PUERTO CACHICAMO, Colombia-The pandemic closed the only school in this remote hamlet, long a stronghold for Marxist guerrillas. With no internet connection for virtual classes, 16-year-old Danna Montilla told her family she was leaving to find work, but instead authorities say she joined a narco-trafficking rebel group. Last month, Colombia's military bombarded the group's jungle camp, killing Danna, another underage girl and 10 others. Residents here said her death underscored a grim reality: Armed gangs have found fresh recruits from an ample pool of youths who, like Danna, have been out of school because of the coronavirus pandemic. [continues 1200 words]
YOKY RIDGE, Colombia-On a hilltop base shielded with sandbags, police sharpshooter Jose Diaz gazed into thick jungle as a fellow commando checked tripwires protecting the stronghold. A radioman listened in on the fighters they were battling. "They're always looking for the right moment to attack our base," said Hector Ocampo, commander of the Colombian detachment in a cocaine-trafficking corridor near Panama. Their adversaries weren't the FARC rebels that security forces had long fought, but a cocaine-trafficking gang known as the Gulf Clan. In the year since the powerful Marxist guerrillas disarmed, drug gangs like this one have battled each other and the state for control of the booming cocaine trade in remote regions where the FARC once ruled. [continues 872 words]
The anti-narcotics police arrived here in the heart of Colombia's cocaine industry last month to destroy the coca crop. The community was determined to save it. Roughly 1,000 farmers, some armed with clubs, surrounded the hilltop camp that police had set up in a jungle clearing and began closing in on the officers. The police started shooting. When they were done, seven farmers were dead and 21 were wounded. "Several friends and neighbors died on the ground waiting for medical assistance," said Luis Gaitan, 32, who protected himself by hiding behind a tree stump. [continues 1571 words]
LOS RIOS, Colombia - Every three months or so, Javier Tupaz, a father of six, heads downhill from his clapboard home to work in his cocaine laboratory. Under a black tent in the jungle, he shovels coca leaves into a giant vat with gasoline, then adds cement powder - the first steps in his cocaine recipe. Like everyone in his village, Mr. Tupaz depends on coca for cash and has survived decades of war here in Colombia. He churned out his product during the seemingly endless conflict between the rebels and the government, which tried many times to destroy his coca plants. He simply replanted. [continues 1457 words]
CORINTO, Colombia - For years, Blanca Riveros has had the same routine: After fixing breakfast and taking her son to school, she heads home to a large plastic trash bag filled with marijuana. She trims the plants and gets them ready for Colombian drug traffickers. After school, her son helps cut more. The business was long overseen by the country's largest rebel group, which dominated this region, taxed its drugs and became internationally notorious for trafficking in billions of dollars in illicit substances. But when the government signed a peace deal with the fighters last year, the state swept in and reclaimed this remote mountain village, threatening to end the trade. [continues 1347 words]
RIONEGRO, Colombia - Like many drug barons in Colombia, Federico Cock-Correa wants to sell his product globally. Just 15 miles outside Medellin, Mr. Cock-Correa is looking to replace vast acres of flowers with marijuana plants, with plans to export the harvest. But unlike the brutal heroin and cocaine trade that once flourished nearby, his operation has the government's stamp of approval. Last year, President Juan Manuel Santos spearheaded an overhaul of Colombia's 30-year-old drug laws, which formally legalized medical marijuana for domestic use. Crucially, the new law also allowed the commercial cultivation, processing and export of medical marijuana products - like oils and creams - although not the flower, the part of the plant normally rolled into a joint. [continues 1003 words]
Government No Longer Conducting Aerial Eradication Efforts With Glyphosate ESPINAL, Colombia (AP) - Explosives experts wearing heavy body armor light a fuse and take cover behind a concrete-reinforced trench. "Fire in the area!" a commando shouts before a deafening blast ricochets across the Andean foothills and sends a plume of brown smoke 100 feet high. Such drills have intensified for Colombia's military, one of the most battle-tested in the world, as it tries to control skyrocketing cocaine production that has fueled a half-century of war with leftist guerrillas. [continues 522 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - The streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market look like a war zone following a police sweep through one of Bogota's most dangerous neighborhoods. More than 2,500 riot police officers and heavily armed soldiers participated in a raid that began Saturday in the capital's "Bronx" area, nicknamed for its comparison to the troubled New York neighborhood. New Mayor Enrique Penalosa decided to clamp down on the district in response to complaints of brazen drug consumption and crime in plain view and just blocks from the presidential palace. [continues 256 words]
