Suriname court convicts president of murder

DW, 30 November 2019

Suriname's President Desi Bouterse has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 1982 murder of 15 political opponents. The South American country is now on edge over what happens next.

Suriname President Desi Bouterse (Reuters/R. Abhelakh)

A military court in Suriname on Friday convicted President Desi Bouterse of murder for the execution of 15 opponents in 1982, plunging the South American country into political uncertainty.

Opposition parties called on Bouterse, who is on a state visit to China, to step down. He was expected to return home on Saturday or Sunday.

The 74-year-old leader was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but the military court did not issue an arrest warrant. Under Surinamese law, he cannot be arrested until all appeals have been exhausted.

After the court decision, the government asked Suriname's 560,000 people to remain calm.

Who is Bouterse?

As a junior military officer, Bouterse seized power in a coup in 1980, five years after Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands. He stepped down in 1987 under international pressure in a move that led to a democratic election, only to briefly seize power again in 1990.

He later left the army and took office again in 2010, following democratic elections won by his National Democratic Party (NDP). He secured a second term in 2015.

What did the court find? 

The court ruled that Bouterse had overseen what is known as the "December killings," in which soldiers abducted 16 opponents, among them prominent journalists, academics and military officers.

All but one of the detainees was killed at a colonial fortress in the capital Paramaribo. The sole survivor — a union later — testified against Bouterse.

What led up to decision?

The court decision marks a turning point in a trail that began in 2007, when Bouterse accepted "political responsibility'' for the killings but insisted he was not present.

Bouterse and the NDP have repeatedly sought to obstruct the trial. Shortly after taking office in 2010, the NDP-controlled National Assembly granted him amnesty that was overturned by the constitutional court.

Then in 2016, the president asked the attorney general to halt the legal proceedings against him, but the court ruled against the move because the trial had already started.

Calls to implement law

Angelic del Castillo, head of the opposition Democratic Alternative '91 party, said Bouterse had "disqualified himself" and demanded he immediately resign.

In a joint statement, the diplomatic missions of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States called on the final verdict in the killings to be "implemented and upheld in accordance with the rule of law."

"The integrity and independence of the Judiciary is a pillar in Suriname society," they said.

Drug trafficking

In 2009, a Dutch court sentenced Bouterse to 11 years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking. However, his 2010 election victory protected him from being extradited under an Interpol warrant.

In 2015, his son, Dino Bouterse, was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison in the United States after being convicted of drug smuggling and trying to help the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah establish a base in Suriname. He had previously been picked to run Suriname's counter-terrorism unit.

A Suriname judge in 2005 convicted Dino of trafficking arms, drugs and running a gang.

Peru creates huge national park in Amazon basin

Yahoo – AFP, 7 Nov 2015

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, pictured on July 28, 2015, will create the Sierra

 del Divisor National Park in a region inhabited by a variety of indigenous communities

living in self-imposed isolation (AFP Photo/Ernesto Benavides)

Lima (AFP) - Peru is creating a national park to protect a vast territory in the Amazon basin that is vulnerable to drug trafficking and illegal logging and mining, the country's environment minister said Saturday.

Called the Sierra del Divisor National Park, it covers an area of about 14,170 square kilometers (5,470 square miles) in a region inhabited by a variety of indigenous communities living in self-imposed isolation.

Peru's President Ollanta Humala will travel to the region Sunday to sign a decree creating the park, Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal said on his Twitter account.

The park has an estimated 3,000 species of plants and animals, many of them found nowhere else in the world, according to the government.

The announcement comes just three weeks ahead of a UN summit aimed at sealing a global pact on climate change.

Advocates of the new park have said it will enable the capture of 150,000 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of Peru's daily carbon output.

Sierra del Divisor has been a protected zone since April 2006. Since then, the communities living there have lobbied for its designation as a national park to stiffen legal protections against encroachment by loggers, miners and drug traffickers.

