Amid the torrent of news, one might have missed one of the largest drug busts in history just days ago – against La Familia – Mexico’s most deadly narco-trafficking mafia group. Confiscated by over 3,000 agents from emergency and security services in 19 states were 1,100 pounds of marijuana, 770 pounds of methamphetamine, 138 pounds of cocaine, $3.4 million, 144 weapons of various calibers, 109 automobiles – and payment receipts for 4,000 assassinations.
According to this editorial from El Heraldo of Honduras:
“As a first act, this satisfies demands from Mexico and other Latin American countries that the U.S. must do more against narco-trafficking on its own territory … But this is also evidence that the Mexican narco-trafficking cartels have broken through the border and are now handling sales to drug addicts in the U.S. on their own – which could eventually spark a street war if traditional U.S. mafias feel the need to defend their old markets.”
Today we also posted this article by Clovis Rossi of Brazil’s Folha, headlined Bad-Mouthing U.S. Aid Won’t Solve Drug Crisis, which cautions Latin American leaders that more than tough rhetoric about U.S. responsibility is needed if a solution is to be found to the epidemic of drug abuse now spreading throughout the region.
For Folha, Clovis Rossi says in part:
“If they are sincere, neither Presidents Uribe nor Lula will deny that the problems highlighted yesterday by their colleague Barack Obama are even more acute in Brazil and Colombia – countries that are far more institutionally fragile. … The worst is that Lula insists on the idea that UNASUL, the Union of South American Nations, should take care of combating drugs with a home-grown mechanism – in other words, one that would dispense with the United States. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s essential that they move from ideas to action – something that isn’t happening. If proof were necessary, one could point to the uproar surrounding the Colombian bases that will be used by North American soldiers. UNASUL has already held two or three meetings on the matter, and hasn’t gotten anywhere. ”
EDITORIAL
Translated By Barbara Howe
October 23, 2009
Honduras – El Heraldo – Original Article (Spanish)
The heavy blow dealt by U.S. authorities to Mexican cartel La Familia; and yesterday’s capture in Monterrey of “number two” of Los Zetas, the armed wing of the Golfo Cartel, represent significant successes in the struggle against the narco-trafficking mafia, but they also reveal, again, the severity of the problem.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