With Peace at Hand, Coca Farmers and Traffickers Consider Their Futures If Their Cash Crop Is Eradicated LA GABARRA, Colombia - Daniel Duarte has thick, rough hands and the burned scalp of someone who has spent more than two decades under the sun tending coca crops. Toiling over a few acres in a remote northeastern part of Colombia, Duarte says the bright green shrub is the only plant that has allowed him to feed his family, even as neighbors go broke trying to get their bulky yucca and plantain crops to market. [continues 1073 words]
In Colombia, Peace Deal With the FARC in Sight But Herbicide-Resistant Coca Production on Rise In the lowlands surrounding the town of La Hormiga, coca was once king. Fields of the bright green bushes stretched to the horizon in every direction and farmers were flush with cash. The surrounding municipality was the one with the most coca crops in the country that produced the most cocaine in the world. This was "ground zero" for Plan Colombia, a massive multipronged effort funded by nearly $10bn in US aid that started in 2000. The plan aimed to recover a country that was in the grips of drug mafias, leftist guerrillas and rightwing militias, and whose institutions malfunctioned and economy faltered. [continues 1427 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Colombia's government plans to legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medicinal and scientific purposes, officials said Thursday in a surprise shift by the longtime U.S. ally in the war on drugs. The change is coming in an executive decree that President Juan Manuel Santos will soon sign into law. It will regulate regulating everything from licensing for growers to the eventual export of products made from marijuana, Justice Minister Yesid Reyes said. With the new policy, Colombia joins countries from Mexico to Chile that have experimented with legalization or decriminalization as part of a wave of changing attitudes toward drug use and policies to combat it in Latin America. But unlike many of its neighbors, Colombia has long been identified with U.S.-backed policies to eradicate drug production and a sharp decline in levels of violence over the past 15 years is largely attributed to the no-tolerance policing. [continues 232 words]
Colombia plans to legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medicinal and scientific purposes, government officials said in a surprise shift by the longtime U.S. ally in the war on drugs. The change comes in an executive decree that President Juan Manuel Santos will soon sign into law. With it, Colombia joins countries from Mexico to Chile that have experimented with legalization or decriminalization amid changing attitudes toward drug use and policies. [end]
Despite U.S. Efforts to Cut Off the Drug at the Source, Colombia Is Again the World's Top Coca Producer Tierradentro, Colombia - Illegal coca cultivation is surging in Colombia, erasing one of the showcase achievements of U.S. counternarcotics policy and threatening to send a burst of cheap cocaine through the smuggling pipeline to the United States. Just two years after it ceased to be the world's largest producer, falling behind Peru, Colombia now grows more illegal coca than Peru and third-place Bolivia combined. In 2014, the last year for which statistics are available, Colombians planted 44 percent more coca than in 2013, and U.S. drug agents say this year's crop is probably even larger. [continues 1487 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - The government of Colombia on Thursday night rejected a major tool in the American-backed antidrug campaign - ordering a halt to the aerial spraying of the country's vast illegal plantings of coca, the crop used to make cocaine, citing concerns that the spray causes cancer. The decision ends a program that has continued for more than two decades, raising questions about the viability of long-accepted strategies in the war on drugs in the region. Colombia is one of the closest allies of the United States in Latin America and its most stalwart partner on antidrug policy, but the change of strategy has the potential to add a new element of tension to the relationship. [continues 1068 words]
For more than two decades, crop dusters have buzzed the skies of Colombia showering bright green fields of coca with chemical defoliant as part of a US-funded effort to stem the country's production of cocaine. Farmers across the country have long complained that indiscriminate spraying also destroys legal crops, and that the chemical used - glyphosate - has caused everything from skin rashes and respiratory problems to diarrhoea and miscarriages. Authorities in Colombia and the US which has funded the aerial eradication programme with as much as $2bn (UKP1.3bn) since 2000 - argued that aerial spraying was the most effective and safest method of destroying coca plants - the raw material for cocaine. [continues 476 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The new labeling of the world's most-popular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the U.S.-backed war on drugs. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization, has reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it said is convincing evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings it causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma in humans. [continues 225 words]
