USA - DEA complicit in drug trade, says Evo Morales

[chillinwill]

Bolivian leader Evo Morales on Thursday accused the US government of encouraging drug-trafficking as he explained his decision to banish the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Morales, a staunch opponent of the Washington government, said the staff from the US agency had three months to prepare to leave the country, because "the DEA did not respect the police, or even the (Bolivian) armed forces."

"The worst thing is, it did not fight drug trafficking; It encouraged it," the Bolivian leader said, adding that he had "quite a bit of evidence" backing up his charges.

Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana presented a series of documents and press clippings at a news conference, which he described as "object data" that had influenced Morales' decision to suspend DEA activities last week.

Quintana said Morales was ready to present the evidence to incoming US president Barack Obama "to prove the illegality, abuse and arrogance of the DEA in Bolivia."

Throughout the 1990s, the DEA in Bolivia "bribed police officers, violated human rights, covered up murders, destroyed bridges and roads," said Quintana.

Morales earlier Thursday said that after a 1986 operation in Huanchaca National Park, it was determined that the largest cocaine processing plant "was under DEA protection."

He also charged that the DEA had investigated political and union leaders opposed to neoliberal economic policies, which he said amounted to political persecution.

On Wednesday, he had accused the DEA of shooting and killing Bolivians during their anti-drug operations, including members of the coca farmers' movement.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has served as the leader of the Bolivian coca-growers union. The coca plant, from which cocaine is derived, has many uses in traditional Andean culture.

The Bolivian leader announced last Saturday he was suspending the work of the DEA in the impoverished Andean nation, and accused it of having encouraged political unrest that killed 19 people in September.

"From today all the activities of the US DEA are suspended indefinitely," the Bolivian leader had said in the coca-growing region of Chimore, in the central province of Chapare, where he was evaluating efforts to combat drug trafficking.

The DEA has denied Morales' accusations.

US President George W. Bush, in a finding released in September, added Bolivia to a list of countries that have "failed demonstrably" in anti-drugs cooperation.

Agence France-Presse
Published: Thursday November 6, 2008
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/DEA_en...ales_1106.html

Reputation Comments on this post:

	thanks for posting, most interesting
	your contributions to news are much appreciated, good stuff ;)
	For this and many others, Thanks!

[Burnt]

^^This does not surprise me in the least. I would like to see his evidence however. Another example of the failure of the war on drugs.

[unema]

Absolutely! Look up the Iran Contra(I think that's what its called) Its the scandal about Freeway Ricky Ross, the CIA, DEA and others I'm sure introducing the wonderful pandemic that we know now as Crack Cocaine to the African American community. And its not some conspiracy theory bullshit. Its a highly documented event with many professionals involved coming forward. And the evidence is blatantly clear.

Heroin has also increased in the states and drastically in Europe ever since oh I don't know, invading Afghanistan? What who said that?

War on drugs is more than a failure, its a catastrophe to the people of the world and American tax payers. Is the US the only country that pays for this shit?

Good article man, nice find.
peace
-unema

[chillinwill]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Bolivian President Evo Morales expressed hope Monday for improved relations with the United States under Barack Obama's presidency, but said he will never allow the U.S. anti-drug agency to resume operating in his country.

The socialist leader, a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accused the Drug Enforcement Administration of "political aggression" in Bolivia, which is a major source of coca plants, the raw ingredient for cocaine.

Morales said his government would set up a new intelligence operation involving the military and police to fight drug trafficking in place of the DEA, whose Bolivian operations he suspended Nov. 1.

Morales, the former leader of a coca growers union, also said Bolivia will seek to remove coca leaf from the U.N. list of prohibited drugs. While coca can be turned into cocaine, Bolivians use the small green leaf in its less-potent natural form as a traditional tea or for chewing.

Bolivia-U.S. relations have deteriorated in recent months as Morales' government halted DEA activities and expelled U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg, accusing him of spying and involvement in anti-government protests in the eastern lowlands.

The U.S. government has denied helping Morales' opponents, and warns that ending the DEA operation will result in even more cocaine being produced in Bolivia and shipped to other countries. The State Department did not have any comment on Morales' latest statement.

Repeating his allegations, Morales announced the ban on DEA operations when asked at a news conference whether he would agree to a return of the DEA after Obama takes office.

"The DEA will not return while I am still president," Morales said. "The DEA ... had an intelligence structure, but it wasn't so much to fight drugs, it had more to do with the political aggression against my government. ... In recent times, we've seen some officials of the DEA involved in political conspiracy."

Noting that he was the first native Indian president of Bolivia, and that Obama is the first black president of the United States, Morales said, "I feel that the world has started to change."

"My great desire is to improve diplomatic relations, trade relations, cooperation" with the United States, he said.

Morales held the news conference after speaking during a General Assembly debate on U.N. reforms and achieving U.N. anti-poverty goals. He was the only head of state to address the session. All other speakers were ambassadors or lower-ranking diplomats.

He told the assembly he wanted to speak out for "deep-reaching economic and social change," saying his government is striving to improve the lives of all Bolivians.

Bolivia is the world’s third largest producer of coca, the raw material for cocaine. The US is the largest consumer of cocaine.

