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]
SHINAHOTA, Bolivia-During nearly 14 years as president, Evo Morales pampered the Chapare, the coca leaf-growing jungle region of central Bolivia where he got his start in politics. Mr. Morales expelled U.S. antidrug agents and promoted the health benefits of the coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine, which is legal and chewed by many indigenous people. His socialist government built a paper mill, an airport, and a 25,000-seat soccer stadium in the region. In turn, the farmers gave Mr. Morales, the head of a federation of coca growers, their fervent support. [continues 902 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]
Buds of marijuana are shown before being placed into packets for sale at the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco, Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. [Associated Press] A haul of marijuana, weighing 13,227.74 pounds (6,000 kg) had been stored in a warehouse in Pilar, northwest of Buenos Aries, for two years. When a new police commissioner took over for Javier Specia, he noticed 1,191 pounds missing from the warehouse. Specia told a judge that the missing marijuana was eaten by mice, according to BBC. But the judge doesn't quite believe that story. [continues 66 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]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - The legal sale of marijuana in Uruguayan pharmacies is facing challenges as banks refuse to deal with companies linked to the drug in order to follow international financial laws. A government official said Friday that Uruguayan banks risk running afoul of laws that ban receiving money tied to the drug. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. In July, marijuana went up for sale at 16 pharmacies as part of a 2013 law that made Uruguay first to legalize a pot market covering the entire chain from plants to purchase. [continues 249 words]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - The rules are a bit of a buzzkill. Drug users must officially register with the government. Machines will scan buyers' fingerprints at every purchase, and there are strict quotas to prevent overindulgence. But when Uruguay's marijuana legalization law takes full effect on Wednesday, getting high will take a simple visit to the pharmacy. As American states legalize marijuana and governments in the hemisphere rethink the fight against drugs, Uruguay is taking a significant step further: It is the first nation in the world to fully legalize the production and sale of marijuana for recreational use. [continues 1284 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]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay-Tiny Uruguay embarked on an ambitious social experiment Wednesday by becoming the first country to regulate and oversee the sale of marijuana, a policy that has enthralled pro-pot activists and smokers abroad but has lukewarm support at home. Under tight restrictions, the only establishments licensed to offer marijuana are pharmacies, 16 of which began to sell here in the capital. Pot connoisseurs lined up and then gushed about both buying marijuana legally and the product's quality. "It tastes great," said Daniel Souza, 48 years old, a hospital worker who lighted up in front of city hall. "This kind of weed is great for creativity. It will be good for my guitar playing." [continues 725 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]
RIO DE JANEIRO - Fans were lining up to watch an American beach volleyball duo square off against Mexico on the alluring sands of Copacabana Beach. But across town, far from the Olympic excitement, the crackling of gun battles echoed through the colossal favelas that envelop Rio de Janeiro's hillsides. As soon as he heard the bullets whizzing by early on Tuesday, Richard Conceicao Dias, 9, knew what to do. "I lied down on the floor, hugging my mom," said Richard, who lives in a one-room home in the sprawling Complexo do Alemao group of favelas with his mother and his three sisters. "She told me, 'Get away from the window, close your eyes, dream about something nice.'" [continues 1104 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]
Montevideo (AP) - Uruguay is home to the world's first government-regulated national marketplace for pot, so it's not surprising that growers have a competition for best marijuana. At the Cannabis Cup in Montevideo over the weekend, a panel of regional experts judged entries for aroma, flavour, effects and strength before picking the winners of the best indoor and outdoor crops. Silver cups were awarded to the winners and all competitors received a jar with samples from others in the tournament. [continues 60 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]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - Rossana Rilla could sell marijuana under Uruguay's pioneering law that lets pharmacies distribute pot. But she says there is no way she will. In her 28 years as a pharmacist, she has been beaten, dragged across the floor and threatened by thieves at gunpoint and with a grenade. She fears that selling marijuana would only make her store a bigger target for robbers and burglars. "You see their faces and you can tell right away that they are not consumers who are here just to buy" marijuana, Rilla said about the "suspicious people" who have recently been coming into her Montevideo pharmacy asking if she sells pot. [continues 530 words]
Dear Editor, The use of marijuana for recreational purposes cannot be a "good" thing. That should not be a basis for its decriminalization or legalization. The issue is whether criminalization of the drug, given the enormous violence associated with the 'policing' by criminals of its supply, combined with the corruption facilitated by the sheer enormity of the profits arising therefrom, is or is not a greater societal evil than decriminalization or legalization. The evidence is overwhelming that criminalization produces the greater evil. Yours faithfully, Romain Pitt [end]
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]
Fight Breaks Out After Pair Who Were 'Like Brothers' Reportedly Took Psychedelic Drug Ayahuasca A spiritual retreat in Peru turned deadly when a 29-year-old Canadian allegedly stabbed a British man after the pair took a hallucinogenic brew. Local police allege Canadian Joshua Andrew Freeman Stevens killed Unais Gomes, 26, after Gomes attacked him with a knife Wednesday night. The incident occurred during a retreat near the city of Iquitos in the Peruvian jungle where the pair - who were reportedly "like brothers" - both ingested ayahuasca, a powerful psychedelic drug also known as "the vine of the soul." [continues 615 words]
Inside South America