Sierra del Divisor is the second national park created since Humala took office in 2011, after the Gueppi National Park, a 6,260 square kilometer expanse centered on the Gueppi River in southeastern Peru.

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Venezuela declares state of emergency along border with Colombia

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared a state of emergency along part of the country's border with Colombia following an attack that wounded three soldiers. The border region is rife with smuggling activity.

Deutsche Welle, 22 Aug 2015

President Maduro used a nationally televised address late on Friday to announce the state of emergency, which is to last for 60 days and apply to several cities in the Venezuelan state of Tachira.

"We've been discovering a frightful reality about how the criminals and paramilitaries operate. I'm under the obligation to free Venezula of all this," Maduro said in the address broadcast on state television.

"This decree provides ample power to civil and military authorities to restore peace," he added.

The move came two days after three Venezuelan soldiers patrolling the largely lawless border region were wounded by gunshots. Regional officials reported that in addition to the three soldiers, a civilian was also wounded in the attack, carried out by two men on motorcycles.

President Maduro also announced that the Simon Bolivar international bridge between the two countries would remain closed until the suspects were apprehended. He also said that if necessary, the current state of emergency could be extended for a further two months.

Opposition criticism

While the president argued that the steps, including the deployment of hundreds of more soldiers to the region, was necessary to restore order, the opposition accused him of seizing the opportunity to try to deflect attention from Venezuela's economic crisis ahead of December's general election.

"The decree of a state of emergency only 109 days before crucial parliamentary elections may be the escape valve used by the government to avoid a defeat that is both imminent and certain," a statement issued by the Democratic Unity Alliance said.

The 2,219-kilometer (1,379 miles) border between the two countries is widely used by drug trafficking gangs and smugglers of cheap goods into Colombia from Venezuela.

The Venezuelan government say the authorities have arrested more than 6,000 people for smuggling over the past year.

pfd/ng (AP, Reuters, AFP)

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Leave that iguana in the jungle, expert tells Costa Rica

Yahoo – AFP, Oscar Nunez, 30 Aug 2014

A nurse at the Simon Bolivar Zoo's veterinary surgery gives a medicine to a

squirrel in San Jose on August 28, 2014, Costa Rica (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra)

San Jose (Costa Rica) (AFP) - Thousands of parrots, monkeys, iguanas, toucans, turtles and other rainforest animals are kept as exotic pets in Costa Rica, a practice putting some species at risk, according to experts.

The Central American country, famous for its rich biodiversity, won plaudits from conservationists two years ago for banning sport hunting in a pioneering move to protect wild animals.

A macaw eats at the Simon Bolivar Zoo's

 veterinary surgery, in San Jose on August 28,

 2014, Costa Rica (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra)

But scientists and activists -- gathered this week for the country's first-ever conference on the issue of captive wildlife -- say tropical animals face another major threat in Costa Ricans' long-time love of exotic pets.

"There are no precise figures, but we know it's a problem of great magnitude, because a study by the environment ministry found that 25 percent of households have a parrot or a parakeet as a pet," said Andrea Aguilar of the Instituto Asis, a key figure behind the conference.

That would add up to nearly 400,000 exotic birds in cages, she said.

Aguilar's institute runs a shelter for wild animals in La Fortuna de San Carlos, a lush region in northern Costa Rica that draws large numbers of foreign tourists with its famous wildlife and tropical vegetation.

The shelter takes in wild animals kept as pets that fall sick or are wounded by people, cars or electric shocks.

It gives them veterinary care and, when possible, prepares them for an eventual return to the wild.

Cindy Rivera, a nurse at the Simon Bolivar 

Zoo's veterinary surgery, weighs a turtle

 in San Jose on August 28, 2014 Costa

Rica (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra)

"Costa Rican law forbids keeping wild species as pets, but the law isn't enough because there's a very deep-rooted custom. People don't realize that wild animals are not and cannot be pets," Aguilar told AFP in an interview ahead of the First Congress on Wildlife Rescue, Recovery and Freedom in San Jose.

