Clik here to view.
Venezuela, Bolivia: protecting or fighting the cartels?
Even as the White House has censured Venezuelan officials for "narco-terrorist" ties, AP reported Dec. 15 that Venezuela handed a top Colombian drug trafficking suspect to US authorities. The US had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
US chews out Peru on coca eradication; Bolivia chews back
The US State Department's 2012 International Narcotics Control Strategy report contains harsh words for Peru, lamenting the country's "slow advance" in coca leaf eradication. The report says the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia: progress seen in coca policy
Total area planted with coca in Bolivia dropped by up to 13% last year, according to separate reports by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Medical Marijuana: The Struggle for Herbal Healing
Over the past generation, an informal alliance of activists, cultivators, entrepreneurs and medical professionals has struggled to redefine how the United States views the cannabis plant. Victories at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brazil-Bolivia tensions over narco-diplomatic scandal
Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota resigned Aug. 25 in the midst of a diplomatic scandal concerning a Bolivian opposition figure who accused the Evo Morales government of narco-corruption....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sendero Luminoso in Bolivia?
On Oct. 19, a patrol of Bolivia's Joint Task Force, coordinating National Police and army troops in coca-eradication missions, was ambushed by unknown gunmen at Miraflores pueblo, Apolo municipality,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peru: deadly confrontation as narco-flight intercepted
Agents of Peru's National Police force intercepted a small plane loaded with 300 kilos of cocaine paste in Oxapampa province, Pasco region, on Nov. 24, mortally wounding the pilot, a Bolivian national....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peru claims new blow against Sendero Luminoso, assails Bolivia for narco-baiting
Peru's President Ollanta Humala on Dec. 9 announced the capture of the new commander of the remnant Sendero Luminoso column in the Upper Huallaga Valley—one of two remaining pockets of coca-producing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia: cocaleros clash with eradication force
Coca-growers in Bolivia's lowland jungle town of Yapacaní on March 27 clashed with police in a protest against the construction of a new base of the Mobile Rural Patrol Unit (UMOPAR), the hated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UN agency scolds US states over legalization —again
Following the passage of cannabis legalization measures in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia on election day, the chief of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Nov. 12 issued his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia tilting back to prohibitionist stance?
President Barack Obama once again singled out Washington's biggest political adversaries in Latin America for censure in this year's White House report on global anti-drug efforts. The annual...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia scores major marijuana hauls
Cochabamba region, long the heartland of Bolivian coca-leaf production, now appears to be emerging as a cannabis cultivation zone. October saw raids by the government's Special Force for the Struggle...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia, Ecuador sign pact for legal coca trade
In open defiance of the international ban, Bolivia has just announced that it is preparing to export coca-leaf products—initially mates (herbal teas) and liqueurs—to its Andean ally Ecuador. Didi...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia: mass prisoner pardon to relieve overcrowding
Bolivian President Evo Morales on Christmas Eve pardoned 1,800 prisoners held in facilities across the country—part of his ongoing effort to curtail overcrowding in the Andean nation's penal system....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia doubles territory open to coca cultivation
Bolivia's President Evo Morales signed into a law March 8 a bill passed by the country's congress that nearly doubles the area of national territory open to coca leaf cultivation. Law 906, or the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brazil, Bolivia launch joint anti-narco operation
Bolivia and Brazil agreed to a joint plan to fight criminal gangs that operate on their shared jungle border, long pourous for drug and arms traffickers. The decision was taken at a Brasilia meeting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who is world's top cannabis producer?
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last week issued its World Drug Report 2017—its 20th annual survey of production, trafficking and eradication and enforcement efforts around the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bolivia's African king speaks for coca growers
Among the coca-growing peasants of Bolivia's Yungas region (the country's prime legal cultivation zone) is a substantial Afro-Bolivian population—descendants of slaves who were brought in by the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mexico's 'New Generation' kingpin busted in Brazil
Brazilian federal police on Dec. 28 announced the arrest of José González Valencia, one of the top leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)—the criminal machine that in recent years has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UN agency scolds US states over legalization —again
Following the passage of cannabis legalization measures in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia on election day, the chief of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Nov. 12 issued his...
View Article
