The Miami Herald has a lead story online on Peru about how the cocaine trade in Peru has given the Shining Path guerrilla fighters new power. According to the AP, since August, the rebel group has killed 33 soldiers and wounded 48 more and a cocaine trade that is second only to Colombia in profitability seems to be fueling the Shining Path’s revitalization in the distant jungle stronghold of Union Mantaro. Growing coca is legal in Peru, but the AP writes that approximately 9/10 of what is grown is illegally manufactured into cocaine. It is estimated that the Shining Path counts around 400 Peruvians among its active ranks, and the government says the Shining Path today is almost no different than the FARC in neighboring Colombia. Both are called “militarized drug gangs” by the AP, but, the piece adds, in an area where more than half the people live on less than $2 a day many see the drug trade as the only means of earning a living. For its part, the United States gave Peru $61.3 million in anti-drug aid last year. The majority went for manual eradication and crop substitution farther north in the Upper Huallaga valley—a region where police have had more success against a smaller Shining Path band.
From the LA Times this morning, a report from the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico looks at how drug traffickers are adapting to new fencing and high-tech border security devices by taking to the desert on foot with packs filled with drugs. The paper writes that over the last six months the U.S. Border Patrol has seized 1.3 million pounds of marijuana -- an amount nearly equal to the total for all of last year. The crackdown has pushed smugglers to the most remote parts of the long U.S.-Mexico border—areas that are difficult for federal agents to patrol and where electronic surveillance is often ineffective. Border Patrol agents in one such area in New Mexico find themselves now relying on their tracking skills—once used Native Americans in the region—to find popular trafficking corridors and interdict drug shipments.
In the New York Times over the weekend, an update on the devastating floods in northern Brazil. The AP says over 300,000 have been left homeless and 40 have been confirmed dead in what is being considered some of the worst flooding in decades. Many have complained that the government has been slow and ineffective in delivering much needed food and water, says the report. With rains beginning to subside, Ivar Araujo, the civil defense spokesman for the state of Maranhão, said, “It will be easier to bring help to the victims, but the situation is still a little complicated.”
Outside of the major U.S, papers, two additional headlines. The BBC reports from Guatemala on accusations being leveled against President Alvaro Colom which link him to the death of a Guatemalan lawyer. A videotape recorded by the lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, prior to his death claims that Colom would be responsible for his murder. One of Mr. Rosenberg’s clients, a prominent businessman was killed in March and Rosenberg was shot dead Sunday. “If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom with help from Gustavo Alejos,” Rosenberg says in the tape released yesterday. Colom has called the allegations part of a conspiracy to destabilize the country.
And AFP writes on Bolivia, reporting that three ministers who served under exiled former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada have sought asylum in Peru. One of those applications for asylum has already been accepted by the Peruvian government while two others remain under consideration. The former ministers left Bolivia after the judiciary there announced proceedings would soon begin against them for their role in crushing a popular rebellion against the government in October 2003. Sixty-five Bolivians were killed by police and military forces during the uprising, and President Sanchez de Losada was ousted shortly thereafter.
In other news, the MH writes from Venezuela that President Hugo Chávez is again threatening to shut down Globovision, saying the critical television station had unnecessarily stirred panic by reporting an earthquake before the government announced it. “'You are playing with fire, manipulating, inciting hate and much more. All of you: television networks, radio stations, papers,” Mr Chávez remarked. “Don't make a mistake with me.” Also from Venezuela, the AP reports that counter-narcotics authorities in the country seized nearly two tons of cocaine and arrested three suspects in their largest drug bust in months. Police and soldiers discovered 4,370 pounds (1,983 kilograms) of cocaine during a raid on a ranch in central Miranda state on Saturday. One Colombian and two Venezuelans were detained.
The AP also has a brief report from Colombia. The news agency says a senator closely allied with President Alvaro Uribe was arrested for alleged collusion with illegal far-right militias. Sen. Zulema Jattin, the accused, had been under Supreme Court investigation for allegedly benefitting politically from ties with paramilitary leader, Rodrigo Tovar. Tovar was extradited to the U.S. last year on drug-trafficking charges.
In the LAT, an update on swine flu. The paper reports that Mexican schoolchildren returned to the classroom yesterday around most of the country after a two week break bought on by the flu crisis. Health officials said Monday that they had confirmed 2,059 cases of H1N1 virus in Mexico, with 56 deaths.
And in yet another attempt to link an election result to Hugo Chávez’s popularity or unpopularity, conservative contributor Carlos Alberto Montaner writes in the MH that the victory of “pro-enterprise,” supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli in Panama “could very well be the beginning of the end of Hugo Chávez's popularity in Latin America.” Martinelli assumes the presidency on July 1.
Photo: NY Times
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