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Logo by kanawa
Posted on 10/13/2009 4:52:39 PM PDT by don-o
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The number of airplanes smuggling cocaine through Honduras has surged since the United States suspended drug cooperation in the wake of an army coup, the Central American country's drugs chief said on Tuesday.
Honduras has been internationally isolated since soldiers exiled President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28, and it lost $16.5 million of U.S. military aid after the putsch.
Drugs chief Julian Aristides said Honduras' de facto government, engulfed in a serious political crisis, had no clear anti-drugs strategy, although he added that Zelaya's government had also not fought trafficking well.
In the last month alone, authorities have found 10 planes abandoned on runways and remote highways. Aristides, a former army general, said there were just four such cases last year.
"These are the facts, the flights have intensified," he told Reuters in his modest office in the Honduran capital.
The increase could undermine the anti-drugs fight in Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to try to weaken powerful drug cartels and quell turf wars that have killed more than 14,000 people since late 2006.
Sparsely populated Honduras has little radar coverage and traffickers with night vision goggles fly small planes under the cover of darkness to load the drugs into trucks or boats.
U.S. agencies are still sharing intelligence with Honduran officials, but can no longer participate in operations.
Before the coup, the United States loaned helicopters to Honduras' under-equipped air force and provided the navy with fuel and logistics for advanced interception boats.
"Since the substitution of the president this has been suspended, we don't have the support that was so important given our lack of technology," Aristides said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Is this story to even be believed? There was no coup in Honduras.
If there are problems with drug flights, they need to look no further than Hugo Chavez.
Obamas fault !
>>Is this story to even be believed? There was no coup in Honduras.<<
Upholding the Honduran Constitution and ensuring the President doesn’t become a Chavez-like dictator is a “coup” for those who love the left and want the TOTUS-reader to copy his example.
USA policy has never been so much on the wrong side of morality, international law and history. Ever.
Wow, that headline is misleading.
The commies are doing their best to get their product out of the country while they can. There goes a supplier of his nose candy.
“If there are problems with drug flights, they need to look no further than Hugo Chavez.”
Bingo!
OMG!
This wasn’t a coup!
This was Hondurans protecting their Constitution, and Right to Freedom.
I’d wear out my keyboard pointing out the lies in this story, and wouldn’t have even started pointing out the propaganda.
Media my A**!
Reporters???? Don’t make me sick.
So, in support of a Chavist power grab Obama is aiding the drug smugglers.
Bottom line.
My first reaction is that Obama is probably getting his 5% rakeoff, just like Clintbilly used to do.
Its been proven that drugs were/are being flown in from Venezuela and this problem is now being exacerbated due to the withdrawal of U.S. military support.......thank you Obama.
...in the wake of an army coup Honduran supreme court ruling which neither the White House nor Reuters has deemed worthy to even acknowledge...
Fixed it. I will now hold my breath while Reuters sends me my proof-reading/fact checking fee.
Bill and I could be back in business.
This guy is nothing but a goofy tool. Looking at his other “reports” shows where his sympathies lie...and it ain’t with the Hondurans. He’s a Chavista.
Obama’s fault!!!
Uh huh. Mena, circa 2009.
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