South-East Asia human trafficking now a global crisis, Interpol says
Singapore Reuters Organised crime rings who fuelled an “explosion” of human trafficking and cyber scam centres during the pandemic have expanded from South-East Asia into a global network making up to $US3 trillion a year, the head of Interpol said on Wednesday. “Driven by online anonymity, inspired by new business models and accelerated by COVID, […]
Essay: Deep-seated inequality is fuelling an escalation of violence across Latin America
ANDREW NICKSON, of the University of Birmingham looks at the causes for the rising violence in an article first published on The Conversation… For most of the 20th century, Latin America was portrayed as one of the world’s most peaceful regions. Coups and repressive military regimes had long been commonplace but widespread civil disorder and […]
Essay: How Ecuador went from being Latin America’s model of stability to a nation in crisis
EDUARDO GAMARRA, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, looks – in an article first piblished on The Conversation – at recent events in Ecuador…
Coca price crash contributing to Colombia food insecurity – UN
Bogota, Colombia Reuters A crash in the price of coca, the chief ingredient in cocaine, is contributing to food insecurity in Colombia and causing displacement, as people leave areas that depend on the illicit crop, according to an internal United Nations presentation seen by Reuters. Historically coca crops have provided better incomes than legal alternatives […]
Brazil risks losing control of Amazon to drug traffickers, judge warns
Brasilia, BrazilReuters Brazil runs the risk of losing control over its vast Amazon rainforest region to organised crime and traffickers who use the lawless region to smuggle drugs, a Supreme Court judge warned on Wednesday. Justice Luis Roberto Barroso urged the international community to contribute funding and ideas to foster sustainable development that would preserve […]
Colombia to give properties confiscated from drug groups to farmers, women
Bogata, Colombia Reuters Colombia will give properties confiscated from drug trafficking groups and valued at some $US4.9 billion to farmers, women’s organisations, youth collectives and universities, leftist President Gustavo Petro said this week. The Andean country has traditionally sought to sell confiscated properties and goods to fund victim reparations and last year launched a real […]
Death and deforestation: Cocaine trade adds to Amazon’s woes
ANDRE CABETTE FABIO, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips have stoked concern in Brazil about links between drugs smugglers and environmental crime…
Colombia truth commission urges drug policy change to end violence
Bogota, ColombiaReuters Colombian leaders must recognize how drug trafficking has penetrated the country’s culture, economy and politics and how the global war on drugs is driving its internal armed conflict, Colombia’s truth commission said on Tuesday in a long-awaited report. The commission, established as part of a 2016 peace deal between the government and the […]
Lifestory: J Dana Trent turns her drug-dealing childhood into a podcast about poverty and faith
YONAT SHIMRON, of Religion News Service speaks with J Dana Trent about her unusual upbringing which is explored in her new podcast series, ‘Breaking Good’…
Drug trade damaging Central America’s forests, researchers say
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation Drug trafficking and organised crime are fuelling deforestation in protected tropical forests and national parks across Central America, causing substantial economic losses, researchers said on Tuesday. Traffickers are cutting down trees to build roads and airstrips to transport cocaine and are encroaching ever further into more remote forest areas to evade […]