Nice coverage by Phillip Smith over at StoptheDrugWar.org: Bolivia, Venezuela Reject US Drug Criticism
“I hereby designate Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela as countries that have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to make substantial efforts to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements,” President Obama said in the determination. […]
Venezuela “rejects in the most decided manner the accusations of the government of the United States,” the communique said, adding that the presidential determination is “plagued with false statements, political preconceptions and veiled threats,” which only repeat its “permanent line of aggression against independent sovereign governments.”
Venezuela also counterpunched, accusing the US of allowing “a fluid transit” of drugs across its borders” and “the laundering of capital from drug trafficking through the financial system.”
“The government of the United States has become principally responsible for this plague that is the scourge of the entire world,” it said.
The foreign ministry added that Venezuela’s anti-drug efforts improved after it kicked out the DEA in 2005 […]
Bolivian President Evo Morales, for his part, said the US, home of the world’s largest drug consumer market, had no grounds on which to criticize other countries about its war on drugs.
“The United States has no morality, authority or ethics that would allow it to speak about the war on drugs.” […]
“I’m convinced that the drug trade is no less than the United States’ best business,” Morales added, noting that since the first international drug control treaties were signed in 1961, drug trafficked has blossomed, not declined. He said he has suggested to South American leaders that they form a commission to report on how well Washington is doing in its war on drugs.
Morales also took the occasion to lambaste the US for opposing Bolivia’s request before the United Nations to modify that 1961 treaty to acknowledge that chewing coca leaf is “an ancestral cultural practice” in the Andes.
Gone are the days when countries feared being sent to the Drug War Principal’s office.
It’s great that clarity is becoming more widespread and talked about. Knowing something is one thing, their being forthcoming about this is revolutionary.
I love diplo-speak. It is it’s own language. The true meaning of a statement is not in it’s contents, but in it’s framing. Here the message is conveyed by the use of the words “..most decided manner…” and the less strident “…no morality, authority or ethics”. First one is a flat out rebuke, the second was a call out for our hypocrisy and a slap at our authority.
The meaning in the message can usually be found in how strongly worded it is. And to a “Dipshit” (as we used to call ’em), the words have their own special meanings. Those were “strongly worded”.
One good side-effect of the disastrous wasteful invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq is that it has freed South America from US military and other interference. Or at least made it much more difficult for the Complex to enforce its edicts since it has almost completely occupied itself elsewhere. With our money. And almost bankrupting the country.
Can you imagine Evo Morales being allowed to stay in office 30 years ago? Consider what the US did in Chile and now consider that it can’t do that now in Bolivia or Venezuela.
The Parasitic Imperial War Machine has limits. But they will continue to waste our treasure for as long as we let them. The rich are already refusing to pay for it – and the military complex in DC can only continue to spend 35% more than they take in for a while.
Consider that the $1 trillion dollars spent to date on invading and occupying Iraq represents one full year of income tax receipts from all Americans. Fuck what a bunch of corrupt retards are in charge in DC.
Now it should move to the UN for debate,,something the US doesn’t want,,they have no more justification for continuing the WosD for the UN delegates than they do for the citizens of the US.
Fuck the UN, they shouldn’t have ANY say in how ANY country handles their own business, sovereignty matters. Besides, the UN is more under the control of horrid dictatorships than of the so-called “free nations” and they do NOT have any peoples’ best interests in mind, ever, their only interest is maintaining the elites’ power.
Slightly OT…Houston Chronicle is running a series of articles RE: marijuana legalization.
“Baker Institute Viewpoints is a regular blog series that presents an array of views on a single issue. In this installment, five Baker Institute fellows and two guest experts will consider whether the United States should legalize marijuana. Each weekday through Sept. 25, one of the seven writers — whose backgrounds include a biography of evangelist Billy Graham and a 30-year career in the Drug Enforcement Administration — will give his or her take on the issue”
http://blog.chron.com/bakerblog/
I would say discussion at the UN is entirely appropriate right now.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is a totalitarian thug. He is not pro drug legalization. Like always he is just looking for a reason to criticize the US (in this case a valid one, like its failed drug war). Don’t let the enemy of your enemy be your friend.
Did anyone here say that Chavez was pro-legalization? Or that he was a good guy? Why the lecture?
“He is not pro drug legalization.”
Ok, so he hasn’t legalized drugs yet. But I remain optimistic that he’ll do so in his fourth term. That’s why supporting Chavez in this year’s election is more important than ever! Who’s with me? “Six More Years! Six More Years!…”
Hey, say what you like about Chavez, they have public healthcare second to none and anybody who can handle the work can attend a University and achieve a degree. That has never been the case here, and probably never will be. Chaves has improved the lot for the vast majority of his subjects. That doesn’t excuse his bad behavior, but what excuses ours? Like stolen elections and torture…wait, aren’t those the same things people accuse Chavez of? Lets not be so quick to cast stones.
I think the key word there is “subjects”…
That is why I picked the term, Francis, rather than citizens. In many of the same ways, we are now subjects of this country rather than citizens. So again, let not be so quick to cast stones.
I agree that we’ve become subjects, but I don’t think that means WE (as opposed to our government) can’t criticize tyranny everywhere it occurs, including here at home. We need more stones (and more stoners). 😉 But I fully understand the point you were making.
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This one is from the “I’ve never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer” category:
It is apparent that Mr. Ueltschi from the article linked has never attended a Grateful Dead concert.
GEO Group employees implicated in straw purchases of guns for cartel
Good heavens! Reported AP:
Six of the seven Laredo residents who pleaded guilty to illegally buying guns Monday worked at a federal detention center.
Federal prosecutors say the six worked at the Rio Grande Detention Center in Laredo. The center is privately managed by The Geo Group and holds federal detainees awaiting trial for the U.S. Marshals Service. The seventh was a close friend of one of them.
Prosecutors alleged that in 2011, the group acquired 16 guns, mostly semi-automatic rifles of the sort preferred by organized criminal groups in Mexico. In the purchases, they indicated they were buying the guns for their own use. However, they were being paid to buy them for someone else, a tactic known as straw purchases.
http://tinyurl.com/8gvswg2
Hey! Look who our friend in Colorado, Ken Buck, is in bed with:
GOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab “Torture” Centers Bankrolling Opposition to Pot Legalization in Colorado
Ah, Ken… silly, silly man. Accepting funding from child torturers… tsk tsk.
The real true is that The ALBA is profiting with drug trafficking using that money to bribe ONUDC, OAS, key individuals like Insulza and Guedes, George Soros is the money launder in the caribbean and big business for a bunch of crooks.
The cartels rule in Bolivia and Mexican Cartels are operating in Bolivia for a long time, Chapo Guzman’s son was on a ultralighg accident a few month before being captured by DEA in Mexico.
This attitude on the part of many Latin American leaders is what had the US’s knickers in a wad when General Hill’s 2004 SOUTHCOM report was made to Congress. This is that there ‘radical populism’ at work.
The very idea of Latin American leaders NOT kow-towing to Warshington was, was just, you know, shocking. How dare they act as the elected leaders of independent nations with their own agendas? They’re supposed to bend themselves to the corp-rat Elite’s will with a single finger-snap! We’ll show them! We’ll call them ‘terrorists’ and that will justify our destabilizing them if we can’t invade them!
Some things never change, but what’s happening in Central and South America definitely will change things, with the emergence of the BRIC nations and their influence throughout the region, offering economic incentives in place of military ones, that are undermining US influence in the area. And all Warshington seems inclined to do is pour petrol on a fire. So typical…