Brazilian Minister for Defence, Celso Amorim, will today deliver two helicopters to Santa Cruz in eastern Bolivia to aid with the battle against drugs and crime on the border which the two countries share, an official source informed yesterday.

The two H-1H helicopters will be destined only for use as part of the anti-drug plan enacted between the two countries. The agreement, which was made last year by Bolivia’s president Dilma Rousseff, said that the fight against drugs should focus on the shared borders, which stretch for more than 3,400 kilometres.

The arrival of these two helicopters will “make explicit the compromise of the two countries to cooperate in the area, paying special vigilance to the airspace and combatting illicit cross-border drug trafficking”, said a Brazilian legation in La Paz.

Other commitments to be fulfilled are the donation of helicopters called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (VANT). These will control the airspace, detecting drug factories in Bolivia even in the jungle, where many of the country’s drug manufacturers have hidden their bases.

Bolivia is the world’s third-largest cultivator of coca leaf, primary ingredient in cocaine. However, the UN has recently revealed a 12% decrease in production of the plant, a positive result of the war against drugs that the country has been fighting.

After 15 years, the DEA is reopening its office in Uruguay because of the growing transit of cocaine in the region.

“The DEA thinks that in Uruguay there is an increasing presence of international drug trafficking organisations. They never settle in a country for no reason,” said an official of the Ministry of the Interior.

The office closed in 1994 because the drug activity in the region was said to be under control. The DEA had to ask permission from US Congress three years ago to return to the area.

According to weekly Uruguayan publication Búsqueda, between 2005-2011, the Ministry of the Interior seized 2.8 million kilos of cocaine, 2.7 of which was intended to be sent abroad.

Today, Uruguay, along with the rest of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay) is considered a transportation site for drugs like cocaine, paco, and heroin, that are then sent to Europe and the US.

Drug baron Daniel Barrera was captured yesterday in Venezuela in a joint operation between Colombian, Venezuelan, British and US intelligence services.

Barrera, nicknamed “Crazy Barrera” was captured in San Cristobal near the Colombian border in the southwest of Venezuela.

The operation kicked off on 6^th August when Colombian authorities warned their Venezuelan counterparts of Barrera’s presence on their territory and involved 69 wiretaps and 14 intelligence teams mobilised over 45 days.

“He was perhaps the most sought druglord in recent times, having dedicated 20 years of his life to hurting Colombia and the world and to all type of crimes and perverse alliances with the paramilitary and the FARC,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in a press conference organised to announce the capture.

Barrera was arrested under an Interpol warrant, with a US$5m reward attached, and had been identified as a key target since 2007 by former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. Barrera’s connections within the Colombian police forces are believed to have allowed him to evade authorities until yesterday.

The Venezuelan National Anti-Drug Office (ONA) in touch with the CIA, MI6 and Colombian police, carried out “the most important arrest yet in Venezuela” in the words of Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami who also called Barrera “the most wanted drug trafficker in the world”.

The capture was celebrated as a victory by all countries involved in the operation and is seen as a positive parenthesis amidst tense diplomatic relations between Venezuela on the one side, and Colombia and the US on the other.

Colombia, with neighbours Peru and Bolivia, is one of the largest cocaine producers in the world and produced 345 tonnes of cocaine in 2011 according to the UN. The vast majority of drugs produced in Latin America find their way to the US where they are sold on the largest drug market in the world.

Brazilian police are investigating the deaths of six adolescents whose bodies were found in Parque de Mesquita, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

It is believed the bodies are those of some youths who have been missing since Saturday.

Investigators believe the victims had no relation to organised crime and were killed by drug traffickers in the nearly district of Chatuba as a show of strength.

The bodies were found without clothes, and showed signs of torture and bullet wounds. Some were tied up. They were found on a route that is being widened as part of the preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games.

It is the second mass-killing in two days. Yesterday, four people were found dead in a house in Japeri.