U.S. Program Funds Spray in Colombia Called a Carcinogen BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The new labeling of the world's most-popular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the U.S.backed war on drugs. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization, has reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it said is convincing evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings it causes nonHodgkin lymphoma in humans. [continues 459 words]
BOGOTA: The recent labelling of the world's most popular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for an aerial spraying programme in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the US-backed war on drugs. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organisation, has reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it says is convincing evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings that it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. [continues 208 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)- New labeling on the world's most popular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that underpins U.S.-financed efforts to wipe out cocaine crops. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization, on Thursday reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a carcinogen that poses a greater potential danger to industrial users than homeowners. The agency cited evidence that the herbicide produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings that it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. [continues 203 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - New labeling on the world's most popular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that underpins U.S.financed efforts to wipe out cocaine crops. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization, on Thursday reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a carcinogen that poses a greater potential danger to industrial users than homeowners. The agency cited what it called convincing evidence that the herbicide produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings that it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. [continues 246 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The new labeling of the world's most-popular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the U.S.-backed war on drugs. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), has reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it said is convincing evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. [continues 567 words]
Juan Manuel Santos Approves Bill Allowing Sales of Medicinal Cannabis Praised Bill for Giving People Access to Medicine While Reducing Crime Uruguay Has Legalised Drug, With Brazil and Chile Considering Law Change The President of Colombia has endorsed new legislation which paves the way for legalising medical cannabis. Juan Manuel Santos made the announcement yesterday at a drug policy forum in the capital Bogota. Mr Santos called the bill 'a practical, compassionate measure to reduce the pain (and) anxiety of patients with terminal illnesses' while adding that it would help combat crime. [continues 193 words]
Leader Says He Hopes for Breakthrough on Drug War in Peace Talks With FARC Guerrillas MEXICO CITY--Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the war against drugs has failed, and the world must come up with new approaches to deal with a scourge that has killed thousands of Colombians. In an interview on Monday with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Santos noted a softening of hard-line antidrug policies both in the U.S. and in Latin America. He said the world had to develop more "realistic and pragmatic" ways to fight drug trafficking. [continues 1070 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - The interception in Colombia of a plane carrying almost half a metric ton of coca paste bound for Mexico is a sign Mexican drug cartels are switching from importers to manufacturers, according to Colombian police. Authorities intercepted 490 kilos (1,080 pounds) of the paste, an unrefined form of the drug made by farmers, on Jan. 30 as a Mexico-bound plane prepared to take off from an airport in southern Colombia. The capture, the first of its kind, means that at least one Mexican gang has set up a factory capable of turning the paste into cocaine that can be sold in the U.S., according to General Ricardo Restrepo, head of the Colombian police's counter-narcotics unit. [continues 495 words]
Program in Colombia Is Stopped After News That Shoot-Downs of U.S. Pilots Were Carried Out by Rebels. BOGOTA, Colombia - U.S.-funded anti-coca spraying in Colombia has been suspended indefinitely in the aftermath of the shooting down, apparently by leftist rebels, of two spray planes and the death of one of the American pilots, sources confirmed Monday. One fumigation airplane was shot down Sept. 27, killing the pilot, whose name was not made public. A second crop-duster was brought down Oct. 5, prompting the U.S. Embassy in Bogota to suspend spraying, according to one well-informed source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. [continues 406 words]
