Colombian authorities arrested a FARC leader on US drug charges on Monday, delivering a major blow to the country’s peace process. President Juan Manuel Santos announced the arrest on television,…
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After former President Alvaro Uribe extradited demobilized AUC paramilitary bosses in 2008, a war broke out that killed thousands. The arrest of FARC leader "Jesus Santrich" is different.
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US President Donald Trump canceled his upcoming trip to Peru and Colombia on Monday amid problems in Syria and an FBI raid of his personal lawyer’s office. It would have…
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The attorney of FARC ideologue “Jesus Santrich” has several ideas how to prevent the extradition of his client. The most important one is to seek the dismissal of all evidence…
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Colombia’s Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the claim of “Jesus Santrich” that his arrest on a US drug trafficking charge was illegal. The FARC ideologue is now close to extradition.…
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The prime suspect in a drug trafficking case implicating the ideologue of Colombia’s demobilized FARC guerrilla group has disappeared from the US prison information system, according to local media. Marlon…
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Colombia extradited the founder of the country's largest illegal armed group, the AGC, to the United States on drug trafficking charges.
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Colombia’s ELN rebels said Monday they want guarantees they won’t be extradited to the United States while negotiating peace abroad. Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno told the Colombian government and the guerrillas…
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The presidential candidate responsible for negotiating a historic peace deal with Marxist FARC guerrillas said Sunday that Colombia is “going to war with our eyes closed.” The statement of former…
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Leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro called Tuesday for Colombia to move away from the “ineffective” drug policies formed with the United States. Petro, a former mayor of Bogota and an…
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Chief prosecutor Nestor Humberto Martinez became one of the United States’ most reliable allies in Colombia after two American probes that virtually destroyed his credibility. Blow 1 – Odebrecht The…
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The international community has been lobbying hard to prevent a collapse of Colombia’s peace process as violence in cities and conflict areas is on the rise. Colombia’s prosecution arrest an…
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Colombia’s congressional peace commission want President Juan Manuel Santos to refuse the possible extradition of a former guerrilla leader that threatens an ongoing peace process. FARC ideologue “Jesus Santrich” went…
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Colombia’s ambassador in the United States sent a letter of protest to television network HBO over a joke made by popular comedian John Oliver about the country’s rampant corruption. In…
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More than 70 United States Congressmen urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to defend Colombia’s social leaders who are facing deadly violence. In a letter, the lawmakers call on the…
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Having recovered from a 40-day hunger strike, FARC leader “Jesus Santrich” returned to prison on Saturday to await a court verdict over a pending extradition request. The former ideologue of…
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Colombia’s foreign minister Maria Holguin said on Tuesday she supports an American initiative to suspend Venezuela from the Organization of American States (OAS). “We are going to have all the…
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The United States waited until the very last day to surrender alleged evidence that would support an extradition request for a demobilized FARC leader. US authorities requested the arrest of…
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US Vice-President Mike Pence called Colombia’s president-elect Ivan Duque on Friday to congratulate him and begin setting the agenda for the coming years.
Pence said on Twitter that he was “stressing the need to move decisively to cut drug production & trafficking” that has been skyrocketing for years.
The US VP also said that the two leaders “discussed the humanitarian crisis and authoritarian conditions in Venezuela.”
Duque did not immediately confirm the call.
The US embassy in Bogota said earlier this week that it will work with Duque “to support Colombia’s efforts to combat drug trafficking, strengthen security, protect human rights, and guarantee the just and lasting peace that its people deserve.”
Colombia and the US have worked together to combat drug trafficking between the two countries for decades, but without success.
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The United States’ “drug czar” said Monday that Colombia’s record cocaine production levels were “unacceptable”
At a press conference, director Jim Carroll of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) reiterated claims that rising cocaine production levels in Colombia have been pushing a boom in cocaine use and cocaine-related deaths.
According to Carroll, first-time users in the US increased 81% between 2013 and 2016. More than 10,000 Americans died of cocaine-related overdoses in 2016, according to the ONDCP’s latest annual report.
The number of new cocaine users in the United States has increased by 81 percent since 2013 and overdose deaths involving cocaine have more than doubled during that same timeframe.
The increase in cocaine-related deaths coincides with an unprecedented drug crisis caused by excessive use of mind-altering substances in the United States. More than 60,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2016 alone.
Image: Global Drug Survey)
The White House has blamed the increase in cocaine use of the past years to increased production of the drug’s primary ingredient, the coca leaf, in Colombia.
The United Nations, which monitors coca cultivation in the Andean region, is expected to announce next months that some 188,000 hectares were used to cultivate coca. According to Carroll, this could be as many as 209,000 hectares.
“Even though Colombian eradication efforts improved in 2017, they were outstripped by the acceleration in production,” Carroll said.
According to ONDCP estimates, Colombian drug traffickers produced 921 tons of cocaine for the 300 million people who cocaine consumers.
Illegal coca cultivation sustains more than 100,000 farming families and has long fueled illegal armed groups that brutally control much of the countryside.
Colombia’s outgoing president, Juan Manuel Santos, for years urged the international community to rethink counter-narcotics efforts, especially the US-led “War on Drugs” that celebrated 47 years last week.
According to Santos, consumption countries like the US urgently needed to reconsider policies to reduce consumption while production countries needed economic development in the lawless areas where illicit drug production largely take place.
President-elect Ivan Duque, however, has shown little interest in following the advise of the United Nations and push rural development and crop substitution.
The new president is more in line with US drug policy makers, returning to aggressive counter-narcotics operations that produce more displacement and violence than long-term results.
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