The Brazilian government has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to its heavily narco-trafficked border with Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, following the release of recent data that maintained Bolivia was the second largest producer of cocaine behind Perú.

In an operation expected to last about 30 days, troops arrived with helicopters, patrol boats, F-5 fighter jets and tanks, in order to combat crimes such as smuggling, embezzlement and drug trafficking along the border.

According to Infobae, Brazilian Minister of Defense Celso Amorim said, “To secure peace and protect our resources we need to ensure deterrence against potential external threats. You cannot be among the seven major economies in the world and think that nobody is interested in your resources: in our case, energy, oil, Amazon, biodiversity, food production capacity, which all requires a deterrent not to jeopardize it.¨

Operación Agata, an initiative aimed at defending the porous borders of Brazil, has the support of thirty government agencies including the Federal Police. Troops will be sent to an area that covers nearly 3,900 kilometres.

Uruguay President Jose Mujica (Photo: Santiago Armas)

For a small country of 3.3 million people, Uruguay has a big voice. It was heard loud and clear two weeks ago when President José Mujica announced a plan that would put the legal control —production, sales and distribution — of marihuana in the sole hands of the Uruguayan government. Mujica refers to the plan as an anti-crime measure, a direct assault on drug dealers and the black market, which is becoming increasingly violent in Uruguay.

Government control of the marihuana market would deprive gangs of marihuana profits, US$750 million a year to be exact, while nixing the consumer and drug dealer interaction. Part of the plan is also to combat harder drug use. It is hoped that legal access to marihuana will divert users away from cocaine and pasta base, a crack-like drug known as paco in Argentina.

Julio Calzada, secretary general of Uruguay’s National Drug Board, has said the bill aims “to regulate the quality of the substance that circulates in the market and separate the cannabis market from other drugs that are by their nature more harmful to health, society and security.”

Though the kinks are still being worked out and the bill is yet to be presented to Congress, a left-wing majority indicates it is only a matter of time before it is approved. The institution of the proposal would make the Uruguayan state the only one in South America to directly sell marihuana.

Paving the Way 

At April’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia, Latin American leaders cleared the air to discuss Latin America’s current drug crisis, which has claimed over 50,000 lives in Mexico throughout the last six years, and turned countries like Honduras into violent narco trafficking zones.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina and Salvadorian president Mauricio Funes have all voiced consideration of marihuana decriminalisation. While no particular plans were made at the summit, Latin American leaders were able to agree on one thing: the current fight against drug trafficking has failed and a new solution is needed.

Uruguay Government building in Montevideo (Photo: Josealoly)

Uruguay’s defence minister, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, has said drug violence, plus the growing costs of interdiction and incarceration, are “causing more problems than the drugs themselves.”

Uruguay has seen a rise in crime stemming from drug deals. In April 2011, a major Colombian drug trafficking ring was found operating in Montevideo, and a May 2011 survey by the polling firm Interconsult showed 62% of Uruguayans felt Uruguay was becoming more unsafe.

Mujica said a country needed to step up to the plate in drug decriminalisation, and that Uruguay would be the one to do it. He said smaller Latin American nations are better posed to attempt experiments like this one, as it gives large countries something to learn from. “Uruguay is a small country, where these sort of things are easier to do,” Mujica said to Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

Mujica’s bold proposal is not unique for Uruguay, a country famous for its progressive policies. Uruguay was the first country in South America to legalise divorce, grant women the right to vote and recognise the rights of trade unions.

The Proposal

As opposed to decriminalisation, which only lessens and revises the penalties for possession of marihuana, the proposed bill is a legalisation measure, allowing the legal use of marihuana as marketed by the Uruguayan government.

The plan is part of a 16-measure package designed by the government to combat violence and public insecurity.

Several of the bill’s details are still being debated, and Fernández Huidobro has said more details are to come soon. As it stands, state authorised networks, including businesses and marihuana-associated clubs, will sell and distribute the drug. Self-cultivation is not included in the bill, and previous attempts to legalise it have not passed through Congress.