She said people have a range of reasons for keeping pets such as white-faced capuchin monkeys, green iguanas or songbirds. They are drawn to the animals' beauty, they want to entertain their children or they feel it brings them social status.

But the underlying problem is that people are largely ignorant of the animals' diets, growth, life span, habitat, diseases and behavior.

"A family falls in love with a baby white-faced capuchin because it's funny and affectionate, but when it reaches two years old its behavior will change. It will become aggressive, bite and pull people's hair. That's when it becomes a problem at home," she said.

Such animals often end up being mistreated or killed, or, with luck, in a shelter, she said.

By that point returning them to their native environment is difficult. They lack survival skills and are unlikely to be accepted by other members of their species.

Traffic in exotic animals

The international traffic in exotic animals exacerbates the problem.

A Spider Monkey sits in an enclosure at the

 Simon Bolivar Zoo in San Jose, Costa Rica 

on July 28, 2013 (AFP Photo/Hector Retamal)

The illegal $20-billion-a-year trade has taken a major toll on Costa Rica's biodiversity, as animals are captured and sold abroad, Aguilar said.

One of the goals of the three-day conference is to prod the Costa Rican government to expand environmental education programs for locals, foreign visitors and ecotourism operators.

"It's important to make people understand that wild animals have to live in the forest, because they have different needs from domesticated animals," said Aguilar.

Protecting the environment is also key for the Costa Rican economy, which depends heavily on tourism and attracted 2.4 million visitors last year -- many of them drawn by the country's tropical wildlife and forests.

Obama wants cooperation from Central America over immigrants

Tens of thousands of teenagers from Central America are illegally crossing the US border. President Obama has now pressed for cooperation during new talks with the region's presidents.

Deutsche Welle, 26 July 2014

"Parents need to know this is an incredibly dangerous situation," US President Barack Obama warned a few weeks ago, in light of the surge of minor migrants - more than 50,000 this year alone, attempting to cross the Mexican border. Now the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador their counterpart at the White House to discuss the problem, which has sparked an intense debate in the US.

The meeting had an important function, Dan Restrepo of explained: it was an urgently needed signal for some intensive crisis management. "It is not a problem you can switch on and off," he told DW. "And you can't solve it quickly either - you have to work permanently on the dynamic and complex circumstances."

Obama is under pressure due to the
increasing number of teenage refugees

Carl Meacham of the think tank thinks there is much lost ground to make up: "US policy in this area has been inconsistent - there hasn't been much engagement," he said. But it is doubtful if the summit, which had few tangible results, will relieve Obama in the domestic debate.

There has been a continuous barrage of criticism from the Republican Party, which makes Obama responsible for the humanitarian crisis at the border. How intense the debate is was demonstrated by the deployment of Texan Guards at the Mexican border and the assessment of the deployment of the National Guard by Obama himself.

Scaring people off

Charlie Dent, Republican representative from Pennsylvania, in whose constituency emergency shelters for children have been built, told DW what the Republican majority in the House of Representatives wanted from the meeting: "President Obama has to make it very clear that these children will be sent back," he said. In fact, Obama did threaten fast deportations, and he claimed that the latest decrease in migrant numbers was a sign of success.

But another demand is much more difficult for him to act on. Dent says Obama should "also tell the presidents of these countries that the US will change its laws" to be able to send back the children immediately. To do that Obama would have to change a law signed by George W. Bush that grants minor migrants a court hearing, and the Democrat Party will be unlikely to accept that.

US complicity

The Democrats triggered problems in Washington even before Obama met the presidents from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Some argued that the US is complicit in the current exodus of unaccompanied minors smuggled across the border by criminal organizations.

"I think we have a shared responsibility," Meacham agreed. "It is true that the United States is a major customer of drugs. On the other hand it is the responsibility [of the Central American governments] to create the necessary security."

