WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration Monday announced a $1.4 billion, multiyear initiative to help Mexico defeat powerful drug cartels whose turf wars have left several thousand dead and led President Felipe Calderon to deploy his military. Dubbed the Merida Initiative for the Mexican city where President Bush and Calderon fleshed out the plan at a March meeting, the program also is designed to redefine the way the two neighbors cooperate on security issues, U.S. officials said. [continues 342 words]
$700 Million Deal Could Help Calderon's Effort WASHINGTON -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating a massive counter-drug aid package with the Bush administration worth hundreds of millions of dollars, several officials say. Officials on both sides are working out the details of a package that resembles a U.S. aid plan for Colombia. The talks have been taking place quietly for several months and will be a central item on the agenda when President Bush and Calderon are expected to meet in Quebec Aug. 20-21. [continues 489 words]
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating a counter-drug aid package with the Bush administration worth hundreds of millions of dollars, say several U.S. officials familiar with the discussions. Officials on both sides are working out the details of a package that resembles a similar plan for Colombia. The talks have been taking place quietly for several months and will be a central item on the agenda Aug. 20-21 when President Bush and Calderon are expected to meet in Quebec. [continues 832 words]
Funding Aid Seen As Bolstering Calderon WASHINGTON - Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating an aid package with the Bush administration worth hundreds of millions of dollars, several officials say. Officials on both sides are working out the details of the massive counter-drug aid package. The talks have been taking place quietly for several months and will be a central item on the agenda when President Bush and Calderon are expected to meet in Quebec Aug. 20-21. [continues 715 words]
WASHINGTON -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating a massive counter-drug aid package with the Bush administration worth hundreds of millions of dollars, said several American officials familiar with the talks. Both sides are working out details of a package that resembles a U.S. aid plan for Colombia. The talks have been taking place quietly for several months and will be a central item on the agenda when President Bush and Calderon are expected to meet in Quebec on Aug. 20-21. [continues 544 words]
The White House Said The Anti-Drug Campaign Is Working In Colombia, Despite Recent Results From A Survey That Indicated Otherwise WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is denying that the drug war in the Andes is going badly, despite a U.S. survey showing that far more Colombian acreage is planted with coca than previously reported. The 2005 coca cultivation survey for Colombia, issued Friday evening by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), estimated acreage at 356,000, a 26 percent increase over 2004. [continues 511 words]
WASHINGTON - In a major concession to new Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Bush administration has agreed to reconsider its counterdrug programs in the South American nation, and is even hinting it could allow more coca farming. Concerned that more coca could mean more cocaine, Washington has so far balked at easing Bolivia's 30,000-acre limit on legal production of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine. The cap is bitterly opposed by many poor Bolivian farmers who helped elect Morales to the presidency. [continues 357 words]
WASHINGTON -- In a major concession to new Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Bush administration has agreed to reconsider its counter-drug programs there. The United States is even hinting that it might allow more coca farming. Concerned that more coca could mean more cocaine, Washington has so far balked at easing Bolivia's 30,000-acre limit on legal production of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine. The cap is bitterly opposed by many poor Bolivian farmers who helped elect Morales to the presidency. Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said a European Union study of the potential legal coca market would help determine whether there was room for more coca plantations. "We think that based on current legal limits, based on what the European Union study is going to come up with, it will be possible for us to have a conversation, a dialogue with Bolivia about what a legal harvest could be," he told The Miami Herald. [continues 92 words]
WASHINGTON - The purity of South American heroin on U.S. streets declined sharply last year as prices increased for the first time, the strongest indication yet that an aggressive antidrug program in Colombia may be having an impact in the United States, U.S. drug czar John Walters said Wednesday. But Walters recognized there was still no change in the purity and price levels of cocaine, by far Colombia's largest drug crop and the top moneymaker for drug traffickers. U.S. officials hope the heroin numbers are an early indicator that will eventually carry over into cocaine. [continues 220 words]
WASHINGTON - The purity of South American heroin on U.S. streets declined sharply last year as prices increased for the first time, the strongest indication yet that an aggressive anti-drug program in Colombia may be having an impact in the United States, U.S. drug czar John Walters said Wednesday. But Walters recognized there was still no change in the purity and price levels of cocaine, by far Colombia's largest drug crop and the top moneymaker for drug traffickers. U.S. officials hope the heroin numbers are an early indicator that will eventually carry over into cocaine. [continues 221 words]
