Tijuana Drug Lords: National Geographic Channel
This documentary is airring again Wed Dec 23rd at 3PM EST again. A very well put together documentary. Period covered from early 1980s up through the 2008 cartel wars. A few narratives by current AFO Task Force members.
Quote:
In the late 1980s the Arellano-Felix brothers take over the Tijuana Cartel. Using a network of tunnels, modified cars, boats and planes they flood the US with billions of dollars worth of drugs; quickly establishing themselves as the worlds largest smugglers of cocaine. To protect this business the brothers recruit and train an army of American gang bangers. When rival cartels attempt to muscle in on their business the result is a war that claims thousands of lives. Mexican and US law enforcement join forces to take the Brothers down but they're powerless to stop a wave of violence engulfing Tijuana.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.co...w#tab-Overview
Good article by Bob Haddick
on successes in Colombia, What Afghanistan Can Learn from Colombia (linked from SWJBlog).
He cites as a resource on Colombia the CSIS report, Countering Threats to Security and Stability in a Failing State: Lessons from Colombia (Sep 2009).
What I glean from this:
1. A bi-lateral financial effort (vs the multi-lateral effort in Astan), with the HN supplying a much greater part of the effort (e.g., US funding over 2000-2008 was $4.8B, Colombia spent that much in 2003 alone - CSIS p.45 pdf).
2. A small-footprint FID effort (measured in the 100s of US advisors, who did just that) by the AN.
3. The HN took the lead in developing the political effort and providing for local governance and security (e.g., formation of some 600 platoons of home guard units - folks who would have been drafted into the army, but who were allowed to serve in their home towns).
As to application of Colombia to Astan (particularly with respect to the political side of the ledger) - ???
Regards
Mike
US waves white flag in disastrous 'war on drugs'
Not caught any report like this before; with this sub-title: After 40 years, Washington is quietly giving up on a futile battle that has spread corruption and destroyed thousands of lives.
Link:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...s-1870218.html
Starts with:
Quote:
After 40 years of defeat and failure, America's "war on drugs" is being buried in the same fashion as it was born – amid bloodshed, confusion, corruption and scandal.
Ends with:
Quote:
This year should be the year that common sense vanquishes the mailed fist in an unwinnable war against an invisible enemy.
Is this reporting echoed in the USA?
Article is inaccurate, but
http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/fs/index.htm
Found the article to be excessively bias and inaccurate. Whether we continue to call our efforts against the cartels a war or not is up for debate, but we will and are continuing to disrupt their activities. All this reporter had to do is investigate numerous official open source sites to see where the U.S. was providing assistance. A set back in one one or two countries (assuming this reporting was accurate) hardly represents a retreat.
Within the U.S. there is a growing movement to transform our criminalization approach for users to managing it as a health problem. In turn that should lessen the pressure on our over crowded prisons and court systems, and who knows it may actually work better. However, overseas I don't see any sign of substantial policy change. Nor do I see how we could with the now clear linkages between terrorism and the drug trade. Seems we have an intractable problem where we're darned if we do and darned if we don't attack it.
Good news for Colombia, democracy, and the US
Mike, this is indeed good news. consider the contrast between Uribe's reaction and Zelaya's or Chavez' and Morales. The point is that when faced with a Supreme Court decision Uribe agreed to step aside. Now, the test is whether his initiatives like CCAI have been/will be institutionalized by law. Colombia has plenty of talented and relatively honest politicians as well as the longest tradition of democratic transition in Latin America.
Cheers
JohnT
Colombia under Uribe: election commentary
Quote:
Our new columnist (Maria Carolina Latorre) charts the run-up to the Colmbian presidential election this year and where this may take the sometimes turbulent south American country.
Maybe of interest and glanced through - the comments made by readers are a serious "demolition job" on the author.
Link:http://www.progressonline.org.uk/col...lumn.asp?c=381
The author may be wrong but
she, at least, did some serious research on the topic. Of the comments, only Juan Cabrera gives any indication that he actually knows what is going on in Colombia. His comes from personal experience. That said, recent academic research by Dr. Jennifer Holmes of the U of Texas at Dallas, indicates that with the increase of government presence there is a reduction of violence, Her research is focused on quantitative indicators disaggregated to the departmental level (tempered by in-country interviews).
Cheers
JohnT
Narcosubs Now Submersible
Ecuador police seize 100-foot narco-submarine being built secretly, by Chris Kraul. Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2010.
Quote:
Police in Ecuador seized a 100-foot submarine being built by suspected drug traffickers capable of carrying a crew of six and 10 tons of cocaine on underwater voyages lasting up to 10 days — a "game changer" for U.S. anti-drug and border security efforts, officials said Monday.
.......
The craft was outfitted with a conning tower, a periscope, air conditioning and "scrubbers" to purify the air, and bunks for a maximum crew of six. But what set the craft apart from semi-submersible craft that drug traffickers have used for years was a complex ballast system that would have enabled it to dive as deep as 65 feet before surfacing.
An excellent 27min documentary on narcosubs was made by vbs.tv last summer; includes extensive interview with a Colombian Coast Guard officer and a former trafficker, and tours the Colombian Coast Guard's collection of captured semisubmersible's illustrating the evolution of these craft. In Spanish with English subtitles.