Congress is refusing to grant an emergency
program to ease the refugee crisis

At the moment these three countries are seen as strongholds for criminality that force the children to leave. "I talked to a five-year-old girl who came unaccompanied to the US from Central America," said Dent. "She didn't know how to swim, but she crossed dangerous rivers and travelled on the roof of a train to get from Mexico to the US."

No emergency program

So far Dent's Republican Party has refused to grant the $3.7-billion (2.75-billion-euro) emergency program that Obama wants to enable better emergency housing, more immigration judges, and increased border security. They also opposed another one of Obama's pilot projects: to grant refugee status to the children in their countries of origin and therefore spare them from the dangerous voyage to the US.

The Republicans' attitude of total opposition is one of the biggest challenges, says Meacham. "The malfunction of the political system is the other big hurdle beside the crisis at the border," he said. "If we can't act in consensus, not only will the situation at the border get worse, but so will the chaos in the Central American countries."

The White House summit is just the prelude to more talks at the highest diplomatic levels between the US and the three affected states - and Restrepo is expecting Vice President Joe Biden, who attended the meeting, to weigh in regularly.

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Colombian drug lord El Ratón arrested in Spain

Hernán Alonso Villa, aka The Mouse, is linked to 400 murders and faces smuggling, extortion and people trafficking charges

The Guardian, Stephen Burgen in Barcelona,  Sunday 20 July 2014

'El Raton' head of the military wing of Oficina de Envigad', a Colombian criminal
 gang, is escorted by police after his arrest in Alicante, Spain. Photograph: Spanish
national police/EFE

Spanish police have arrested one of Colombia's most wanted drug cartel enforcers who is linked to 400 murders.

Hernán Alonso Villa, better known as El Ratón (The Mouse), was stopped en route to one of his safe houses in the south-eastern province of Alicante carrying €40,000 (£31,660) in cash which, according to police, came from drug running and assassinations. He was later transferred to Madrid pending extradition to Colombia.

Police said the 40-year-old heads a network of around 200 drug traffickers and hitmen responsible for importing cocaine into Spain, the Netherland and the US.

In spite of the elaborate precautions he took to evade arrest, such as constantly changing his address, phone number and identity, close cooperation between the Spanish and Colombian authorities led to his detention. A member of the Colombian police intelligence unit took part in the arrest.

Rodolfo Palomino, the Colombian chief of police, said: "El Ratón was arrested thanks to the work of our people and the Spanish authorities. Along with Carlos Esneider Quintero, alias Gomelo, Villa committed serious crimes in Medellín, in particular murders, disappearances, extortions and kidnappings. He then went to Europe seeking to continue his activities in drug dealing and coordinating trafficking routes."

The authorities believe El Ratón is the head of the military wing of the Oficina de Envigado – a much-feared criminal gang that takes its name from a small Colombian town. It grew out of the Medellín drug cartel led by the late Pablo Escobar.

As well as 400 counts of murder, Villa faces charges of drug smuggling, extortion and people trafficking.

The Oficina was established in the 1980s by Diego Murillo Berajano, or Don Berna – a former leftwing guerrilla – primarily to act as Escobar's muscle and to meet his growing need for paid assassins. When Escobar was killed in 1993 the Oficina took over much of his empire.

It is now a loose-knit patchwork of autonomous units that team up with local gangs but also get well-trained recruits from the police and former paramilitary groups.

Don Berna later fell out with Escobar and after the latter's assassination, emerged as his successor.

He then became involved with the rightwing, anti-guerrilla paramilitaries of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, which battled Farc guerrillas for control of Medellín's poorest neighbourhoods. A period of relative peace followed with a drop in the murder rate until Den Berna was extradited to the US in 2008, when murders and kidnapping increased dramatically.

According to the independent website Insight Crime, the Oficina generates $31m (£18.1m) a year just through money laundering.

