Fausta's Blog

Britain’s biggest ever cocaine haul found
The largest shipment of cocaine ever seized in Britain has been uncovered in a yacht in Southampton docks, it was revealed today.

Officers believed that on the streets it would be cut with chemicals meaning it would become about 8 tonnes, enough to service one third of the entire UK cocaine market which is estimated at 25 tonnes per year.

The drugs seizure led to six members of an international crime gang being arrested in the Netherlands.

The load was discovered on a £1 million luxury yacht, the Louise. The yacht had been shipped to Southampton on a freight carrier from the British Virgin Islands in June and Dutch drug smugglers then planned to sail it to the Netherlands.

Dutch News has more (emphasis added)

The motor yacht Louise had been loaded onto a ship transporter bound for Holland while in the Caribbean, where it was already under surveillance. The transporter made a scheduled stop in Southampton where the yacht was searched by British and Dutch officials.

Seaworthy

After six days, they eventually found the drugs hidden beneath the bathing platform at the back of the boat. The yacht’s owner had tried to pick the boat up in Southampton but were delayed by British officials who said it was no longer seaworthy while the investigation continued.

The drugs, with a street value of €45m, were probably hidden on the yacht in Venezuala, the department said. According to British media reports, the drug was 90% pure and represents the largest find of a Class A drug ever made in the UK.

As reported by The Telegraph in 2008, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela ’supplies half of Britain’s cocaine’
President Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela has become the key trafficking route for most of the cocaine sold on Britain’s streets, anti-drugs officials believe.

Simon Romero reports on Margarita Island’s San Antonio prison, Where Prisoners Can Do Anything, Except Leave. Conveniently located on ” a departure point for drug shipments into the Caribbean and the United States”, the prison has become “a relatively tranquil place where even visitors can go for sinful weekend partying”.

As long as they don’t mind the assault rifle-toting inmates.

The joint is run by convicted drug trafficker Teófilo Rodríguez, 40, alias El Conejo (the rabbit), who is well versed on his trade, prison etiquette and the kind of institutional corruption that would support an arrangement such that visitors can drop by and buy marijuana and crack and dance by the swimming pool.

I don’t know if Walid Makled will end up there, but if he does, it would be interesting to see how the internal politics work out between the Turk Makled and El Conejo.

As you may recall, Makled said he built his billion-dollar drug shipping empire by paying off some 40 generals in the Venezuelan armed forces. The US did not press for his extradition to the US, and, after all, Margarita is a point of departure for the American drug trade. Will he do time at San Antonio? We’ll find out in time.

Video,
(more…)

I have posted about the Mexican gangs spread to other countries; last weekend the Zetas beheaded 27 people in Guatemala,
Guatemala declares siege in region of drug massacre

In a radio interview, [Guatemalan President Alvaro] Colom said a Los Zetas hit team that stormed a ranch in the Peten and beheaded laborers, three of them minors, may have included former commandos from a special forces unit of Guatemala’s army, the Kaibiles.
“It was total savagery. Everyone is in a stupor,” Colom told Mexico’s MVS radio network, adding that a feud between rival drug gangs led to the massacre.
Guatemala’s once-fearsome army is a shadow of what it was, and doubts arose over whether it could restore order in the sprawling Peten – the northern third of the nation – where Colom declared a 30-day state of siege Monday night. The region is part of a crucial cocaine-smuggling corridor to the United States.

It happened during the weekend,

Some 40 to 50 assailants under a Mexican commander arrived on Los Cocos ranch Saturday night looking for ranch owner Otto Salguero, systematically killing and beheading unarmed laborers, authorities said. By Sunday morning, 25 workers had been beheaded and two others also were killed. Some of the laborers had been hired in another region of Guatemala only a week earlier and had come to the ranch for temporary work.
Colom said three survivors were under government protection, including a pregnant woman whose pleas for mercy were heeded even as killers beheaded her husband.

This is a turf war,

Los Zetas have operated hand in hand with Guatemalan drug clans, but they’ve attempted to crush one group, the Leon family. Its commandos killed Juan Jose “Juancho” Leon in 2008, and a brother who took over the business, Haroldo, was slain in the Peten on Friday.

As the Zetas continue to spread through the Hemisphere into the Andes, we will continue to read about their reign of terror and crime. For the time being, Peten is under state of siege, with the army in charge.

Bolivia, a blighted land, has become more so under Evo Morales’s tenure,
Chavez-style Economics Fail Miserably in Bolivia
Jaime Daremblum, Costa Rica’s ambassador to the United States from 1998 to 2004, writes that Bolivian president Evo Morales (pictured) slavishly follows Hugo’s playbook, with similarly disastrous results. (h/t Silvio Canto)

He has weakened the rule of law, undermined democracy, and nationalized a significant portion of the economy while seeking to implement an ambitious land-redistribution agenda. Bolivia has the second-largest natural-gas reserves in South America. Yet Morales nationalized the industry in 2006, with predictably negative consequences. Last summer, the president of the Bolivian Chamber of Hydrocarbons told the Financial Times that his country’s natural-gas reserves were shrinking “because there have not been any significant investments in the past five years.”

