Southeast Asia
Will Burma opium war draw in China?
The latest fighting in Burma's opium-producing hinterlands involves a Han Chinese ethnic group, the Kokang. Some 50,000 have fled across the border into China.
Tag: narco wars
The Andes
Peru declares no-fly zone over coca valley
Peru announced a no-fly zone over the conflicted coca-producing region known as the VRAE—reviving a controversial policy that claimed innocent lives 14 years ago.
The Andes
Colombia: rights situation grim despite peace talks
A UN report warns that Colombia's humanitarian situation remains severe in spite of ongoing peace talks with the FARC, stressing continued paramilitary activity.
Mexico
Mexico: UN criticizes officials on disappearances
The Mexican government is facing more international criticism for its handling of some 22,600 cases of forced disappearances over the past eight years.
Africa
Sahara drug trade funds Boko Haram insurgency
Traffickers have established a dope-for-guns pipeline across the Sahel and Sahara, integrating Boko Haram into drug-smuggling networks that stretch to Asia.
Mexico
Another sentencing in Sinaloa-Chicago connection
Twin brothers were the latest to be sentenced in a series of high-profile cases targeting Sinaloa Cartel operations in Chicago—despite having infiltrated the cartel for the DEA.
Central America
Central America: US pushes new ‘Plan Colombia’
The US is now seeking $1 billion from Congress for its plan to step up the failed "war on drugs" and failed neoliberal economic programs in Central America.
The Andes
Colombia: whither FARC’s future?
While Colombia's right fears incorporation of the FARC into a new rural police force, rebel leaders protest that the army continues offensives against them—despite peace talks.
Mexico
Mexico: cops arrested in ‘disappearance’ of reporter
Mexican authorities detained 13 police officers in the state of Veracruz in connection with the abduction of a journalist who aggressively covered local narco-corruption.
Greater Middle East
Lebanon’s hashish valley arms against ISIS
The Bekaa Valley's cannabis farmers, who armed to resist Lebanese army eradication efforts, now say they are ready to resist any ISIS incursion into their fastness.
Mexico
Mexico: students’ parents storm army base
Parents of 43 missing Ayotzinapa students insist that the military knows more than it admits about their abduction. Meanwhile, the government's version gets shakier and shakier.
The Andes
Are the FARC narco-traffickers?
Amid peace talks in Havana, Colombia's FARC issued an angry communique insisting "We are not narco-traffickers." But major coke busts supposedly linked to the guerillas continue.