Southeast Asia
Burma: new Shan state opium eradication plan
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced a new peace initiative in Burma’s conflicted Shan State aimed at facilitating poppy eradication.
Tag: narco wars
Afghanistan
UN: Afghanistan remains top opium producer
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) finds that Afghanistan continues to remain the world’s top opium cultivator, accounting for 75% of global illicit production.
The Andes
Colombia: ranchers fear ‘communist’ redistribution
Colombia's federation of cattle ranchers rejected the recent agrarian deal with the FARC, charging that it could lead to Venezuela-style expropriations of private property.
The Andes
Archaeologists race tomb-raiders in Peru
The archaeologists who unearthed a priceless pre-Inca burial chamber at Huarmey, Peru, were in a race with outlaw tomb-raiders who operate with impunity.
Southern Cone
Brazil: 10 dead as police raid favela
At least 10 people were killed when elite troops from the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) of Brazil’s Military Police raided Nova Holanda favela in Rio de Janeiro.
The Andes
Colombia: two dead in eradication protests
Following two weeks of escalating protests by local campesinos, two were killed as National Police troops opened fire at Ocaña in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department.
Central America
Guatemala militarized after armed attack
Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina inaugurated a new paramilitary force after an armed attack on a National Police post left eight officers dead and a commander abducted.
Palestine
West Bank lawyers to strike after police assault
The union of lawyers in the West Bank announced that attorneys would suspend all their activities after anti-drug police in Bethlehem assaulted a lawyer.
The Andes
Peru: life term for neo-senderista
Peru’s high court sentenced “Comrade Artemio,” one of the last “historic” leaders of the Shining Path guerilla movement, to life in prison on terrorism and drug trafficking charges.
Mexico
‘Drug war’ dissent at OAS summit
More than 160 civil society organizations sent an open letter to the OAS summit, calling for alternatives to the “war on drugs” that guarantee respect for human rights.
Palestine
Deadly narco violence in Gaza Strip
The Hamas-run administration in the Gaza Strip will appoint a committee to investigate clashes between police and suspected drug dealers in Beit Lahiya that left one dead.
The Andes
US drug case reveals DEA paid Colombia police
Two Colombian drug defendants were allowed to cop a plea after revelations that prosecution withheld information of ongoing DEA payments to Colombia’s National Police.