Bolivia To Sideline U.S. In Anti-Cocaine War

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

LA PAZ, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Frustrated by the way the United States spends money to fight cocaine production in Bolivia, the government has decided to take over the program, the country's anti-drug tsar said on Tuesday.

"We're planning to nationalize the war against drug trafficking," Felipe Caceres told Reuters. "We will still welcome cooperation in the future, but the Bolivian government will decide how that money will be spent."

"It's a question of sovereignty, of dignity," added Caceres, President Evo Morales' deputy minister of social defense and controlled substances.

Caceres, who like Morales owns a plot for growing coca, the raw material used to make cocaine, advocates cultivation of the plant for traditional uses such as making tea and fighting altitude sickness and hunger.

But as South America's poorest country distances itself from its colonial past with Morales' reforms and seeks to break away from U.S. influence, the government also wants to be the leading voice in the domestic war against narcotics.

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"The policy of the U.S. government means that of all the money that should go into helping improve conditions for coca farmers, 85 percent of it goes into vehicles, salaries, they live in hotels with swimming pools ... it goes into their pockets," Caceres said.

"We are not rejecting U.S. aid. But the aid is not going to the coca farmers, who are prepared to produce other products and leave the coca leaf behind," he added. "At the moment, the U.S. cooperation is autonomous. ... We want to reverse that situation."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12343380.htm

[angrycarpenter]

1. In the past

any time a south American country nationalizes anything the CIA comes in and stages a coop. This man needs to watch his back.

[Bob Dobbs]

2. US "drug war" a scam to control imports into US

to fund black ops of military information security complex.

And huge profits for power elite bankers.

[Hulk]

3. The US has NO BUSINESS in Bolivia...unless invited.

Maybe the next administration will actually work WITH the Bolivian government, instead of dictating to them.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.....flush the White House!

[WriteDown]

4. Cocaine's a hell of a drug

Couldn't resist :evilgrin:.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Isn't this great? It's a small country, but they've got a lot of courage among the native Bolivians.

It's going to take all they've got to get this colossal boot off Bolivia's neck. The people of Bolivia don't want to live the rest of their lives in fear of what some idiot in the White House is going to do to them next.

It's awe-inspiring to see people start to pull themselves up, out from under the heel of the Washington control freaks and their greedy multinational "base" which feeds off Latin America resources and forced cheap labor.

[Indenturedebtor]

6. If there was no war on drugs there would be no casualties... only suicides

Fewer people would die, and we could spend that money on healthcare, etc.

[ooglymoogly]

7. The drug wars are an idiotic farce...a giant ruthless fleecing machine....

For power, control and profit for one political party...guess which.

[Peace Patriot]

8. "...they live in hotels with swimming pools..."!!!

"'The policy of the U.S. government means that of all the money that should go into helping improve conditions for coca farmers, 85 percent of it goes into vehicles, salaries, they live in hotels with swimming pools ... it goes into their pockets,' Caceres said."

It's just amazing to see the truth spoken by public officials. I often revile Reuters for their Associated Pukes (AP)-like coverage of the leftist (majorityist) revolution in South America. Well-deserved, I think. So I will credit where credit is due. A quote like this--attacking U.S./Bush corruption--is rare in the corporate 'news' monopolies. They didn't have to include it. It is raw, real truth-telling--truth-telling from the point of view of the people who are oppressed by Bush fuckwad contractors. And it says so much about how the these fuckwads operate--whether it's Blackwater, or Halliburton, or Dyncorp--privatize everything, take big salaries and perks, live it up, fleece the public, accomplish nothing--or worse--torture, murder, oppress, and alienate the people we are supposed to be helping.

It is also so awesomely refreshing to hear of a SANE drug policy! Coca leaf chewing and tea drinking harms no one, and in fact provides a rich source of vitamins and proteins, in an indigenous tradition that goes back thousands of years. Only when the coca leaf is highly processed into cocaine does it become potentially harmful. And even then it ought to be decriminalized, in my opinion. The U.S. "war on drugs" is a corrupt, murderous failure and has created enormous problems of jail over-crowding, fascism and militarism at home and abroad. It is the big drug mafias that are the main problem, not the coca leaf growers, or chewers or tea drinkers. A SANE policy targets real crime, as the Bolivians and their leftist allies in Venezuela, Ecuador and other countries are doing. The BEST policy would be to decriminalize all adult drug use and other victimless 'crimes' such as prostitution. Our society is absolutely nutso Puritanical, and our military/police-state establishment tries to impose these fascist views on others who are more tolerant of human foibles, and more compassionate and humane.

$6 BILLION of our hard-earned tax dollars are wasted on this "war" in Colombia alone. God knows what the total price for this utter failure is--when you add up the billions spent in Latin America, here and elsewhere, and the staggering costs of jailing people for minor offenses like cocaine use, marijuana use or small sales. Many trillions, I would imagine. Think what that money could be used for!

[Joanne98]

9. That's GOOD!