Indeed, through nationalization schemes, price controls, and other anti-business measures, Morales has chased away both domestic and foreign investors. As Bolivian economist Waldo López said last year, “The government has a foreign-investment phobia, and its nationalization processes and the lack of clear rules are creating lack of confidence.” The World Bank’s 2011 “Doing Business” survey ranks Bolivia 149 out of 183 economies, behind even Sierra Leone and Syria. It is the poorest nation in South America, and among the very poorest in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Why should this matter to the USA?

The United States has more than a passing interest in Bolivia’s future. After all, the country is a major cocaine producer. Morales expelled the Drug Enforcement Administration from his country back in 2008, and a new U.S. government report says that Bolivia has “failed demonstrably” to combat drug trafficking and meet its international obligations. It has also strengthened relations with the Iranian theocracy. According to the Associated Press, a 2009 Israeli foreign ministry document accused Bolivia (and Venezuela) of providing Tehran with uranium.

As I have posted in the past, Iran is taking a much more active interest in our hemisphere. Add Bolivia to their roster.

Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The bad news of the week is the return of Baby Doc Duvalier to Haiti

Mr. Duvalier’s return comes as Haiti tries to sort out its political future after disputed presidential elections in November ended in rioting, and widespread charges of fraud when electoral authorities declared that Jude Celestin, who has the backing of Mr. Préval, had placed second, behind former first lady Mirlande Manigat, and just ahead of crooner Michel Martelly.

Earthquake, cholera, violence, and now Baby Doc. Haiti is a benighted land.

LATIN AMERICA
Latin America’s economies
Waging the currency war
Strong economies, soaring currencies and rising inflation have brought a dilemma for policymakers. Some are reaching for unorthodox tools

The Original ‘Wikileaks’: The 1862 scheme to colonize Central America with freed black slaves

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s dry spell trims harvest

BOLIVIA
Bolivia’s Mayhem

BRAZIL
Brazil Steel, Oil in Rio Unaffected By Landslides

Rescuers struggle as Brazil flood deaths rise

Looking for Clues to Brazil’s New Foreign Policy

Mysterious Incident At MIA Sends Fire Rescue Scrambling

CHILE
Carta destacada de la semana: “Magallanes y el gas”

COLOMBIA
Colombia police nab go-between with Mexican cartel

Inundated
Torrential rain prompts tragedy, and a need for prevention

Venezuela anger at ‘mocking’ Colombia soap opera (h/t Vlad)

COSTA RICA
Organized Crime in Costa Rica and the Other Balloon Effect

CUBA
Obama Eases Cuba Rules Rick Moran writes at the Tatler

This is just a warm-up for what some Cuban Americans believe will be an effort by President Obama in a second term to lift the embargo and normalize relations with the Castro brothers. That would be just the kind of world-historical move that appeals to Obama’s outsized view of himself as both peacemaker and an agent of change.

Statements regarding Obama Administration’s gift to the Castro dictatorship (UPDATED)

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s Chevron Shakedown

HAITI
Trees in Haiti,
Extent of Corruption in Countries Around the World Tied to Earthquake Fatalities, h/t Ace

Haiti one year later

Rally planned to protest Duvalier’s return to Haiti as human rights groups speak out

HONDURAS
Someone, part 2

MEXICO
Homeland Security Cancels ‘Virtual Fence’ After $1 Billion Is Spent

El Chapo moves to take over Acapulco?

Kicking the hornets’ nest
An interactive map of drugs in Mexico

PANAMA
A Currency Crisis is coming

PERU
Bayly’s girlfriend:”I don’t mind if Jaime writes about committing suicide”. Speaking of Baily, he had some Argentinian psychics making some interesting predictions,

PUERTO RICO
Protection Sought For Newly Discovered Coral Reefs

VENEZUELA
Not even the soap operas are safe, Venezuela: Ordenan suspender telenovela colombiana

Chavez calls for conciliation between rivals

Triple Jeopardy in Venezuela: my representative, Biagio Pilieri, will go on trial for the same offense a THIRD time

From The Depths of Ignorance of The Revolution: Legislating the Internet and Mozilla

Chavez copies the Pelosi-Reid playbook

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Something for nothing
Obama eases travel & money restrictions to Cuba

This is a huge blow against the FARC:
Colombia FARC rebel Mono Jojoy killed – army

Top Colombian FARC rebel commander Mono Jojoy has been killed in combat, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

The death of Mono Jojoy would be severest strike against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since two top commanders died in 2008. Mono Jojoy, whose other name was Jorge Briceno, was considered the FARC’s top military chief.

I’ll talk about this in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern.

Will also add links to news reports during the day.
El ‘Mono Jojoy’ resultó muerto en un operativo militar del Ejército colombiano

Colombia: No. 2 rebel commander killed

Colombian army kills top Farc rebel leader Mono Jojoy
Jorge Briceno aka Mono Jojoy (file image) Mono Jojoy was the senior military commander in the rebel group
One of the most senior leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) has been killed, say reports.

