They're Producing Cocaine in Brazil Now, Too
Just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow morning, the cartels controlling the cocaine trade will continue to expand their operations and defy US-funded eradication efforts in South America.
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 17 (UPI) -- A large-scale coca plant and cocaine production operations have been discovered in Brazil, the first of their kind, authorities said
At least four separate farms were found in the Amazon rain forest by way of satellite imagery analyzed by Brazilian officials, Agencia Estado news agency reported Monday.
The discovery shocked authorities, as coca plants do not normally thrive in the dense, humid Amazon rain forest. [UPI]
I suppose these precious rainforests become less humid when you burn them down to plant coca. Now that they know it works, we can expect much, much more of this. I wrote recently about the inevitable destruction of rainforests throughout South America if we continue mindlessly chasing coca production in circles. This latest move into Brazil is another step towards that outcome.
The thriving cocaine industry cannot be stopped, but it can be regulated and controlled to prevent violence, corruption, and environmental destruction. Some might call this "giving up," but when you're doing something so phenomenally expensive and ineffective, giving up eventually becomes your only option. Besides, I'd rather give up on the drug war than the rainforest anyway.
digg
redditChalk
Comment posted by ph0ed1n on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 6:26amThe WoD has at least a notable negative impact on crime (including prison overcrowding, gang violence, and judicial corruption), the economy, education, the environment, health care, illegal immigration, privacy, racism, terrorism, and above all freedom, all amounting to tremendous cost against the U.S. citizenry (tens of billions of taxpayer dollars annually) without a proven tremendous (if any) benefit to justify it.
Chalk up another one at least under the environment section.
Bu$ine$$ a$ U$ual
Comment posted by Giordano on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 1:17amHow convenient that illicit coca plantations in the Brazilian rain forest were spotted on satellite photos.
The DEA will now be given the green light to inject military personnel and equipment into the jungle area as an excuse to hunt down and kill evil drug terrorists.
In reality, a cover story is probably being created for corporate jackals who will gun down indigenous Amerindians as part of a scheme to extract local oil or minerals while ripping off these legitimate owners of their country’s natural resources.
This is how business has been conducted in South and Central America by predatory U.S. corporations and their buddies in the military industrial complex since the end of WWII. It wouldn’t be all that surprising if it were ultimately revealed that the CIA planted the Brazilian coca in the first place.
There are other political and financial interests at play. Cocaine production and its eradication in Colombia currently facilitates the presence of U.S. military advisors on the borders of the oil producing countries of Ecuador and Venezuela. The recent deployment of troops by Ecuador and Venezuela to the Colombian border is predicated on common knowledge, throughout South America, that Colombia is run by a puppet dictator who is collaborating with the U.S. (probably under threat of assassination), as part of a ploy for another corporate grab of resources in Venezuela and Ecuador.
The more dangerous the situation is in Colombia as a consequence of the cocaine trade, the greater the perceived justification for a U.S. military presence in the area. A solution to the cocaine trade in Colombia appears unlikely to be what the Bushistas really want at the present time.
Giordano
Update on South America
Comment posted by Giordano on Sat, 03/29/2008 - 2:19pm...Remarkable account by Raúl Zibechi who has investigated and written on Colombian drug politics.
Spraying Fools
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 2:37amHow long will it be before they start spraying the rain forest in brazil ? How many people in that country will now die or go to prison in America's Drug War ? How much money will America now provide for the war on drugs in Brazil ? Only Time Will Tell .