UN studies show that Spain is Europe's largest consumer of cocaine and has long served as the European gateway for South American drug traffickers, although increasingly the drugs' first port of call is north Africa, before being shipped to Spain.

According to the interior ministry, in 2013 Spanish customs and police seized 26.5 tonnes of cocaine, 27% of that in the entire EU and 27% more than the preceding year, indicating that the volume of trade is continuing to increase.

Europe has become increasingly attractive to drug traffickers, with demand for cocaine doubling in recent years while demand in the US has fallen by 33%. Europe consumes 25% of world cocaine production.

Mexico disarms 1,200 police accused of gang ties

Google – AFP, 20 January 2014

Mexican federal police patrol during a march for peace in Apatzingan, 

Michoacan State, Mexico, on January 18, 2014 (AFP/File, Hector Guerrero)

Morelia — Mexico has disarmed more than 1,200 local police officers suspected of colluding with drug traffickers in Michoacan state and arrested 38 members of the notorious Knights Templar drug cartel active in the region.

Among those arrested was Jesus Vasquez Macias, 37, who goes by the alias "El Toro," a leading figure in the cartel, Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, a top federal security official, announced late Sunday.

Garcia said federal forces have taken control of 27 municipalities in the western Mexico state and disarmed 1,209 of the local police officers.

The officers will undergo investigations, Garcia said.

They are accused of colluding with gangs by the vigilante militias that have taken up arms in recent months in restive Michoacan state.

The self-defense groups, made up of farmers and other local people, aimed to take over from local police to oust the Knights Templar from the region to stop the group's violence, kidnapping and extortion rackets.

Since February 2013, the self-defense groups have taken control over some 20 towns.

In recent days, federal forces launched a major operation in the state and tried to disarm the vigilantes as well as flush out the Knights Templar gang.

The capture of Vasquez Macias and other Knights Templar leaders was among the conditions the vigilante groups demanded before giving in to government demands they turn over their own weapons.

Vasquez Macias, who was picked up in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, was charged with offenses related to organized crime, Rubido Garcia said.

Michoacan, where much of the population lives in poverty, has become the most pressing security issue facing Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, who inherited a bloody war on drugs from his predecessor in 2012 that has left more than 77,000 people dead since it was launched in 2006.

Colombia drug baron Palencia Gonzalez held in Spain

BBC News, 9 November 2013

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Cipriam Manuel Palencia Gonzalez
 (Spanish police image) Continue
reading the main story

The notorious leader of one of Colombia's most violent drug gangs has been arrested in Spain, police say.

Cipriam Manuel Palencia Gonzalez, the head of the Urabenos gang, is wanted for a string of crimes including the murder of a police officer in Colombia.

He was detained in Madrid on Friday while planning new drug routes to Spain, according to police.

Gonzalez, 34, broke out of jail in Colombia in 2009 and was wounded in a police raid there earlier this year.

Six members of the gang were detained in the raid and a police captain was killed. Colombia police allege Mr Gonzalez then hatched a plot to kill more police.

He escaped, travelling first to Venezuela and then to Brazil before flying to Madrid in recent days under an assumed name, a police statement said.

An international arrest warrant issued by Interpol warned that he could be armed and dangerous.

The Urabenos gang he is alleged to have run was partly formed from members of old paramilitary groups that were established in the 1980s to tackle left-wing guerrillas during Colombia's long civil war.

Mr Gonzalez, also known as Visaje, is accused of drug-smuggling, extortion and ordering the murder of police officers.

Colombian authorities have reportedly linked his gang to 52 murders.

Swiss crack case of parrot egg underwear smuggler

Google – AFP, 17 October 2013

File picture for illustration shows young parrots at Seropedica Recovery Center,

 a reserve of the Brazilian Environmental Institute near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 

on October 17, 2008 (Austral Foto/AFP/File, Renzo Gostoli)

Geneva — Swiss customs authorities said Thursday that they had arrested a bird specialist who smuggled the eggs of protected parrots in his underwear and travelled the globe trading in rare species.

