WASHINGTON -- Mexico's attorney general said Tuesday he sees no need for U.S. troops to intervene in his country's war on drug cartels, nor to gear up for a spillover of violence across the border. "I don't see that," Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. "I don't see the U.S. military playing an active role. The size of the problem on the U.S. side is not calling for that, and certainly Mexico has enough institutional capabilities to deal with this." [continues 812 words]
Amid Tight Security, He And Colombian Leader Vow To Fight Traffickers BOGOTA, Colombia - Amid tight security, the presidents of the United States and Colombia vowed an ongoing alliance to fight the drug trade and the rebel groups that feed off it. "This country has come through some very difficult times," President Bush said at the side of President Alvaro Uribe, a close ally whose country receives more U.S. aid than any outside the Middle East. "I'm looking forward very much to ... continuing to work with you to defeat the drug lords and narco-traffickers - the narco-terrorists." Mr. Bush has proposed about $700 million in direct annual aid on top of the $4 billion Colombia has received since Mr. Uribe took office in 2002. The Colombian leader prodded Mr. Bush for even more, saying U.S. support has helped curb crime, corruption and the drug trade and weakened left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries. [continues 452 words]
America's 6-Year, $6B Effort To Eradicate Drug In Colombia Has Mixed Results Soacha, Colombia - Maria Ayara lives with her children and other relatives near Bogota. She had lived and grown coffee in the countryside with her husband until coca-growing militia usurped their land. The men came in the night, men from the militias that prowl Colombia's lawless coca-growing regions. They were there to grab control of the coca zone. They took away her husband, and a hundred others. Some were butchered. Hers disappeared. She fled with their four children and the clothes on her back. Now she makes $6 a week, working every day at a small store in a slum near Bogota. [continues 1403 words]
Q&A: John Walters, U.S. Drug Czar John Walters has been the nation's drug czar since December 2001, coordinating federal anti-drug programs and spending as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. On the eve of President Bush's trip to Latin America, he spent a half-hour at his office near the White House with Washington correspondent Todd J. Gillman in a conversation that ranged from Andean coca production to the wave of heroin-laced "cheese" hitting Dallas schools. These are excerpts. [continues 482 words]
WASHINGTON Proponents of looser marijuana laws got a number of reasons to celebrate in recent weeks. Maryland drastically reduced the penalty for anyone caught using marijuana as medicine. A few days later, the Canadian government proposed a law that would turn possession of a small amount of pot from a crime into an offense akin to a traffic violation. It's all good news for the handful of American lawmakers who favor liberalized drug laws among them Texas Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, a physician and former Libertarian presidential candidate. [continues 723 words]