Only Uruguayan citizens 18 years of age or older will be able to purchase a maximum of 30 grams (40 marihuana cigarettes) per month. Profits from a sales tax will be directed toward drug rehabilitation services for users who exceed the monthly cap.

Originally, officials voiced the institution of a registry or user database, to monitor who is receiving the marihuana, as well as how much. However recently, according to the Wall Street Journal, Fernández Huidobro said the registry might not be best, as it “sounds a little authoritarian and perhaps we should avoid it.”

If the bill passes through Congress, Fernández Huidobro said Uruguayan farmers will begin planting in September and harvesting will occur six months later.

The government estimates Uruguay will need 100 hectares of land to cultivate an annual 28,000 kilos of marihuana for the country’s 150,000 users.

Currently, Uruguay does not have a law against marihuana use or possession, though its commercialisation is forbidden. Rodrigo Filpo, 28, from Montevideo, says it is fairly common to see Uruguayans smoking marihuana in public.

The Uruguayan plans, whilst original, are part of a regional movement towards a softer approach to the drug problem. In Argentina, a 2009 Supreme Court ruling deemed it unconstitutional to penalise drug possession for personal use, and a number of bills to decriminalise the possession of marihuana are being debated in Congress. Mexico decriminalised the possession of small amounts of marihuana, cocaine and heroin in 2009. Colombia and Brazil have also taken steps toward decriminalisation of marihuana.

The Implications

Uruguayan officials have made it clear that the government-run marihuana market would exclude foreigners, relieving fears that Uruguay would become another Holland, where marihuana’s legality has made the country a drug tourist destination. Only now are The Netherlands setting roadblocks for tourists seeking access to marihuana.

Passing a joint (Photo: Raoni Gruber)

“We will not allow drug-tourism. Holland made that mistake,” said Julio Calzada, secretary general of the National Drug Board.

The age limit, sales tax, and transparency involved in the bill leave some to question the continued existence of a black market, but officials have voiced their top priority is to prevent marihuana from entering a local or global black market.

According to the Associated Press, Mujica has said that “we’ll have to regulate farm production so there’s no contraband and regulate distribution. We must make sure we don’t affect neighbouring countries or be accused of being an international drug production centre.”

Rafael Bayce García Lagos, a Social Sciences professor at the Republic University in Uruguay, says, “I do not think there will be problems with neighbouring countries, because it will minimise their internal problem of supply. Why would Brazil and Argentina care if there is a drug-tourism industry in Uruguay? They wouldn’t, to the contrary, it would soften the problems they think they might have.”

Uruguay may have a roadblock on its way to passing the bill, though, as Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, recently voiced. He said that if Uruguay legalises marihuana production and distribution, it would be violating the Single Convention, an international agreement between Uruguay and other countries to curb the drug trade and stop trafficking. The International Narcotics Control Board is rumoured to be planning a visit to Uruguay to discuss the country’s movements toward marihuana legalisation.

Internal opinion on the bill remains divided in both political and public realms. García Lagos says there is a “strong current within the leftist coalition [currently in government] that supports the decriminalisation of marihuana and the regulation of self-cultivation.” He adds that young people siding with the Partido Colorado, Partido Blanco and independent parties are also in favour of the bill.

Opposition leaders have called the measure “absurd,” saying it will only worsen drug use in the country. The Wall Street Journal reported Pedro Bordaberry, a Uruguayan opposition leader, as having said, “We were waiting for measures to combat insecurity, and now the government proposes legalising drugs. It makes no sense.”

A June 2012 Interconsult poll showed 60% of Uruguayans are against state-regulation of marihuana.

Others, like Filpo, see the potential promise in the bill. “I don’t see how this plan could make things worse, and if it helps get poor kids out of harder drugs like pasta base, I think it can really have a positive effect among the lowest classes,” he said.

