US News
US accuses Venezuela, Bolivia of taking over drug trafficking role
Mar 1, 2007, 23:43 GMT
Washington - While Colombia and Mexico make inroads into their illicit drugs trade and trafficking, Venezuela and Bolivia are playing an increasing role as drug producers and transit routes on the Latin American continent, the US State Department said Thursday.
'In contrast to the strong stands taken by the governments of Mexico and Colombia, political will in Venezuela and Bolivia faltered last year,' said Anne Patterson, assistant secretary of state, introducing the State Department's annual report on controlling global drug trafficking.
While Colombia remains the world's largest producer of cocaine, authorities eradicated record levels of illicit crops - more than 200,000 hectares across the country - and succeeded in intercepting a number of traffickers, especially by air.
But those successes have led neighbouring Venezuela to become one of the primary transit routes for drugs to reach Western nations including the United States and Europe.
'Venezuela's permissive and corrupt environment led to more trafficking, fewer seizures, and an increase in suspected drug flights over the past 12 months,' Patterson said.
Bolivian President Evo Morales last year campaigned on a promise to increase legal coca cultivation in the country, which the State Department report said has also led to increased cocaine production despite efforts to combat the illicit trade.
Mexico remains the primary means for drugs to reach the US, but Patterson said that President Felipe Calderon and former president Vicente Fox have 'cracked down on traffickers more than any previous Mexican governments.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
If the governments of Venezeula and Bolivia played by the corporate rules, the US State Department would not care.
This is a function not of illegal drugs, it is a function of how dangerous Bolivia and Venezeula are to the corporate interests that control oil, gas and food in those countries, and a big complaint from US interests, is that they are being frozen out of the skimming of the profits from Bolivia and Venezeulian drug trade. That's the REAL issue at hand here.
Organized crime is putting the squeeze on the US State Dept.
Simple solution to drug smuggling... if caught, you must 'use' all the shipment as quickly as it can be injested, eaten, snorted or whatever the usual form of usage. The smugglers obviously see no harm in others using it, so force feed it to them. If they can walk away - best to them. if they die - 1 less smuggler.
Sure the U.S. has to accuse Venezuela and Bolivia of failing to control the
illegal drug trade. After all, their presidents, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales,
are the new visionaries in South America, very popular in their countries, and
refuse to stand in attention and take orders from Washington as previous regimes
have done. And after a U.S. sponsored military coup against Chavez in his first
term that collapsed when the commander of the armored division refused to take a bribe and join the plotters, and send his paratroopers to rescue Chavez and
return him to power, Mr. Chavez didn't mince words to blast George Bush's hegemonic policies at the U.N. General Assembly. [Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did exactly the same recently at a speech at a European Conference] And since Chavez's status in Latin America has skyrocketed, his illicit drug trade charges by the U.S. to undermine him are quite foolish. They just undermine the U.S. credibility, not Chavez's status. Bolivia is also accused by the U.S. because its popular president, Evo Morales, is a Chavez friend. The accusation of the U.S. that he allowed recently increased coca production in the Andes is
unfair. Sheep and Lama herders at the Andes don't eat breakfast, lunch and
dinner in the mountais. They chew coca leaves to reduce hunger and the effects of thin air with little oxygen. The practice of coca chewing has been going on for thousands of years, but the U.S. has nothing else to accused Evo Morales
for his friendship to Chavez. That is why the U.S. spent generously in the recent presidential elections in Mexico to defeat Lopez Obrador, a Chavez like firebrand, and helped elect the pro-U.S. Felipe Calderon with just a few votes. If Obrador had been elected, he would have been part of this State Department accusation as a leader responsible for the narcotrafficking in Mexico.
page: 1
SIDENYMar 2nd, 2007 - 02:23:21
when will the will to kill the bad guys get more of the respect that the good guys deserve?/
a FIGHT IS A FIGHT.
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