The customs service said in a statement that the man, whom it did not identify, was though to have trafficked over 150 eggs from endangered parrots that are protected by international law, as well as rare pheasant species.

The man, a Swiss citizen who was also a legal bird trader, was busted at Zurich airport in 2010 with 25 eggs hidden in his underwear as he returned from Brazil.

The customs service explained that it was only revealing details of the case now because of the secrecy surrounding the probe.

Investigators managed to establish that thanks to a solid international network of contacts, the man managed to smuggle more than 150 eggs to buyers in Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico.

The total value of the contraband eggs was 65,000 Swiss francs (54,000 euros, $71,000), the customs service said, adding that it had not been possible to establish where they came from.

Investigators said that the man also had an aviary of several hundred birds, including endangered species.

The Swiss veterinary service also seized seven rare parrots from an accomplice, with an estimated value of 8,000 Swiss francs.

The two men face a heavy fine for trafficking in endangered species.

Dutch police bust cocaine banana gang

Google – AFP, 16 October 2013

(AFP/File, Luis Acosta)

The Hague — Dutch law enforcement officers arrested four suspected drug smugglers who allegedly tried to smuggle millions of euros of cocaine hidden in boxes of bananas from Colombia, prosecutors said.

Customs, harbour police and tax officers swooped on a shed in the town of Weesp near Amsterdam to arrest the men as they came to pick up the stash of drugs on Wednesday, the Public Prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Officials however had already discovered the cocaine in the southwestern harbour of Vlissingen on Monday, aboard a ship from Colombia that brought a consignment of bananas.

"It was decided to remove the cocaine but leave the bananas to see who would come to fetch it," the statement said.

The fruit were then delivered to a warehouse in Weesp where police made the busts.

The drugs are valued at around 30 million euros ($40 million).

The four men will appear in court on drug-related charges on Friday, the statement said.

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Huge cocaine haul seized on Air France plane in Paris

BBC News, 21 September 2013

The 30 suitcases were reportedly not registered to any passenger on board

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Police at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport have seized 1.3 tonnes of pure cocaine on board an Air France flight from Venezuela, French officials say.

The drugs were found packed inside 30 suitcases on 11 September, but the operation was revealed on Saturday.

France's Interior minister, Manuel Valls, said it was the biggest drug haul ever made in the Paris area.

Six people were arrested, accused of being members of an international drug smuggling ring, Mr Valls said.

Officials say they believe the drugs were meant for sale in France and had a street value of 200m euros (£169m; $270m).

The Air France flight came from Caracas.

The suitcases with the cocaine reportedly were not registered to any of the passengers.

TF1

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Italian gangster, facing life in jail for murder, arrested in Nieuwegein

Italian 'top mafia boss' caught in Colombia

BBC News, 6 July 2013

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Colombian police say they have caught the alleged boss of Italy's Calabrian mafia, who they described as Europe's most wanted drugs trafficker.

Roberto Pannunzi was detained in a shopping centre in the capital, Bogota, authorities said.

He had been on the run since 2010, when he fled from a clinic in Rome, where he was receiving treatment as a prisoner.

Italian prosecutors accuse Pannunzi of establishing the transatlantic cocaine trade between Italy and Colombia.

As alleged head of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, he is suspected of helping to import up to two tonnes of cocaine into Europe per month.

The Italian was detained on Friday with the help of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Colombian defence ministry said in a statement.

"Pannunzi, known as the Pablo Escobar of Italy, was the most wanted man in the country," the defence ministry said in a twitter post.

"When he was captured, Pannunzi identified himself with a fake Venezuelan identification card bearing the name Silvano Martino," the ministry said.

Roberto Pannunzi was first detained in Colombia in 1994 and extradited to Italy but was released when his detention order expired.

