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US Earning Profits on Drug Business in South America

Nil Nikandrov http://en.fondsk.ru
September 19, 2008
US Earning Profits on Drug Business in South America
When Grumman Gulf Stream II aircraft crashed in Mexico last year, the police discovered a total of 6 tons of packaged cocaine and heroin among the debris. At that time, the blame was pinned on local drug lords.

Recent publications in Mexican media indicate, however, that the aircraft had a rather dark past. An investigation which influential forces in the Mexican law enforcement agencies attempted to obstruct revealed that the plane had been used by various US special services to transfer terrorism suspects to secret jails in Europe and to the US concentration camp in Guantanamo. But even more often its route has been Colombia-US-Colombia, its passengers being Colombian drug lords taken to the US to reach multi-million deals - or deals with the US justice.

Such stories of air crashes related to drug trafficking occur increasingly often. The consumption of psychoactive drugs in the US is soaring and drug cartels have to upgrade their transit capacities with great urgency, safety problems notwithstanding. Aircrafts with drugs fell, made emergency landings, or were shot down by border guards in Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, and Guatemala. There is hardly a country in Latin America where likewise incidents have not been reported. It transpired in many cases that they were used by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which is the US agency tasked with fighting the drug business in the US and internationally. One got an impression that DEA was not so much fighting drug trafficking as helping to expand it.

I heard from a local journalist during my recent trip to Bolivia that for the US struggle against the drug business is the same type of a show for foreign consumption as the imitated terrorist attack against the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. While the latter gave Washington full freedom to hunt “the enemies of the empire” all over the world, the former serves as the instrument of total control, at least in Latin America.

I recalled the conversation when some (not too many) of the Western media agencies reported that DEA had been harshly criticized by Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizales. He spoke on the occasion of the publication of a regular report on the activities of the national agencies responsible for fighting the illegal drug circulation in Venezuela. Carrizales said that in many instances DEA agents clearly impeded the efforts made by Venezuela. When the country needed a special reagent used to identify narcotic substances, DEA banned US companies from selling it to Venezuela. Nor was Venezuela allowed to buy radars in the US which it needed to intercept aircrafts carrying drugs. Carrizales concluded that DEA was actually an integral part of the global drug cartel. Eventually, Venezuela got the radars from China in the framework of the military-technical cooperation between the two countries.

The US has frequently resorted to double standards, unfair tricks, and fake evidence meant to compromise the government of Hugo Chavez throughout the history of its cooperation with Venezuela in fighting the drug business. The large DEA team in Caracas was based not only in the US Embassy but also in the headquarters of the Venezuelan Commission against the Illegal Use of Drugs (Conacuid) where it occupied a whole floor. Acting under the pretext of “joint activity” DEA agents kept under surveillance Venezuelan high-ranking officials, military officers, secret service operatives, and individuals from the inner circle of Hugo Chavez. Obviously, the objective was to obtain materials which could be used in blackmail, propaganda, or campaigns portraying Chavez as a partner of the international drug business. The US made suspiciously persistent efforts to gain the right to patrol Venezuela from the air. It transpired increasingly often that the DEA-controlled drug shipments allegedly used to identify the drug trafficking routes and the persons involved in the drug business were in fact fraudulent. Massive quantities of drugs disappeared on the way while the Venezuelan side got no clear explanations. It appeared that DEA exploited its Venezuelan colleagues and treated them as inferior aides.

Being a quick decision-maker, Chavez said that Venezuela would no longer cooperate with DEA on the basis of the old rules. He charged the US agents with spying against the country, providing cover to CIA agents, carrying out operations in Venezuela without any limitations, and manipulating controlled shipments.

This was the first (and so far the only) blow dealt to “the DEA empire” in Latin America. Immediately after Chavez made his statement the US evacuated its archive and computers from Conacuid, even though the computers were formerly donated by the US to the Venezuelan government. Of course DEA never favored Chavez and compiled a dossier on him waiting for the desired moment when it would be able to prosecute “the dictator” in accord with the US law. The US onslaught against Chavez intensified visibly following the de facto severance of the relations with DEA. The reasons are obvious: Presidents of other South American countries could follow the example set by Chavez. While DEA permanently claimed that Venezuela was the main transit country for drug trafficking from Colombia (which was completely untrue), the US attempted to reach a new agreement with Caracas that would re-establish its former privileges. The plan failed. At a certain moment the highly influential DEA chief John P. Walters, who is often called the king of drugs, tried to obtain a Venezuelan entry visa as a private individual to seek a personal meeting with Chavez. Chavez perceived the attempt as yet another provocation by Walters who constantly attacked the Venezuelan leadership for allegedly patronizing drug cartels.

The agreement with DEA still has not been reached, yet the Venezuelan special services and Oficina Nacional Antidrogas (ONA) which coordinates the struggle against drug trafficking in the country have had unprecedented success in their activities. 379 tons of drugs and hundreds of chemical components for their production have been confiscated in Venezuela in 2007, and a number of drug lords have been arrested and deported to their respective countries of residence including the US. This result which would not make DEA feel happy is the main argument currently used by Venezuela at international anti-drug forums. Obviously, the process of combating the drug business is much more efficient without the US help.

According to available data, the circulation of psychoactive drugs in the Western hemisphere increased by 40% in 2006-2007, the US market being the single largest. Intercepting the domestic and international financial flows generated by drug trafficking is a priority of the DEA. The revenues of the organization are to a large extent formed as a result of the corresponding confiscations. The money is used to support operations ranging from legended acquisitions to paying informers in the countries where DEA is working. As a result, the US is not so much combating the illegal drug circulation as earning profits on it and in fact helping to maintain the drug business with its extremely high revenues and turnovers totaling billions of dollars.

In this context, one cannot but recall former Panamian President Manuel Noriega. He was of great use to the CIA and DEA in the epoch marked by the US struggle against left and Marxist movements in Central American countries as he assisted secret operations including drug deliveries to the US and the acquisition of weapons for Contras with the money thus earned. Some of the cash settled down on Noriega's personal accounts. He did not withdraw from the drug business when the confrontation in the region was over and ignored the US demands to step down assuming that he knew too much about its secret operations to be touched. But he was wrong. The US destabilized the situation in Panama, floated a propaganda campaign demonizing Noriega, and organized a provocation with the murder of a U.S. marine on the streets of Panama City. Eventually, a massive military operation using tanks, artillery, aircrafts, and copters was launched to “arrest” Noriega. It led to casualties in the capital of Panama. Unofficially, the death toll may have been as high as 20,000. Noriega was taken to the US, put on trial, and sentenced to a long term in jail, where he still is. The sole purpose was to silence him and not to let him claim a share of the US drug market carefully safeguarded by DEA.
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