Cocaine’s Flow Is Unchecked in Venezuela

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/world/americas/venezuela-is-cocaine-hub-despite-its-claims.html?pagewanted=all

.
LA MACANILLA, Venezuela — The Venezuelan government has trumpeted one major blow after another against drug traffickers, showing off barrels of liquid cocaine seized, drug planes recovered, cocaine labs raided and airstrips destroyed.

.But a visit this month to a remote region of Venezuela’s vast western plains, which a Colombian guerrilla group has turned into one of the world’s busiest transit hubs for the movement of cocaine to the United States, has shown that the government’s triumphant claims are vastly overstated.

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President Obama signed a memorandum in September that designated Venezuela, for the seventh time, as a country that failed to meet international obligations to fight drug trafficking. He cited a federal report that concluded that the country was “one of the preferred trafficking routes out of South America” and had a “generally permissive and corrupt environment.”

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But the United States says Venezuela’s efforts are deeply hobbled by corruption, particularly by ties between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, which controls much of the cocaine traffic in the region.

[Peace Patriot]

1. And this means what? They need the DEA, the AFT, the FBI, the DIA, the CIA, the DOJ, the Pentagon

Last edited Wed Aug 8, 2012, 09:46 PM - Edit history (1)

and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in military aid "to stop the drug trade"?



Or is it that the New York Slimes had a hole to fill, it's election time in Venezuela and the DEA, the AFT, the FBI, the DIA, the CIA, the DOJ, the Pentagon and the State Department were more than willing to empty their trash cans onto the pages of the New York Slimes to ONCE AGAIN slime the most hated Latin American leftist president of all time--the one who booted Exxon Mobil out of Venezuela?

This gets not so funny after a while. Clearly, Venezuela needs a bloodbath (i.e., Mexico), lots of dead trade unionists and other advocates of the poor and FIVE MILLION brutally displaced peasant farmers (i.e., Colombia) and a fascist coup and lots of murdered leftists-- teachers, community activists, labor leaders--and journalists, and more U.S. military bases (i.e., Honduras), to solve the "drug problem."

I want to laugh some more--sometimes that's all you can do--but, in honor of the millions of victims of the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs," I will refrain from rofling. This smells too much like the WMDs that weren't in Iraq (um, Judith Miller, New York Slimes).

This is A WAR. And what you are reading, in this corporate/war profiteer trash bin, is WAR PROPAGANDA. Whether it becomes another U.S. shooting war or not, we don't yet know. It smells like Iraq (the Democrats prep the war, the Bushwhacks drop the bombs and torture the prisoners). But if Leon Panetta can keeps winning 'gold medals' (Panetta 2, Latin America 0) (um, the fake "constitutional crises" by which elected leftist presidents were removed in Honduras and Paraguay), maybe only trade unionists and peasants will die and not U.S. soldiers.

And they can always send the Secret Service in, to debauch Chavez.

Sorry, dead people. Even with mountains of dead bodies, murdered by the U.S. "war on drugs"--or maybe because of them--sometimes you just gotta laugh.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. Venezuela is already in a blood bath. more violent than Mexico. where have you been?

oh, that's right you get your news from Venanalysis.

anyway, some of us have been reporting on the the FARC Venezuela connection for years. the most corrupt and violent country in the hemisphere.

[COLGATE4]

3. Don't bother. With armchair analysts

the rule is 'none so blind as those who will not see'.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Hard to do analysis without sitting in a chair (with arms or not). It takes...

...lots and lots of research from many sources--corporate news reports, alternative news reports, human rights groups research, accounts of past and recent history, etc.--lots and lots of reading and lots and lots of THINKING to be able to write an analysis and convey an opinion of more than two sentences. People who can't sit in a chair for all that research and thinking produce short, simplistic, often aggressive put-downs of those who do take the trouble to be well-informed.

Or perhaps you prefer analysis and opinion written as the thinker falls down the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland--on the fly, so to speak, getting the hang of jabberwocky along the way.

