Afghanistan's Opium Poppy Crop Is At A Record Level Trafficking And Use Are Rising In Iraq WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan's opium poppy crop this year is set to break all records, surging past the peak levels reported under the Taliban regime, top American and international counter-narcotics officials said. At the same time, U.N. and U.S. officials are increasingly worried by signs of a nascent drug trade developing in Iraq, where smugglers are taking advantage of the continuing chaos and unguarded borders. [continues 1229 words]
Dear Editor - I can understand Tom Ford's concern for his neighborhood "Stop the pot grow operators" (The Guelph Mercury, Sept.16) but he needs to look beyond his street. No amount of enforcement will make marijuana grow houses go away. It is said that one in every three homes in British Columbia is a grow op. Authorities admit that the situation is hopelessly out of control. Just look to the U.S., where the problem has only gotten worse after militarizing their police forces and spending billions in the war on some drugs. [continues 92 words]
Those outdoor plants RCMP seized last week in Marinette were just distractions. Real marijuana is grown indoors with booby-traps, stolen power and illegal immigrants to tend the crop. Kids buy illicit drugs from organized networks of producers and distributors. They have virtually unlimited resources to get to your children. A God-given herb, instantly worth its weight in gold by making it illegal, provides a tsunami of tax-free income. When we re-legalize and regulate "drugs," as we do with alcohol and cigarettes, organized crime will be undercut, dealers will require ID, and some 700,000 Canadians will be liberated from their "criminal" convictions. Ian Miller Halifax [end]
ZACAPA, Guatemala -- An exploding drug trade aided by extensive government corruption has turned Guatemala into the primary safe haven for Colombia's cocaine headed through Mexico to the United States, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities. An estimated 200 metric tons of cocaine passed through Guatemala last year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumption of the drug, according to State Department officials. The increased flow - nearly triple the amount estimated a decade ago - has turned parts of Guatemala into lawless zones ruled by family-controlled transit cartels, a development all too clear in this dry and dusty frontier state. [continues 585 words]
ZACAPA, Guatemala - An exploding drug trade aided by extensive government corruption has turned Guatemala into the primary safe haven for Colombia's cocaine headed through Mexico to the United States, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities. An estimated 200 metric tons of cocaine passed through Guatemala last year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumption of the drug, according to State Department officials. The increased flow - nearly triple the amount estimated a decade ago - has turned parts of Guatemala into lawless zones ruled by family-controlled transit cartels. [continues 374 words]
Corruption Fueling Drug Trade, Authorities Say ZACAPA, Guatemala - An exploding drug trade aided by extensive government corruption has turned Guatemala into the primary safe haven for Colombia's cocaine headed through Mexico to the United States, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities. An estimated 200 metric tons of cocaine passed through Guatemala last year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumption of the drug, according to State Department officials. The increased flow -- nearly triple the amount estimated a decade ago -- has turned parts of Guatemala into lawless zones ruled by family-controlled transit cartels, a development all too clear in this dry and dusty frontier state. [continues 707 words]
Colombian Farmers Raising Less, Although Effect On Market Unclear EL TOPACIO, Colombia -- For the first time in at least a decade, the amount of coca grown in Colombia is falling sharply, largely the result of an aggressive, U.S.-backed aerial fumigation campaign. Repeated spraying by crop dusters plus government programs to encourage farmers to pull up coca plants have reduced Colombia's coca, the source of cocaine, by 38 percent to 252,000 acres in the past three years, according to a United Nations study released this year. [continues 839 words]
The U.S.-Backed Effort to Eradicate Colombian Coca Plants Is Working, Killing 38% of the Crop. Farmers and Guerrillas Are Feeling the Pinch. EL TOPACIO, Colombia -- For the first time in at least a decade, the amount of coca grown in Colombia is falling sharply, largely the result of an aggressive, U.S.-backed aerial fumigation campaign. Repeated spraying by crop dusters plus government programs to encourage farmers to pull up coca plants have reduced Colombia's coca, the source of cocaine, by 38% to 252,000 acres in the past three years, according to a United Nations study released this year. [continues 2286 words]
U.S.-Led Herbicide Spraying Has Cut Acreage Dramatically, U.N. Finds EL TOPACIO, Colombia -- For the first time in at least a decade, the amount of coca grown in Colombia is falling sharply, largely the result of an aggressive, U.S.-backed aerial fumigation campaign. Repeated spraying by crop dusters plus government programs to encourage farmers to pull up coca plants have reduced Colombia's coca, the source of cocaine, by 38% to 252,000 acres in the past three years, according to a United Nations study released this year. [continues 1294 words]
Hostages From Crashed Plane Will Remain Safe, Statement Warns, Only If Rescue Efforts Cease. BOGOTA, Colombia -- Leftists guerrillas issued a statement Saturday acknowledging for the first time that they are holding three U.S. government contractors who crashed in a plane in rebel-held territory 10 days ago. Saying they shot down the aircraft Feb. 13, rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, referred to the three kidnapped Americans as "CIA agents." The rebels demanded the immediate cessation of rescue efforts in a small area surrounding the crash site in the mountains of southern Colombia. The communique made no mention of the two other crew members, an American and a Colombian intelligence official, whose bodies were found near the crash site, shot at close range. [continues 585 words]
