Reduction" Takes Root

Finally, someone can answer my question of 15 months ago: What ever happened to that law to decriminalize drug use that was proposed by the administration of then-president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso?

The National Congress, in January 2002, amended (read: gutted) the legislation in mysterious ways, but no commercial press agency reported what happened to the bill that almost, but did not, make history.

Here on the Narco News Team, we've been asking about that law for 15 months... and nobody knew, not even the activists or experts in Brazilian drug policy we interviewed knew...

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BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's president promised Friday to help Colombia in its fight against drug traffickers and guerrillas, labeling the insurgents "terrorists."

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged the assistance at the end of a five-hour visit from his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe.

"Brazil has committed itself to support Colombia in its fight against drug traffickers and terrorists," Silva said.

Silva's labeling the guerrillas terrorists came a day after the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador said nations neighboring Colombia could help Uribe by calling the FARC group terrorists because that's "what they are."

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