Got anything substantive to say, say it. But don't criticize me for sitting in a chair.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. an accurate two sentence statement is more informative than an interminable post

that is pure conjecture.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Yeah, and if the Chavez government banned guns, you would be the first to cry, "Dictator!"

Venezuela's violence is PRIVATE and is related to Venezuelans' love of guns. It is NOT the government, stoked by billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, U.S. military "training" and the on-the-ground presence of U.S. military personnel and U.S. police state agents, CREATING "drug wars," as in Mexico, and using the "war on drugs" to murder trade unionists, teachers, community activists and other advocates of the poor, and to brutally displace FIVE MILLION peasant farmers, as in Colombia, and using the "war on drugs" to murder trade unionists, peaceful advocates of the poor, Indigenous tribespeople, journalists and others, as in Honduras.

Big difference. Private violence is harder to stop for the very reason that people have rights--not only the right to bear arms but also the right to a trial, evidence, habeas corpus, proof, if they are accused, and the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. STATE violence, on the other hand--of the U.S. "war on drugs" kind--is EASY to stop if the government is devoted to good government policy and is not ruled by war profiteers. Unfortunately, we don't have such a government and have no power whatsoever over these billions and billions of our tax dollars wasted on the "war on drugs," poured into the pockets of war and police state and "prison-industrial complex" profiteers and the villainous extension of this "war" into Latin American countries with rightwing/fascist governments.

The Chavez government has, in fact, been far more effective at busting big drug lords since they threw the DEA out of the country. True also of Bolivia. Many big drug busts--minimal violence--and no collateral damage on society, as in the blood-soaked countries of Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, and in our bankrupt land with our out-of-control police state.

The U.S. "war on drugs" is INSANE. It is far worse than "Prohibition" in the 1920s, and its export by U.S. war profiteers to Latin America is the worst thing that has ever happened to Latin America. It is a war on the poor. To equate that DELIBERATE bloodbath by GOVERNMENTS--our own and its rightwing allies--with the street violence in Venezuela, which the government does not desire to happen and is trying to prevent, is twisted, "Alice in Wonderland" thinking--upside down, inside out and backwards--typical of the far right.

The Chavez government could end most street violence in Venezuela by banning guns--but they won't because Venezuelans have a right to bear arms. They could end it with "big boot" police state tactics--but they won't because they are a democracy. They have to go, and desire to go, the slow way of democracy--building up a professional police force, reforming the courts, promoting education and higher achievement and all the society-building work that has been crushed in Latin America for a hundred years, while the U.S. toppled one good government after another, in its service to U.S. transglobal corporations.

I am anti-guns. I want all guns and all weapons wiped off the face of the earth. And, if I were king of Venezuela, that would be my first edict. But Venezuela doesn't have a king nor any kind of tyrant. The solution has to be by consent of the people. On the other hand, the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" is something that governments CAN affect RIGHT NOW. They can stop all this arms dealing, violence and collateral damage right now!

Even some rightwing leaders in LatAm have called for the legalization of drugs, so bad has the U.S. "war on drugs" become. While they may be shilling for a Big Pharma/Big Ag plan to monopolize the drug trade through legalization (now that the peasants have been cleared off the land and Monsanto can take over), the fact that they are even able to say this--call for legalization--indicates more sanity in LatAm leaders than we ever see here. It also indicates WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS VIOLENCE--government leaders!

That is not true in Venezuela!

As for your point about the FARC, that is ludicrously far right and has been debunked time and again. The Bushwhacks' "made man" in Colombia--the foaming at the mouth winger and warmonger, Alvaro Uribe--tried to score points with his mob bosses with that one, and got laughed at all over the continent. "...some of us have been reporting on the ... FARC Venezuela connection for years" and "some of you" have been wrong for years, on this and everything else. Repeating rightwing "talking points" doesn't make them real; it only makes them more of a "Big Lie" than ever.

And, believe me, the New York Slimes is not above promoting "Big Lies." They did it on Iraq. They've done it frequently on the Latin American left. They do it often on critically important matters. They have cobbled together a bunch of lies and bullshit, in this case, to influence the election in Venezuela and to throw more hate at Chavez possibly in collusion with the Pentagon (as with Iraq) for the next oil war. I don't call them the "Slimes" for nothing. They are war propagandists.