(AP) - A small plane on a U.S. counterdrug mission crashed Saturday in a remote, jungle region of northern Colombia, killing three Americans and a Panamanian National Guardsman and seriously injuring the other two Americans aboard. The Havilland Dash 8 was flying over the western Caribbean when it lost radio contact with the U.S.-sponsored multinational task force in Key West, Florida that runs drug interdiction in region, the U.S. military said. Such planes typically track speedboats that smuggle cocaine from Colombia north into Central America and the Caribbean but U.S. Southern Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders said he did not have details on the mission. [continues 364 words]
4 KILLED IN PLANE CRASH 3 Americans Die, 2 Others Seriously Injured in Counter-Drug Flight BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A small plane on a U.S. counterdrug mission crashed Saturday in a remote region of northern Colombia, killing three Americans and a Panamanian National Guardsman and seriously injuring the other two Americans aboard. The Havilland Dash 8 was flying over the western Caribbean when it lost radio contact with the U.S.-sponsored multinational task force in Key West, Fla., that runs drug interdiction in the region, the U.S. military said. [continues 262 words]
War on Drugs Organization of American States Urges New Strategy BOGOTA, Colombia - The Organization of American States (OAS) said Friday that countries should consider decriminalizing drug use, a shift backed by several current and former Latin American leaders but opposed by the United States. Decriminalization could be one of many "transitional methods" in a public-health strategy that could include "drug courts, substantive reduction in sentences and rehabilitation," according to a report released by the OAS on the possible liberalization of drug policies. [continues 403 words]
(MCT) BOGOTA, Colombia - Marijuana has long been accused of being a gateway to deadlier vices. But could cannabis be a swinging door that might also lead people away from hard drugs? That's what this capital city is trying to find out. In coming weeks, Bogota is embarking on a controversial public health project where it will begin supplying marijuana to 300 addicts of bazuco - a cheap cocaine derivative that generates cracklike highs and is as addictive as heroin. Bogota has 7,500 bazuco users among its 9,500 homeless population, said Ruben Dario Ramirez, director of the Center for the Study and Analysis of Coexistence and Security, which is spearheading the project. [continues 569 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Marijuana has long been accused of being a gateway to deadlier vices. But could cannabis be a swinging door that might also lead people away from hard drugs? That's what this capital city is trying to find out. In coming weeks, Bogota is embarking on a controversial public health project where it will begin supplying marijuana to 300 addicts of bazuco - a cheap cocaine derivative that generates crack-like highs and is as addictive as heroin. Bogota has 7,500 bazuco users among its 9,500 homeless population, said Ruben Dario Ramirez, director of the Center for the Study and Analysis of Coexistence and Security, which is spearheading the project. [continues 957 words]
BOGOTA - Nine people have been shot to death in the countryside outside Medellin in a massacre police suspect is a settling of accounts between drug traffickers. Gen. Yesid Vasquez is commander of the Metropolitan Police Department in Medellin, Colombia's second largest city. He says that the five men and four women were killed on a farm, apparently in the early morning hours of Monday. Vazquez says the slayings following a Sunday afternoon party at the "extremely luxurious" country home, and the farm's owner is among the dead. The general says that the victims were apparently shot with guns that had silencers, explaining why no one nearby reported hearing gunfire. Santiago Londono, secretary of government for Antioquia department says one woman survived the massacre and is being questioned by investigators. [end]
U.S.-Vetted Sensitive Investigative Units Rack Up Impressive Successes In The Drug Wars Using American Technology And Training At A Relatively Low Cost. CARTAGENA, Colombia - Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the "go-fast" craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs' way north. [continues 866 words]
Special Units Rely on American Technology and Training, Racking Up Impressive Successes at a Relatively Low Cost. CARTAGENA, Colombia - Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the "go-fast" craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs' way north. [continues 1543 words]
