Subsequent to the recent
arrests of a couple of US soldiers of smuggling ammunition, three Colombians, one a retired air force force officer, have been arrested for allegedly assisting US soldiers smuggle
cocaine into the United States.
I suppose that it is to be expected, since the war on drugs in Colombia is being reported as fallen into chaos. So much so, that apparently we're scrapping the project altogether:
The so-called Plan Colombia, which has cost the US more than US$3 billion ($4.2 billion) in the past five years, is being abandoned, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced.
Last year, the hugely expensive effort to poison coca bushes - whose leaves are the source of cocaine - by aerial spraying ended in failure.
More bushes were flourishing in January this year than in January 2004.
Meanwhile, complaints have multiplied about the damage done by the chemical poisons to the health of humans, especially children, as well as to livestock, fish and the environment, the London-based newspaper said.
Plan Colombia was designed to eradicate narcotics, control powerful left-wing guerrillas and strengthen the position of the US military in South America.
So much for that little adventure. But how about Afghanistan? Our anti-drug escapade there is producing similar results, as five aid workers have been killed, and one (an Italian) taken
hostage:
The five Afghans killed yesterday were ambushed and shot to death as they drove through southern Helmand Province, said Ghulam Muhiddin, a senior official for the province.
They were working on an effort sponsored by the US government to provide alternative livelihoods to farmers growing opium, the raw material for heroin, said Carol Yee, a representative for Washington-based Chemonics International, which is managing the project.
The United States and other countries are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Afghanistan in a crackdown on the drug trade. The nation last year produced nearly 90 percent of the world's opium, sparking warnings that it is fast becoming a ''narco-state" less than four years after the end of its role as an Al Qaeda haven.
At least Rice was kind enough to announce the scrapping of the plan in Colombia.