[Bacchus4.0]

8. Venezuela just banned gun ownership. You really need to keep up.

in addition Venezuela's own justice minister said 20% of the violence was committed by the police themselves. In addition, the pro-government colectivos (commonly known as paramilitaries and death squads) are armed by the government.

"The Chavez government could end most street violence in Venezuela by banning guns--but they won't because Venezuelans have a right to bear arms."

they just did two months ago. more than enough time for you to have discovered that during one of your research sessions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18288430

[flamingdem]

12. +1

[polly7]

11. +1,000,000. !!! nt.

[naaman fletcher]

16. I happend to agree with you about the US war on drugs,

But why doest that mean that therefore there is no corruption in the Chavez regieme? The whole point is that the war on drugs produces the insane profits that then allows for the necessary bribes.

Why would the cartels move cocaine through Venezuela if the Chavez regieme was not on the take? They could always just move it through Colombia, Honduras, etc.

[Roverticus]

4. Chavez has created "one of the preferred trafficking routes,"

It's really scary what turning a blind eye for a second can do, but even more disconcerting how impotent and counter productive putting the traffickers in the spotlight can be.

The Mano Dura, makes a come back. Well it's always coming back, but here it is again...

Honduran President Puts “Tigers” Police Force on the Streets

TEGUCIGALPA, Aug 7 2012 (IPS) - The Honduran government’s plan to create a new rapid response police force, as part of a strategy to militarise the fight against crime, is dangerously vague, experts say.

The creation of the elite “Intelligence and Special Security Response Groups Unit” (whose acronym is Tigres, which means “tigers”) would undermine the process of demilitarisation of society that got underway in this impoverished, crime-ridden Central American nation 15 years ago.

Honduras is one of the most violent countries on earth. According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, there were 82 homicides for every 100,000 citizens in 2010, the highest homicide rate in the world. (In comparison, the United States had five homicides per 100,000.)

But experts consulted by IPS warned that the government plan was ambiguous, because the new force would fall under the ministry of security, but its training and centres of operations would be in the armed forces battalions, which answer to the ministry of defence.

More here: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3802-honduran-president-puts-tigers-police-force-on-the-streets

[Bacchus4.0]

10. they have to do something. I always thought the mano dura was more along the lines

of stop and frisk. this Tigre force sounds more like a SWAT type force.

[Roverticus]

13. If never heard of "hard hand" meaning stop and frisk

But it really depends which crevices they decide to frisk. I've usually associated Mano Dura with off-duty police officers assassinating teenagers (suspected 'gang bangers') in the night. Vigilantism + shoot first cover up later.

[Bacchus4.0]

14. interesting, I've seen latin american politicians refer to the mano dura in crime fighting

but I don't really think they refering to extrajudicial killings (although of course that happens all too much). I always simply thought it was a tough on crime approach.

[Roverticus]

15. You are right

Technically, Mano Dura means tough on crime approach. The state doesn't explicitly sponsor extrajudicial killings, but they are a sad byproduct of a tougher policy, which might be more inclined to overlook such actions. Also both sides are just scared shitless. The police fear the near meteoric rise of street gangs, the youth fear the gangs and the police, but often end up joining the gangs because of persistently high unemployment, lack of parental figures due to immigration, or shear intimidation and peer pressure. The police don't know who to go after the gangs because the problem hides among the youth population, so they just kill anyone fitting the bill and pray it makes the streets safer in the morning.

Also there's scenario C, where police end up being corrupted or worse killed as a display of power by some big shot Mexican cartel looking for influence in Central America. My guess is police are more likely to be paid off by Sinaloa and tortured into submission by the Zetas. But that is in no way a rule, as both these cartels are horrendously violent. Given their cruelty and what's happened in Mexico over the last six years, a Mano Duro policy is more likely to elicit retaliation from organized crime, further increasing police paranoia, which leads to more extrajudicial killings.

[bemildred]

9. Yep, there is an election coming up soon. nt