Santos congratules armed forces on ‘Mono Jojoy’ death

Colombia Nabs Reputed Venezuelan Drug Lord

Venezuelan businessman Walid Makled, labeled by the U.S. government as one of the world’s top three drug kingpins, was arrested in northeastern Colombia, authorities said on Friday.

Makled was nabbed in the border city of Cucuta in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Colombia’s national police director, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, told reporters in Bogota.

While the United States is seeking Makled’s extradition on drug charges, he is wanted in Venezuela for three murders.

Makled’s organization is responsible for smuggling more than 10 tons of cocaine per month into the United States and Europe, according to a fact sheet issued by Colombian police.

In May, the U.S. government identified the Venezuelan as one of the world’s three most-wanted drug lords.

Makled and his family allegedly used their legitimate businesses, including Aeropostal airlines and warehouses in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, to facilitate drug trafficking and launder the illicit proceeds.

Besides drug offenses, Makled is charged in Venezuela with the murders of Colombian drug kingpin Wilber Alirio Varela, lawyer and journalist Orel Zambrano and veterinarian Francisco Larrazabal

Noticias 24 has video (in Spanish); Daily Motion has more video in Spanish,

Walid Makled
Uploaded by noticias24. – News videos hot off the press.

Special thanks to Dick for the link.

cllick on photo to enlarge

Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern:
Highlights from The Economist’s report on the shifting battle lines among the cartels in Mexico’s drug war.

Drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the son of one of Jamaica’s most influential gang leaders, is evading extradition to the US, and the country is in a drug war:

Jamaican Suspect Eludes Capture
Security Forces Search for Alleged Drug Lord on Fourth Day of Violence

Jamaican security forces clashed with armed fighters in shantytowns in the capital, Kingston, for the fourth day on Wednesday, as authorities searched for alleged drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke. Officials said 44 civilians had been killed since fighting began last weekend.

Mr. Coke, 41 years old, remained at large, authorities said, as soldiers moved house to house searching for him in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood of Kingston. The government said Wednesday that Mr. Coke may have fled the country, the Associated Press reported.

Mr. Coke is wanted in the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges. U.S. officials say he leads a gang known as “Shower Posse,” an international criminal organization with ties in Jamaica and the U.S.

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding originally balked at an extradition request from the U.S., but changed his mind last week and issued a warrant for Mr. Coke’s arrest. Violence erupted soon after that. Authorities say Mr. Coke, a powerful figure among Jamaica’s poor known locally as a “don,” prepared for an attempt to capture him by arming citizens of Tivoli Gardens and urging them to fight.

Jamaica bans firearms, and the unprotected people have turned to gangs for “protection”

Much of the problem, authorities say, lies with the long-festering issue of Jamaica’s criminal organizations, many centered in Kingston’s shantytowns, and the rise of powerful “dons.” In exchange for the community’s protection of their illicit activity, these figures offer services that the government at times doesn’t, such as welfare and local justice. Mr. Coke is among the most powerful of these men.

The Jamaican government has shied away from attacking these figures in the past—particularly the government of Mr. Golding, whose district lies in Mr. Coke’s stronghold. In past altercations in Trench Town, drug bosses have armed neighborhoods with weapons and used women and children as human shields.

Unattended, the problem has grown—a similar predicament faced by countries like Mexico, which is facing rising levels of drug-related violence after having let the problem worsen for decades.

“Civil society in Jamaica has risen up and said ‘enough is enough,’” says Mark Thomas of Jamaica Trade and Invest, a group that promotes foreign investment in the country.

Airlines have stopped flights to Jamaica, and the country is in a state of emergency after shooting and firebomb attacks on police stations.

Colombia produces 600 tons of cocaine anually, which is what has funded the FARC’s terrorist war against the country.

Columbia [sic]: Documentary reveals truth behind FARC

A powerful new documentary has revealed the violent face of Columbia’s outlawed armed group FARC. Peruvian woman director Judith Velez’s 64-minute film, called ‘Liberenlos ya!’ charts FARC’s evolution from its creation in the 1960s as a Marxist guerrilla group through to its involvement in drug trafficking and kidnappings.

The documentary on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia was made together with Peruvian journalist Pablo O’Brien does not have a narrator and consist of a series of interviews with witnesses and experts.

“I wanted to achieve maxiumum objectivity, without interjections and commentaries from outsiders,” Velez told Adnkronos International (AKI).

The film has a didactic approach and pays “great attention to the topic of human rights” in delivering a two-fold message, Velez said.

“First, revolutionary armed struggle, despite its seductive appeal, especially to the desperately poor, cannot provide a solution to Latin America’s problems.”

“Second, in Europe, there’s too much romanticism surrounding revolutionary groups like the FARC, which has found support in Europe simply owing to a lack of information about the group.”

The film draws on previously unpublished documents and images, such as that of the very youthful Pedro Antonio Marin, FARC’s historic leader later known by his battle names of Manuel Marulanda or Tirofijo (sureshot) who died in 2008.

Here’s some footage (in Spanish) of the documentary:

Anyone with information on how to get/whether this has been translated into English?

h/t the Baron