President Bush Gave Colombian President Uribe A Warm Welcome In Texas, But Refrained From Endorsing A Peace Plan WASHINGTON - President Bush extended a warm, Texas-style welcome to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at his ranch Thursday as Uribe launched an effort to build international support for his expensive and controversial peace plan. The visitor didn't seem to get the kind of strong backing he was looking for, but the invitation to join the president at his Crawford ranch underlined his status as Washington's closest ally in Latin America. [continues 513 words]
After a long delay, the State Department decided to certify Colombia on human rights, allowing the country to obtain about $70 million in aid. The move drew complaints from rights activists. WASHINGTON - The State Department has issued a long-delayed human- rights certification for Colombia, freeing about $70 million in aid despite complaints that its government is soft on security forces accused of abuses, human-rights activists said Tuesday. The department was expected to issue a formal statement today, one day before President Bush is to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe - - a top U.S. ally in the war on drugs -- at his Texas ranch. [continues 358 words]
Albuquerque One Of 14 Cities Known As 'Staging Areas' For Traffickers, DEA Says WASHINGTON - Mexican drug traffickers have pushed aside their Colombian counterparts and now dominate the U.S. market in the biggest reorganization of the trade since the rise of the Colombian cartels in the 1980s, U.S. officials say. Mexican groups now are behind much of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine on U.S. streets, the officials say, with Mexican law-enforcement agencies viewed as either too weak or too corrupt to stop them. [continues 684 words]
Dea: Colombia Is No Longer No. 1 In $400 Billion Annual Trade WASHINGTON - Mexican drug traffickers have pushed aside their Colombian counterparts and now dominate the U.S. market in the biggest reorganization of the trade since the rise of the Colombian cartels in the 1980s, U.S. officials say. Mexican groups now are behind much of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine on U.S. streets, the officials say, with Mexican law enforcement agencies viewed as either too weak or too corrupt to stop them. [continues 344 words]
Mexican drug traffickers have shoved aside their counterparts in Colombia to take control of the $4 billion illegal drug trade in the United States. Mexican drug traffickers have pushed aside their Colombian counterparts and now dominate the U.S. market in the biggest reorganization of the trade since the rise of the Colombian cartels in the 1980s, U.S. officials say. Mexican groups now are behind much of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine on U.S. streets, the officials say, with Mexican law enforcement agencies viewed as either too weak or too corrupt to stop them. [continues 768 words]
WASHINGTON - Colombia's request for an additional $150 million to strengthen its anti-coca spraying program was rebuffed Thursday by a House appropriations subcommittee. It comes soon after new data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicated Colombia achieved only a modest reduction in coca cultivation despite heavy spraying, with more coca being grown in Peru and Bolivia. Coca is used in the production of cocaine. However, lawmakers on the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee did approve $463 million requested by the Bush administration for Plan Colombia, a massive anti-drug effort. [continues 187 words]
WASHINGTON - Colombia's request for an additional $150 million to strengthen its anti-coca spraying program was rebuffed Thursday by a House appropriations subcommittee. It comes soon after new data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicated Colombia achieved only a modest reduction in coca cultivation despite heavy spraying, with more coca being grown in Peru and Bolivia. Coca is used in the production of cocaine. However, lawmakers on the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee did approve $463 million requested by the Bush administration for Plan Colombia, a massive anti-drug effort. [continues 185 words]
President Bush Proposed an Almost-Unchanged Allocation of $550 Million As Continuation of Antidrug Plan Colombia. WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing to keep military counter-drug aid to Colombia almost unchanged in the next fiscal year despite calls by some members of Congress to spend more on social programs, according to its budget request released Monday. Bush is asking Congress to allot $550 million to combat drugs in Colombia in fiscal 2006, with the military and police receiving more than $393 million -- about $10 million less than in fiscal 2005, a State Department official said. [continues 389 words]
WASHINGTON - Plan Colombia, the United States' signature international drug-fighting effort, is to get a major overhaul once its five-year term ends at the end of 2005, with policymakers looking to give it more of a social and less of a military character. Officials say the $3.5 billion program has succeeded in putting Colombian drug traffickers and armed groups on the run or suing for peace. Kidnappings and other violent crimes in the South American nation also have declined. [continues 955 words]
WASHINGTON - *(KRT) - Prices for cocaine and heroin have reached 20-year lows, according to a report released Tuesday. The Washington Office on Latin America, which usually is critical of U.S. policies in Latin America, said the low prices called into question the effectiveness of the two-decade U.S. war on drugs. A White House official said the numbers were old and didn't reflect recent efforts in Colombia to curb drug cultivation. The Washington Office on Latin America, citing the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the street price of 2 grams of cocaine averaged $106 in the first half of 2003, down 14 percent from the previous year's average and the lowest price in 20 years. [continues 275 words]