Canada, U.S. oppose country's involvement in next gathering Political leaders from the Western Hemisphere ended their summit Sunday seriously divided over the contentious issue of Cuba, as Canada and the United States blocked an attempt by Latin American nations to bring the communist Caribbean country into their fold. The weekend summit ended frostily when the leaders of more than 30 countries failed to produce a final declaration about their work. The reason for that failure was that the leaders were un-able to reach a consensus on a key issue - the Latin American countries want Cuba to be invited to the next summit of the Americas in three years, in Panama. [continues 835 words]
It's a valid discussion for U.S., Mexico and others Latin American leaders, weary of the drug war, are calling for an important discussion on drug legalization. The U.S. should not turn away. April 15, 2012 The Summit of the Americas is more often a photo opportunity than a forum for bold policy initiatives. When issues of substance are discussed, the meeting of the hemisphere's 34 leaders has generally yielded more clashes than regional pacts. But some saw a chance for a little more action this year when leaders from several Latin American countries came to this weekend's summit in the Colombian seaside city of Cartagena complaining of drug war fatigue. [continues 288 words]
Resource development has power to change nation, Harper tells summit CARTAGENA, Colombia - Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a pitch for Canada's mining industry Saturday as Western Hemisphere leaders gathered to discuss critical issues such as whether to decriminalize the illegal drug trade. In a speech to senior business executives, Harper said a strong mining sector - assisted with a low-tax regime and environmental regulation without excessive delays - can help the Canadian economy and provide a lesson to the countries of Latin America. [continues 512 words]
Something is just not working with the way the hemisphere has tackled powerful and violent drug traffickers, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged Sunday as he wrapped up a meeting with the leaders of the Americas. It was the first time Harper has suggested he is open to discussing new approaches to the war on drugs. Several Latin American countries, including Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia have called for an open and frank discussion about how to deal with the cartels. "There is increasing doubt about whether we are taking the best approach to doing that, but nobody thinks these transnational networks are good guys, or that changing the law is somehow going to make them good people," Mr. Harper told reporters at a news conference following the close of the Summit of the Americas. [continues 348 words]
Leaders at the Summit of the Americas Want to Discuss What They Consider a Failed Policy CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama sought Saturday to emphasize the robust economic relationship between the United States and Latin America, and he flatly ruled out legalizing drugs as a way to combat the illegal trafficking that has ravaged the region. Facing calls at a regional summit to consider decriminalization, Obama said he is open to a debate about drug policy, but he believes that legalization could lead to greater problems in countries hardest hit by drug-fueled violence. [continues 448 words]
A Global Taskforce to Rethink the Approach to Narcotics Is Proposed at the Americas Summit The government of Colombia pushed yesterday for the most far-reaching change to policy on drugs since US president Richard Nixon declared war on narcotics four decades ago. Hosting the sixth Summit of the Americas, for which 33 leaders of the hemisphere's 35 nations including President Barack Obama have assembled in Cartagena, President Juan Manuel Santos proposed the establishment of a taskforce of experts, economists and academics to analyse the realities of global drug addiction, trafficking and profiteering, with a view to a complete overhaul of governmental strategy. [continues 576 words]
Latin American leaders consider decriminalization policy Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to a weekend summit in Colombia where his hard line on drugs will put him at odds with some Latin American leaders who are calling for a debate over whether drug use should be decriminalized. Harper's position on Cuba also could run afoul of a possible consensus by countries in central and South America. Harper is attending the Summit of the Americas, a conference of leaders from 34 nations that is held every three years. [continues 429 words]
Latin American leaders are pushing to make a Cartagena summit a moment that sparks the world to redefine its approach to drugs. Stephen Harper, like U.S. President Barack Obama, has vowed to stand in the way. Make no mistake, as presidents from Colombia to Mexico flirt with the idea of legalizing or decriminalizing drugs, the notion is a challenge aimed at the nations to the north, the United States and Canada, the big consumer markets for the smuggled drugs. At the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, Mr. Harper will tell them they've got it all wrong. [continues 1147 words]
