Twitter: latamthought- Colombia, known for its coffee worldwide, begins campaign to increase below-average levels of domestic consumption http://bit.ly/96zAW6
- Evo Morales will meet with new Uruguayan President Jose Mujica to talk about potential Bolivian port in Uruguay http://bit.ly/cIdZZL
- Julia Sweig on Secretary of State's visit to Brazil: http://www.tinyurl.com/yfdd8xh
- LatAmThought post on AQBlog argues that in Colombia's elections not being disliked may be as important as being liked. http://bit.ly/aNeHTZ
- Latin Americans don't care what the U.S. thinks. http://bit.ly/d3sRoV
The International Reach of Organized Crime
Earlier this year, LatAmThought wrote a commentary about the international reach or criminal organizations in the Americas. Last week, we published an article on the International Relations and Security Network about the indirect presence of Mexican Cartels in the Andes.
The amount of drug seizures in Bolivia have increased in 2009. Additionally, raids on drug-processing labs have also increased, leading some analysts to suspect that this is not necessarily because of better work by Bolivia’s Special Anti-Narcotics Unit (FELCN), but because the amount of labs has increased dramatically. Oscar Nina, head of the FELCN, has gone on record saying that the expulsion of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in November 2008 has hurt FELCN’s ability to combat drug production and trafficking.
The commentary can be read in its entirety here.