UNCLE SAM SAYS: 'THEY'RE NUTS IF THEY

THINK I WON'T STICK MY NOSE INTO THE

ISSUE OF MEXICAN DRUG TRAFFICKING'

[Excelsior, Mexico]

 

 

Folha, Brazil

Bad-Mouthing U.S. Aid Won't Solve Drug Crisis

 

"Consumption, needless to say, is concentrated in the United States and Europe, but it's spreading uncontrollably through Brazil and the rest of Latin America - which was previously just a production and transit center."

 

By Clóvis Rossi

                          

 

Translated By Helene Hill

 

October 20, 2009

 

Brazil - Folha - Original Article (Portuguese)

Near the end of a long, self-congratulatory speech at the close of the Brazil-Colombia business seminar at Fiesp yesterday, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe introduced the theme of drug legalization, but only to condemn it. 

 

“The tolerance of consumption is equivalent to legalization through the back door,” Uribe said.

 

It wasn't an explicit condemnation of legalization, but the reiteration of Colombia's previous position, shared by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which is: as long there is drug consumption and production, there will necessarily be trafficking. Consumption, needless to say, is concentrated in the United States and Europe, but it's spreading uncontrollably through Brazil and the rest of Latin America - which was previously just a production and transit center.

 

Put another way, Uribe is reaffirming his support for a strategy that is essentially politico-military, whereas most experts see this approach as outdated (for more on this, see Sept. 8 articles Drugs Win the war. So What? and The Reader and Drugs).

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Evidence that the war is being lost was a statement issued yesterday by the White House, announcing the extension of a "national emergency" on drugs, which was declared 14 years ago (more precisely, on the October 21, 1995).

 

The continuation is justified by the fact that the activity of the traffickers, “centered in Colombia, continues to threaten national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States, causing an extreme level of violence, corruption and harm within the United States and abroad.”

 

'EMERGENCY' WOULD HAVE ENDED THIS MONTH.

 

If they are sincere, neither Presidents Uribe nor Lula will deny that the problems highlighted yesterday by their colleague Barack Obama are even more acute in Brazil and Colombia - countries that are far more institutionally fragile. Proof of this is the battle that led to the downing of a helicopter in Rio de Janeiro at the end of last week, which coincided with Sunday's assassination by the FARC (a Colombian narco-terrorist group) of two city councilors from a town near Bogota.

 

[Editor's Note: The FARC, shorthand for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army, is a left-wing guerilla group that is said to control about 40 percent of Colombian territory [see map below]. Funded largely through drug-trafficking, the group is the central target of U.S. sponsored Plan Colombia, a package of military and non-military aid that has cost about $3 billion over the past five years].

 

 

The worst is that Lula insists on the idea that UNASUL, the Union of South American Nations, should take care of combating drugs with a home-grown mechanism - in other words, one that would dispense with the United States. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's essential that they move from ideas to action - something that isn't happening.

 

If proof were necessary, one could point to the uproar surrounding the Colombian bases that will be used by North American soldiers. UNASUL has already held two or three meetings on the matter, and hasn't gotten anywhere.  

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

This shows that the mistrust between Colombia and Venezuela, for example, remains as it was. By extension, the chances of creating a defense mechanism among ourselves, even if limited to combating drugs, is pretty close to zero. In the final analysis, they are neither considering legalization nor of confronting the problem head-on.

 

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SEE ALSO ON THIS:

Semana, Colombia: U.S. Military Bases are Alright, Under One Condition ...

La Jornada, Mexico: Washington's Strategy of 'Chaos and Intervention' in Mexico

La Jornada, Mexico: Calderon's Bush-Style Militarization of Mexican Politics

Excelsior, Mexico: Mexico Needs 'Deeds, Not Words' From Obama White House

El Universal , Mexico: How Mexico Could Legalize Pot - Whether U.S. Likes it or Not

Excelsior, Mexico: As Blood Flows, U.S. Gets Serious About the Battle for Mexico

Excelsior, Mexico: Relations Between U.S. and Mexico are Deteriorating

La Tercera, Chile Mexico's Drug War: No Way Out But to Fight On

Semana, Colombia: Michael Phelps and American Hypocricy on the Use of Drugs

El Financiero, Mexico: Chavez Tells Obama: 'Align Yourself Toward Socialism with Us'

 

Clovis Rossi is a special correspondent and member of the Folha editorial board, is a winner of the Maria Moors Cabot award (USA) and is a member of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism. His column appears on Thursdays and Sundays on page 2 and on Saturdays in the World Notebook section. He is the author, among other works, of Special Envoy: 25 Years Around the World and What is Journalism?

.

E-mail: crossi@uol.com.br

 

CLICK HERE FOR PORTUGUESE VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US October 27, 4:36pm]

 






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