By EDITH M. LEDERER
November 17, 2008
AP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...XgySQD94GVOM02

[Burnt]

I am 100% in agreement with him that he should tell the U.S. and the UN to go fuck themselves they have every right to grow coca I could care less if its used to make cocaine its the U.S. and any other countries responsibility to police their own borders not someone other countries.

However I would like to see more evidence hard evidence about the illegal things the DEA was doing because any real evidence against the DEA is nice to discredit them.

[El Calico Loco]

Call me cynical, but I wonder how long El Presidente has left to live. I hope he has excellent security.


ECL

[MiMoMo]

Originally Posted by El Calico Loco

Call me cynical, but I wonder how long El Presidente has left to live. I hope he has excellent security.


ECL

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller

[El Calico Loco]

I agree. But I still hope he is well-protected.


ECL

[Euthanatos93420]

Security in terms of avoiding DEA-Bush organized assasination of Morales. Security may be MOSTLY an illusion...but if you don't DO SOMETHING to protect yourself...especially when you know someone is probably going to try and kill you....you're definately gonna die.

Obama election has to be the reason this is happening. It's a timing manuever....the three months is right before Obama goes into office. The DEA probably won't leave and the Coca guys will start fighting back.

If they're successful in ousting the DEA...then you will probably not see much coke in the US for a long time unless the DEA gets their grubby hand back in there. In fact...If Morales can Keep the Coca contained in his country by eliminating those people who worked directly with the DEA then he will virtually PROVE the DEA's involvement in a way that all of America with be forced to directly reckon with.

[enquirewithin]

Morale's accusations are undoubtedly founded on truth. The US has already tried to out him by supporting regions which want to become autonomous.

If Bolivia stopped producing cocaine, Uribe's corrupt Colombia would fill the shortfall.

[unema]

Originally Posted by euthanatos93420

If they're successful in ousting the DEA...then you will probably not see much coke in the US for a long time unless the DEA gets their grubby hand back in there. In fact...If Morales can Keep the Coca contained in his country by eliminating those people who worked directly with the DEA then he will virtually PROVE the DEA's involvement in a way that all of America with be forced to directly reckon with.

Haha, sorry to say Bolivian cocaine falls short in production and distribution behind Columbia and Peru. And lets not forget Mexico, mostly a highway used by the big manufacturing countries yes, but coming up in its own right...Bolivia is still a major, major player in the cocaine game but even if not one gram came directly from Bolivia(they would send it elsewhere where it WILL find its way into the states) into the US, we would hardly, and I mean hardly see a drop in cocaine sales and use. Drug use is just too rampant and demand too high...we live in a nation of dope fiends and they will get their fix cause money is involved, and when $$ is involved, organized crime will meet the demand regardless of what a countrie's government says or said.

It truly is upsetting knowing full well this man wants to help his Country and do more than the shit-for-souls/brains aka DEA/DATF(drug addict terrorizing force)has done for its pitifull country and world and it won't make a dent in the trade because the world is in THAT sad a state right now. Damn I am tired and now depressed, haha, no more posting tonight.

peace
-unema

[El Calico Loco]

Originally Posted by unema

and when $$ is involved, organized crime will meet the demand regardless of what a countrie's government says or said.

True. Lawmakers can not override the laws of economics any more than they can override the laws of physics. But they do love to try...


ECL

[dyingtomorrow]

They need to start growing poppies there too.

[Euthanatos93420]

Originally Posted by El Calico Loco

True. Lawmakers can not override the laws of economics any more than they can override the laws of physics. But they do love to try...


ECL

They don't try. It's an ancient hermetic principle called compensation. By creating a compensating force they rise on the pendulum and remove themselves from it's sway.

Such compensations no matter how powerful or how excessively compensated for only create a bubble that will eventually pop because the pendulum drives a clock.

Prohibition and propaganda (of anything I'm not just talking about drugs; look at the history of the church) are the prongs of the fork of oppression. The problem with blowing a bubble through a fork is that you have to keep your finger at the end and if you push too hard you cut yourself but you still can't remove your finger or the bubble pops.

If you're a real bubble ninja you can keep adding soap (Prohibition...limitations) and blow into it (Inflation/propaganda...political windbags) but it's a delicate procedure and if anyone figures out what you're doing....that bubble is a delicate one naturally.

Thing is once the bubble pops everyone gets doused in soap. Which is well enough...since all that soap has thus far been wasted on what amounts to a momentarily dazzling display of colors to create a pretty much useless object.

Unless of course the goal was to douse everyone in soap...

Okay, maybe I took that metaphor way too far but if you stuck with me...kudos ;-)

Reputation Comments on this post:

well fucking put- CCR

[sgurrman]

Personally I admire a dude like Eva Morales, president of an economically poor country (one that George Bush would probably be unable to identify on a map of the world), who has got the courage to stand up against the government of the High Priest (soon to be demoted) of western uncivilisation. Such voices need to be heard loud and clear, if only to relativise the worldview of aforementioned High Priest and his cronies (for example cockroach Gordon Brown, though that is uncomplimentary to cockroaches, who undoubtedly have their part to play in the natural order of things) and Emperor Uribe of Colombia, recently declared a new, fully-fledged state in the United States of America. Morales, rock on! (as folk used to say a long long time ago.....)