Narconews: A Laughable "Victory" in the Drug War

The Bush administration is getting desperate for good news out of Colombia. Despite promises each year that the war on coca cultivation is turning the corner, about to bear fruit (pick your favorite metaphor, the drug czar has tried them all), the supply of cocaine remains more or less stable, with prices still far below their pre- Plan Colombia levels. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC in its Spanish initials) appears no closer to defeat despite major U.S.-backed military offensives against them. And word is slowly but surely beginning to spread about the overwhelming corruption of U.S. law enforcement agents in the country, thanks to Bill Conroy's reports in Narco News.

Now the U.S. Justice Department has "indicted" 50 members of the FARC. "This is the largest narcotics trafficking indictment ever filed in U.S. history," said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at a press conference last week, triumphantly giving the illusion of some kind of progress in the war on drugs.

Only three of the 50 accused are actually in custody; the other 47 are active fighters in Latin America's largest and strongest insurgent army, with no more likelihood of capture than before the March 22 announcement. And given that agencies implicated in the cover-up of the DEA's corruption in Colombia were at the lead in this "investigation," its findings are highly questionable...

Read the full story here, in The Narcosphere:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/3/29/144256/068

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com

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