Monday, October 22, 2007

Snorting Venezuela

Juan Forero is back in action. He's on the Venezuela beat; talking about how cocaine trafficking is becoming a scourge in Venezuela. May be true as far as I can tell, but here's the kicker. He makes the Chavez government seem like the bad guys for not wanting help from Uncle Sam!

"Washington has pumped billions of dollars into Colombia's battle against narcotics trafficking, but the country hasn't won such cooperation from Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez....He stopped American anti-drug flights over Venezuelan air space long ago. He also ended cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration, accusing its agents of spying."

A little historical context would have been helpful. Justin, a blogger at Americana has an excellent write up on the history of the US "drug war" in Latin America. Further history is available from the National Security Archives and from Z Magazine.

Reading the history, one can only conclude that Chavez would be a fool to accept "help" from the US.

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