Costa Rica wants US anti-drug program for CentAm

[Judi Lynn]

Costa Rica wants US anti-drug program for CentAm
By MARIANELA JIMENEZ
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 17, 2010; 11:40 PM

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla said Tuesday she wants the United States to offer an anti-drug aid program just for Central America.

The region currently gets some aid to fight organized crime through the Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion aid program pledged by President George W. Bush in 2007, but the bulk of the help goes to Mexico.

Chinchilla said in an interview with The Associated Press that she wants Washington to review Costa Rica's cooperation in anti-drug efforts and heed its concerns. She said she has a proposal that asks for more funds and for the U.S. to view Costa Rica as a "more mature partner" in the fight against drugs.

"We don't want to be seen as an appendix of the Merida Initiative. We want a plan for Central America," she said.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706847.html

http://www.moon.com.nyud.net:8090/files/imagecache/blog_entry_image/blog-entry-images/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton_with_Laura_Chinchilla_Miranda_2010%3B+U.S.+State+Department+Photo,+Public+Domain.jpg

Laura Chinchilla

[Peace Patriot]

1. Oh, right. Toxify the whole region with Mexico's (30,000 dead) bloodbath!

And/or Colombia's, where the failed, corrupt, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" is used to slaughter trade unionists, human rights workers, teachers, political leftists, peasant farmers...

...and/or Honduras', where the failed, corrupt, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" is now being used for similar dreadful purposes...

...and/or here, where the failed, corrupt, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" is used to keep ten of thousands of poor black people in prison for minor offenses (or for what shouldn't be offenses at all), and, indeed, to remove big percentages of black voters from the voting rolls and to remove them entirely from their communities to white, rural areas, where--though they can't vote--they are counted as "warm bodies" for purposes of over-representing white rural areas in Congress and for federal money.

The U.S. "war on drugs"--failed, corrupt, murderous war profiteer boondoggle that it is--is VERY CONVENIENT for rich ruling elites who want to keep the poor poor and disorganized, and brutalized and living in fear. It is a way to nazify society, to turn everybody into "perps."

And the cocaine and heroine just keep flowing out of countries like Colombia, where U.S. taxpayers have been robbed of $7 BILLION, given to Colombia in military aid to oppress its own people--to spy on them, to target leaders for assassination, to displace 5 MILLION peasant farmers with state terror.

EVEN THE BENEFICIARIES of the U.S. "war on drugs" largesse, such as the rightwing president of Mexico, are questioning this "war" and opening discussions on the legalization of all drugs.

I do not for one minute believe that this bullshit from Laura Chinchilla has anything to do with the drug trade. It has to do with enforcing U.S. "free trade for the rich" and creating a full-on U.S. military occupation of Central America, the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America (Colombia and Venezuela's oil coast) for PROTECTION OF U.S. multinational corporations and the super-rich, and very likely for AGGRESSION against leftist democracies.

Shame on Costa Rica (once a demilitarized zone)! Shame on Costa Rica for CAFTA ("free trade for the rich")! Shame on Costa Rica for its collusion on the rightwing coup in Honduras! And shame on Costa Rica for promoting this horrible, oppressive, failed, corrupt, murderous U.S. policy!

[EFerrari]

2. I wonder how much this announcement cost the State Department. n/t