Latin America Leaders Differ on Decriminalization, Cuba Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to a weekend summit in Colombia where his hard line on drugs will put him at odds with some Latin American leaders who are calling for a debate over whether drug use should be decriminalized. Harper's position on Cuba also could run afoul of a possible consensus by countries in central and South America. Harper is attending the Summit of the Americas, a conference of leaders from 34 nations that is held every three years. The talks this year will include such issues as trade expansion, and Harper will meet with senior business executives from Canada and elsewhere who are attending the summit to discuss investment in the Western Hemisphere. [continues 340 words]
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to a weekend summit in Colombia where his hard line on drugs will put him at odds with some Latin American leaders who are calling for a debate over whether drug use should be decriminalized. Harper's position on Cuba also could run afoul of a possible consensus by countries in central and South America. Harper is attending the Summit of the Americas, a conference of leaders from 34 nations that is held every three years. [continues 295 words]
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to a weekend summit in Colombia where his hard line on drugs will put him at odds with some Latin American leaders who are calling for a debate over whether drug use should be decriminalized. Harper's position on Cuba also could run afoul of a possible consensus by countries in central and South America. Harper is attending the Summit of the Americas, a conference of leaders from 34 countries that is held every three years. The talks this year will include such issues as trade expansion, and Harper will meet with senior business executives from Canada and elsewhere who are attending the summit to discuss investment in the Americas. [continues 362 words]
Cuba Policy May Also Rile Some OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to a weekend summit in Colombia where his hard line on drugs will put him at odds with some Latin American leaders who are calling for debate over whether drug use should be decriminalized. Harper's position on Cuba also could run afoul of a possible consensus by countries in central and South America. Harper is attending the Summit of the Americas, a conference of leaders from 34 nations held every three years. [continues 397 words]
Some Leaders at the Summit of the Americas May Urge Decriminalization, a Move That the President Opposes. CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders may upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year. But the American demand for illegal drugs has caused fierce bloodshed, plus political and economic turmoil, across much of the region. [continues 697 words]
BOGOTA -- As the hemisphere's leaders gather in Colombia this week for the VI Summit of the Americas, their on-camera discussions will be dominated by perennial convention topics: poverty, cooperation, the need for roads. But behind closed doors, they are expected to tackle a more contentious issue: the narcotics trade. The 40-year-old war on drugs has cost billions in treasure and countless lives, but has produced mixed results. Drug abuse rates in the United States have been virtually unchanged over the last decade, as dips in cocaine use have been offset by rising consumption of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines. The United States has the highest overdose rates in the world - almost four times higher than Europe, according to the United Nation's 2011 World Drug Report. [continues 1223 words]
At Hemispheric Summit, Obama Will Hear Calls for Broad Changes in Tactics BOGOTA, Colombia - When President Obama arrives in Colombia for a hemispheric summit this weekend, he will hear Latin American leaders say that the U.S.-orchestrated war on drugs, which criminalizes drug use and employs military tactics to fight gangs, is failing and that broad changes need to be considered. Latin American leaders say they have not developed an alternative model to the approach favored by successive American administrations since Richard Nixon was in office. But the Colombian government says a range of options - including decriminalizing possession of drugs, legalizing marijuana use and regulating markets - will be debated at the Summit of the Americas in the coastal city of Cartagena. [continues 1025 words]
CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA - President Barack Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders could upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year. But the American demand for illegal drugs has caused fierce bloodshed, plus political and economic turmoil, across much of the region. [continues 310 words]
President Santos Moves To Build On Security Gains Of His Predecessor To Address Root Cause Of Conflict: Land Ownership BOGOTA - President Juan Manuel Santos has surprised friends and foes alike during his first year in office by distancing himself from his onetime boss, former President Alvaro Uribe, and setting an ambitious agenda to try to repair the damages from a long-running civil war. With approval ratings at over 75% and a solid majority in congress, Mr. Santos has secured a package of groundbreaking laws, including one to return nearly 16 million acres of land-equal to West Virginia-taken from peasants during the war. [continues 693 words]
Inside Colombia