Though supporters and opponents of marihuana legalisation may disagree on the issue, most can agree on the need for action. In the word of the Uruguayan president, “Someone has to get going in South America. Someone has to be the first because we are losing the war against drugs and crime in the continent.”

What do people in Buenos Aires think about their neighbour’s move to legalise marihuana? Click here to find out.

MEXICO – Anel Violeta Noriega Rios, 27, the alleged operative of a Mexican criminal cartel is now in custody in Mexico after being arrested in California last week.

Known by her alias “La Bonita” or “The Pretty One”, she was the subject of a five million-peso reward by Mexican authorities. She has been at large since a 64-page criminal warrant was issued in January 2010 in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

Rios is an alleged member of La Familia cartel based in the Mexican state of Michoacan but she operated from the U.S.

Mexican authorities have reported that Noriega Rios helped oversee the cartel’s methamphetamine distribution activities in California and Washington state.

The cartel also is allegedly engaged in cocaine and marijuana trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and producing methamphetamine for export to the United States.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers and U.S. marshals arrested Noriega Rios last week at her El Monte, California residence.

Noriega Rios was arrested on “administrative immigration violations.” Two days later she was turned over to Mexican authorities at the border crossing in San Ysidro, California where she will face charges listed in her 64-page warrant.

Last month, coordination between US and Mexican officials led to the indictment of 14 in connection to a horse racing scheme in New Mexico, which was being used to launder drug money.

Records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security show that Noriega Rios had been arrested and repatriated to Mexico five times between 2004 and 2005. However, according to ICE officials, she had no U.S. criminal convictions.

Muricio Santoyo, the retired Colombian police general indicted in the United States on drug-related charges, has turned himself in to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Santoyo has been accused of helping both the Office of Envigado drug cartel and the right-wing paramilitary group United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to the United States by way of Central America and Mexico.

The U.S. indictment accuses the former general of accepting large bribes from both organisations in exchange for information.

While serving as head of security for former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, Santoyo allegedly provided the groups with information about upcoming intelligence operations organized by Colombia, the U.S. and the U.K.

Santoyo served as head of security during the Uribe’s first term as president, from 2002 to 2006. The former president has stated that he never heard any rumours that the general was involved with drug trafficking.

The U.S. indictment also accuses the former general of assisting corrupt police in aiding the paramilitary groups, and of providing drug traffickers with Colombian intelligence about members of rival cartels that were later found dead.

Leaders of both the Office of Envigado – which was founded in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar – and the now-dissolved AUC have been extradited to the United States on drug-related charges. AUC heads Salvatore Mancuso, Juan Carlos “El Tusco” Sierra and Carlos Mario Jiménez – also known as “Macaco” – have accused Santoyo of involvement in drug trafficking.

The U.S. indictment was issued on 25th May. Just over a month later, on 26th June, U.S. Federal Judge Rawles T. Jones Jr. called for the general’s immediate arrest. A Colombian prosecutor stated this past Monday that there was still no order out that would require the extradition of the general.

Director of the Colombian National Police José Roberto León Riaño called for the general to “present himself to North American judicial authorities” and to “be sensible”.

Uribe also called for his former chief of security to turn himself in; the former president issued his request via Twitter: “General Santoyo should present himself to the judge and help Colombia avoid the embarrassment of having to extradite a General of the Republic”.

This past weekend, Santoyo and his defence attorney, Richard Díaz, met to negotiate with the DEA.

Yesterday, Santoyo turned himself in voluntarily to DEA officials in Bogota.

As part of the negotiations, the former general agreed to offer U.S. authorities information that could potentially implicate other Colombian officials in drug trafficking activities. The DEA has stated, however, that at present Santoyo is the only high ranking Colombian official being investigated for drug-related charges.

Santoyo left Colombia at 8am yesterday morning and flew to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.

He will be tried in the federal court of Alexandria, Virginia. The former general’s first court appearance before Federal Judge Rawles T. Jones Jr will be this Thursday 5th July.