Ambassador Advises Cutting Off Aid To An Elite Unit For Allegedly Stalling Probe Into A 1998 Bombing That Killed 18 Civilians. BOGOTA, Colombia -- The U.S. ambassador to Colombia has recommended suspending funding to this country's most elite air force unit, saying it has been stonewalling an investigation into a bombing four years ago that killed 18 civilians. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson also has pledged to help Colombian investigators in their efforts to track down three U.S. citizens who allegedly participated in the bombing of the tiny village of Santo Domingo in December 1998, U.S. congressional sources said. [continues 1358 words]
Drugs: The Indictment Breaks New Ground In Relations Between The U.S. And Colombia. BOGOTA, Colombia -- The United States announced the indictment of the leader of Colombia's feared paramilitary army on drug charges Tuesday, the first time such a high-ranking figure in the outlaw group has faced the possibility of U.S. justice. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said the U.S. would seek the extradition of Carlos Castano and two other leaders of the right-wing paramilitary group for allegedly transporting nearly 15 tons of cocaine into the United States since 1997. [continues 686 words]
Right-Wing Militia Chief Accused Of Drug Trafficking Bogota, Colombia -- The United States announced the indictment of the leader of Colombia's feared paramilitary army on drug charges Tuesday, the first time such a high-ranking figure in the outlaw group has faced the possibility of U.S. justice. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United States would seek the extradition of Carlos Castano and two other leaders of the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, for allegedly transporting nearly 15 tons of cocaine into the United States since 1997. [continues 416 words]
ARAUCA, Colombia - Under pressure from United States-based Occidental Petroleum and the U.S. government, the Colombian military has redeployed its forces to protect a key oil pipeline, leading to an explosion of violence in the undefended countryside. The army has reassigned most of its troops in the province to patrol the pipeline, which is jointly owned by Occidental and the Colombian state oil company. Leftist guerrillas battling the government shut down production for months in 2001, but this year attacks on the pipeline have plunged. [continues 1032 words]
Policy: Paramilitary Force Is Backing U.S. Program To Help Farmers Give Up Illegal Coca Crop. SIMITI, Colombia -- A fledgling U.S. program to eradicate cocaine in central Colombia has gained a notorious ally: a right-wing paramilitary army that the State Department has labeled a terrorist organization. The so-called self-defense forces, responsible for the majority of massacres in Colombia's bloody internal conflict, have thrown their support behind a U.S. alternative development program that seeks to persuade farmers to give up their profitable coca crops for legal products such as beans, chocolate and cattle. [continues 2015 words]
Guerrillas Have Killed Officials And Ravaged Property To Try To Force The Government Back To The Negotiating Table. SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia -- News of his impending execution came to Mayor Nestor Leon Ramirez on a white sheet of paper. A guerrilla commander handed the note to a farmer, who delivered it to Ramirez. It read: "For the good of your health, you must leave the city. If you do not, you will become a military target." But Ramirez, leader of this bustling town, decided to ignore the message, which arrived this month. [continues 1769 words]
Latin America: Hard-Liner Uribe Becomes Next President After Promising To Step Up The War Against The Nation's Leftist Guerrillas. BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombians elected as their next president Sunday a hard-liner who promised to aggressively confront this nation's leftist guerrillas, an option that promises to broaden the country's bloody internal war. With 98% of the vote counted, conservative career politician Alvaro Uribe had won almost 53% of the ballots, enough to avoid a runoff election. His major opponents conceded defeat. [continues 1282 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia -- A month after peace talks collapsed, this is what Colombia's war looks like: In the countryside, leftist guerrillas have demolished bridges, detonated car bombs and killed soldiers and police in small groups. In the cities, people go on Sunday bike rides, dine at fine restaurants and attend fashion shows. In other words, the war looks pretty much the same as it did before Feb. 20, when President Andres Pastrana ended negotiations with the country's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. [continues 1251 words]
FLORENCIA, Colombia -- State Department officials have concluded that an alternative development plan aimed at slashing drug crops has failed, a decision that raises doubts about the U.S.-backed effort to eradicate the primary source of cocaine on America's streets. Farmers in southern Colombia who signed voluntary agreements to eliminate coca, the source of cocaine, in exchange for aid have eliminated little or none of their harvest and have no intention of doing so before a deadline later this year, according to a confidential State Department report. [continues 1256 words]
FLORENCIA, Colombia - State Department officials have concluded that an alternative-development plan aimed at slashing drug crops has failed, a decision that raises doubts about the U.S.-backed effort to eradicate the primary source of narcotics on America's streets. Farmers in southern Colombia who signed voluntary agreements to eliminate coca, the source of cocaine, in exchange for aid have eliminated little or none of their harvest and have no intention of doing so before a deadline later this year, according to a confidential State Department report. [continues 571 words]
