President Evo Morales gave a speech marking the launch of the coca eradication 2013 campaign, praising its focus on human rights.

“In Bolivia we have a different model to fight against drug trafficking,” he said, adding that he hopes the “Joint Task Force (FTC) will demonstrate once again, to Bolivians and the people of the world, that with dignity and sovereignty we contribute better to the fight against drugs”.

His speech was held in Chimoré, in the region of Chapare, known for its cultivation of coca plants, in front of an FTC contingent.

The FTC will count on more than 2,000 soldiers whose task will be to destroy “a minimum of 5,000 hectares of coca plantations” by the end of the year. However, in recent years these targets have been largely surpassed with over 10,000 hectares destroyed.

This increase in results has coincided with the “nationalisation” of the struggle against cocaine production with the refusal of United States’ participation and the expulsion of the DEA in 2009.

Man holding a Coca leaf, Bolivia (Marcello Casal Jr., Wikimedia)

“Before this eradication task, with coca zero policies, was handled by external agents, specifically the United States, and brought no results. If it did bring any results, it was the violation of human rights and of our sovereignty,” Morales said.

Larry Memmott, Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the United States in Bolivia, has praised Morales’ policies and called the results in recent years “impressive”.

“We estimate a net reduction of 13% [of illegal coca plantations in 2012],” Memmott said.

The new policy put in place by Morales’ government tolerates a certain type of coca cultivation, called acullico. Acullico is a small ball of coca leaves mashed together and placed in the mouth to chew on. It is a traditional part of Bolivian culture and is believed to help with altitude sickness and digestion.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Bolivia has eradicated over 36,000 hectares of illegal cocaine plantations since 2009.

Morales’ campaign counts with the support of 168 UN countries and has led Bolivia to regain its place among the countries abiding by the Vienna Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs.

After 15 years, the DEA is reopening its office in Uruguay because of the growing transit of cocaine in the region.

“The DEA thinks that in Uruguay there is an increasing presence of international drug trafficking organisations. They never settle in a country for no reason,” said an official of the Ministry of the Interior.

The office closed in 1994 because the drug activity in the region was said to be under control. The DEA had to ask permission from US Congress three years ago to return to the area.

According to weekly Uruguayan publication Búsqueda, between 2005-2011, the Ministry of the Interior seized 2.8 million kilos of cocaine, 2.7 of which was intended to be sent abroad.

Today, Uruguay, along with the rest of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay) is considered a transportation site for drugs like cocaine, paco, and heroin, that are then sent to Europe and the US.

A United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent shot and killed a suspected drug trafficker during an early morning raid near Brus Laguna, a village in northeastern Honduras.

The raid occurred on Saturday morning, after a suspected smuggling plane landed at Brus Laguna’s airport. Four helicopters with Honduran police and members of the DEA’s Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team (FAST) followed the plane’s passengers and cargo into a wooded location. According to US embassy spokesman, Stephen Posivak, four suspects surrendered to arrest, but a fifth reached for a weapon, at which time the DEA agent fired.

The squad seized several weapons and 360 kilograms of cocaine at the site. According to an agreement between the DEA and Honduras police, the agent acted within strict procedure and fired out of self-defence.

The incident highlights the growing involvement of the US in Central American counternarcotics operations.

In May, protests erupted in Honduras after a US-owned helicopter carrying DEA and Honduran police fired on a fishing boat during a drug raid, killing four people, including two pregnant women. The shooting happened near Ahaus in northeastern Honduras when a boat carrying suspected smugglers began firing at the helicopter.

Lucio Baquedano, the mayor of Ahuas, says the four fatalities were innocent civilians not involved in the drug trade.

In response, protestors set government buildings ablaze and demanded US drug enforcers leave.

FAST is a commando-style squad led by former Navy SEALs members, with origins in Taliban-linked narcotics investigations. Now, FAST is commonly deployed to small Central American countries to help resident speciality units fight narcotics trafficking.

Honduras is a popular spot for cocaine shipment headed from South America to the US.

The North American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) yesterday arrested dozens of people, including 23 airport workers, accused of being members of drug gangs during a large anti-trafficking operation in Puerto Rico. Police also took in three people from mainland United States’ airports, as part of the same operation.

The detainees are apparently members from two different drug-trafficking gangs based in Puerto Rico who supply drugs to the US. According to the DEA, the suspects are accused of transporting 13 metric tonnes of cocaine and various kilos of heroin from the Caribbean island to major cities including Miami, New York and Boston.

The arrests carried out by DEA, working in conjunction with the FBI and the Puerto Rico Police (PRPD), led the DEA’s Acting Special Agent in the Caribbean division, Pedro Janer, to announce they had dismantled, “the two most important narco-trafficking operations.”

His colleagues echoed the sentiment. “Today’s arrests at one of the nation’s busiest airports reflect our relentless commitment to working with our partners to aggressively fight drug trafficking, not only at our nation’s points of entry, but at source, transit and arrival zones throughout the world,” the DEA’s deputy administrator, Thomas Harrigan, said in a statement.

Of the suspects arrested, 18 worked for American Airlines while the others were employed by a local company, Ground Motive Dependable, which deals with the transporting luggage.

According to the DEA, they would hide cocaine in luggage or on their bodies and use their access to a designated staff room to transfer it to couriers which were travelling to the US mainland.

“The defendants in this investigation not only utilised their positions and security access to smuggle large quantities of illegal narcotics, but they also compromised the safety and security at one of the Caribbean’s most vital airports,” Pedro Janer, said.

“DEA will continue to dismantle these organisations that think they can blatantly use legitimate entities to carry out their smuggling operations.”

US and Mexican agents have discovered one of the most significant drug-smuggling passages ever found, stretching some 400m between Tijuana and San Diego. The authorities say they have also seized an estimated 17 tonnes of marijuana as a result.

The tunnel, approximately 1.5m high and 1m wide, is said to be equipped with wooden supports, electrical lighting and a ventilation system, and links two warehouses on either side of the border.

It was unearthed on Tuesday by a cross-agency task force after they stopped a suspicious truck leaving a warehouse in San Diego’s Otay Mesa district. The two men inside the truck now face life imprisonment if found guilty of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

US authorities seized approximately three tonnes of marijuana inside the truck that was stopped as it left the warehouse. A further six tonnes were found inside the warehouse. Mexican authorities also found another eight tonnes south of the border.

The packaged marijuana was labelled with pictures of Captain America, Sprite and Bud Light, thought to be codes to indicate who the drugs were destined for.

General Gilberto Landeros, of the Mexican army, said that this was the sixth such drug tunnel to be found in Mexico’s Baja California in the last year. Five have been found in Tijuana and one more in Mexicali, the state’s capital.

Drug tunnels have become a popular way of transporting drugs between Mexico and the US after the tightening of controls over land in recent years. Other ways to deliver drugs have included low-flying aircraft, boats, and even catapults.