Bolivia is in the grip of Colombian drug cartels, Colombian foreign affairs minister Maria Angela Holguín confirmed yesterday as she signed a bilateral agreement with Bolivian President Evo Morales.

“We know of the presence of drug cartels in Bolivia,” Holguin told reporters in the Bolivian city of Tiquipaya, where the annual meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) just closed.

“It is a general assumption. I can not say exactly who they are,” she added. The statement of the Colombian politician contradicts Bolivian reports on the issue, which deny the existence of Colombian, Mexican or Brazilian cartels in the country.

Holguín also said that Colombian organised crime displacement is due to the successful policies carried out by President Santos’ administration.

“Our success is harmful to others, because at the same time that progress is made in Colombia, drug trafficking spreads to other countries.”

Holguin signed a bilateral agreement designed to fight organised crime and drug trafficking known as the “two plus two mechanism” with her Bolivian counterpart, David Choquehuanca. It will involve a tighter cooperation between the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security Ministries in the two countries.

“This fight is a regional struggle. No country alone can [win] against these [criminal] networks,” she told reporters.

According to UN figures, Bolivia is the third largest producer of cocaine after Peru and Colombia. The latest report from the agency indicates that over 31,000 hectares of coca crops are cultivated in Bolivia, 12,000 of which are intended for chewing, ritual or medical purposes.

The Argentina Independent plans on launching a free, independent, monthly publication in June. In order to remain 100% independent, we are hoping to raise the funds to cover the initial costs of design, printing and distribution via crowdfunding platform Ideame.

And to remind you of all the good things we have done over the course of the past six years as a publication, as well as giving you a reason to support us in our bid to go into print and help us keep doing such things, we will be bringing you a taste of some of the good times each week! This week – a selection of our best content.

If you would like to support us in our fundraising campaign, please visit our Ideame page where you can either make a donation (every cent counts), or help us by spreading the word!

Endangered: Argentina’s Disappearing Languages

Every two weeks, one of the world’s languages dies out, and Argentina is not immune to this mass linguistic extinction. Kate Granville-Jones’ investigated this phenomenon and discovered of the 35 languages spoken in Argentina in pre-Columbian times, now just 15 remain, and one has only two living speakers.

Family members fight to be heard at a protest against family member's deaths in February 2010 . (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

Gatillo Facil and Deaths in Police Custory

“2009 was not just another year. It started with a new Miguel Bru that was Luciano Arruga, and finished with a new Walter Bulacios: Ruben Carballo. Police repression and violence grew to the point of taking the life of someone every 24 hours.” Any student of Argentine history is familiar with the dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s, and the thousands of students, unionists and activists that were “disappeared” by the military regime. A subject which is less-publicised, however, is that state violence and repression did not end with the return of democracy in 1983. As Daniel Edwards discoverd in his 2010 report, federal and provincial police forces continue to routinely use extreme violence and torture against suspects and detainees in their facilities, which often results in the death of the victim.

Guaraní Suicide

After a 2008 report indicated that the Guaraní indigenous group had the highest rate of suicide as a people in the world, Kristie Robinson headed up to community in Misiones, just 15km from the world-famous Iguazú Falls, to meet with Guaraní leaders to talk about the alarming rates of suicide and what is being done to tackle the issue.

Paco in the hands of an addict (Photo: Kate Stanworth)

Paco: Drug Epidemic Sweeping the Streets of Buenos Aires

Anthony Bale’s 2008 article on paco, a by-product of cocaine that is wreaking havoc on the lives of many shantytown inhabitants, brought the stark reality of life in Buenos Aires’ underclass home to many of our readers.

Secret Squats and Silent Evictions: A Response to BA’s Housing Deficit

In 2009 Harriet Hernando’s looked into Buenos Aires’ social housing crisis and the city government’s handling of the situation, highlighting mass migration to the cities and inadequate government policies, as well as violent police crackdown on illegal squatters as the main culprits in the crisis.