He was re-arrested in 2004 and later convicted. But he staged an dramatic escape from a private hospital in Rome in 2010, where he was being treated for heart disease.

Italian authorities have described the 'Ndrangheta as the country's most dangerous and wealthiest crime syndicate, overtaking the Sicilian Mafia and becoming one of the world's biggest criminal organisations.

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.

30 tons of drugs seized by Interpol in Caribbean, Central America

Deutsche Welle, 3 July 2013

The international police agency Interpol has seized a 30-ton cache of cocaine, heroin and marijuana valued at $822 million (631 million euros). The operation took place in the Caribbean and Central America.

The Interpol-led "Operation Lionfish" targeted maritime drug and gun smugglers across two separate regions. It involved some 34 countries and territories, including 20 Caribbean nations.

Police arrested 142 people and seized 15 vessels, 42 firearms and approximately $170,000 in cash. The European police agency Europol supported the operation and said coordination units were based at Interpol's bureau in El Salvador and the command center of the French West Indies Coast Guard on the island of Martinique. Raids took place between May 27 and June 14.

"The operation was coordinated in response to growing evidence of the organized crime in the trafficking of drugs and firearms in the Central America and Caribbean regions due to its strategic location," Europol said in a press release Tuesday.

As well as the Caribbean and Central American countries, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States participated in the anti-smuggling operation. The World Customs Organization and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also leant their support.

"Disrupting this activity is not only critical for the source and transit countries of these drugs and weapons, but also for the destination countries such as Canada," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said in a statement from Ottowa.

South American cocaine is typically smuggled to Europe in by sea in shipping containers, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes. The drug is often trafficked to North America from Colombia through Central America or Mexico by sea and then land.

dr/hc (AP, dpa, AFP)

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Colombian rebels kidnap 23 oil workers

Suspected Farc guerrillas kidnap workers carrying out exploration work in remote jungle area

guardian.co.uk, Reuters, Tuesday 8 March 2011 03.58 GMT

Suspected Farc guerrillas have kidnapped 23 local oil contractors carrying out exploration work in a remote jungle area of Colombia for a Canadian energy company, authorities said.

The governor of Vichada, Juan Carlos Avila, said gunmen forced the contract workers out of the camp from which they were conducting work for Talisman Energy Inc, which is a partner of state oil company Ecopetrol.

"They entered the camp and forced the 23 to go with them into the jungles," Avila told Caracol radio, saying all those kidnapped were Colombian nationals.

The Colombian army said the gunmen appeared to belong to a local unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, Latin America's oldest surviving rebel insurgency.

A spokeswoman for Talisman in Canada could not immediately comment on the incident.

Colombia has enjoyed a boom in oil and mining investment as violence from its long war has subsided, but illegal armed groups remain a threat in remote areas where the state's presence is weak.

The Farc operates in Vichada province along with illegal cocaine-trafficking gangs, in the oil-rich flatlands of eastern Colombia near the Venezuelan frontier.

Kidnappings have become rarer as security has improved, but this large-scale hostage-taking shows the risks still facing oil and mining firms. Companies are still targeted for extortion by armed groups.

The Farc still kidnaps for ransom but it is also holding around 15 police and soldiers hostage for political leverage.

The country's oil infrastructure has also been targeted recently. Last month, the Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline was attacked and earlier the Transandino oil line was halted for a few days by a suspected rebel bomb.

Last month, a coal rail line operated by the coal producer Cerrejon was also hit by a bomb in a second attack on the installation in a month.

Once written off as a failing state mired in drug violence, Colombia has enjoyed a sharp decline in bombings, kidnappings and attacks since 2002, when the government began a US-backed security crackdown on armed groups.

Foreign direct investment grew more than five-fold as violence waned and oil and mining companies moved into areas once considered off limits for exploration.

The Farc and cocaine-smuggling militias linked to former paramilitaries are still proving resilient in remote jungles, mountains and flatlands, however, where the Colombian state has yet to establish a strong foothold.

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