Tag: cocaine

The Andes

Colombia to resume aerial spraying, join NATO

Colombia has taken significant steps back in a hardline pro-Washington direction since the election of the right-wing Iván Duque as the country's new president last month. Shortly after Duque's victory, the government announced that it will resume aerial spraying of glyphosate on coca crops—this time using drones rather than planes, to supposedly target the planted areas with greater exactitude. The move comes in response to a new report from the White House finding that Colombian coca cultivation has reached a new record. Incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos also announced in the lead-up to the election that Colombia will formally join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a "global partner"—making it the only Latin American nation with NATO affiliation. (Photo: Contago Radio)

Southern Cone

Brazil deploys army to conflicted Rio favela

Brazil's ongoing favela wars have taken a dramatic turn for the bloody—prompting the government to send military troops into Rio de Janiero's notorious Rocinha. This is the most violent of the city's sprawling favelas—informal urban settlements virtually abandoned by the government for anything other than militarized anti-drug operations. The violence in Rocinha is the deadliest since the launch of a "pacification" program in 2011 to push warring narco-gangs out of the city's favelas.

Central America

Nicaragua nabs cocaine lord of Miskito Coast

A Colombian cartel operative who established Central America's remote and lawless Miskito Coast as a major cocaine transfer point was arrested by Nicaraguan authorities.

The Andes

Colombia: cocaine mega-busts keep coming

Amid moves toward peace in Colombia, the goad of the war—the country's lucrative cocaine trade—clearly remains robust, as record-breaking hauls are reported.

Central America

Militarized anti-narco raids in Honduras

Security forces in Honduras carried out raids on suspected narco-gang safe-houses at various locations, bringing out helicopters and heavy weaponry.

The Andes

Peru’s most-wanted nabbed in Colombia

Gerson Adair Gálvez Calle AKA "Caracol" (The Snail), Peru's most wanted fugitive drug lord, was arrested by Colombian National Police at a shopping center in Medellín.

The Andes

Colombia to resume glyphosate spraying

Colombia's Defense Ministry announced that it will resume use of glyphosate to eradicate coca crops—less than a year after suspending the program on cancer concerns.