I found this elsewhere and figured it might be of interest to those that participate here.

VHeadline commentarist Carlos Herrera writes: Since the beginning of 2005 the main US dailies such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post have continued their media onslaught against Venezuela and the government of Hugo Chavez...

Next weekend I plan to attend events related to the release of my book, Contrabando. Saturday I will be in El Paso at a booksigning event and Sunday in Las Cruces. Monday evening I am scheduled to give a reading and a talk at NMSU which I hope turns into a forum to discuss drug policies and their affect on our countries.

Here's a link to today's El Paso Times announcing the events.

Anyone wishing to attend is welcome.

Link to an article about the current situation surrounding the production and availablity of cocaine

Economist

New and dangerous trends in the Andean drug business

LOOKED at in one way, these are good times for America's drug warriors, at least with regard to cocaine. Traditionally, some 70% of the white powder has come from Colombia. The $3 billion in aid that the United States has spent there since 2000 under Plan Colombia has produced what American officials present as some spectacular numbers—especially since Álvaro Uribe became president two years later and allowed large-scale aerial eradication of drug crops....

I watch part of ABC’s Good Morning America each day before heading out for chores. Today’s show had a segment about the explosion of crystal methamphetamine use and production in small town America. It showed before and after pictures of the terrible devastation this drug visits upon those that choose to abuse it—fresh smiling faces alongside scarred, worn-looking, hollow-eyed images of people nearing death.

For me this is just further proof that if we were somehow successful in destroying all the coca and poppies in third-world countries where they are produced, we, right here in the good ole USA would figure out some way to create alternative products to take their place.

Molly Molloy, a friend of mine and also a librarian and a teacher of Latin American Studies at New Mexico State University sent me the following link concerning the danger reporters now face in Mexico when addressing the issue of drug traficking.

Others tell me they have nothing to fear if not involved in the business.

I really wouldn't know from personal experience.

By Tim Gaynor

MATAMOROS, Mexico, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Mexican journalist Francisco Arratia used to tap out daily columns sounding off against the drug traffickers and corrupt cops that blighted his home city on the U.S. border...

I see drug legalization as a question that cannot be viewed independent of a myriad of other issues facing this world: a very complex issue.

For instance, right now a coffee grower in Central or South America does not make enough money to support a decent lifestyle. That cup of expensive brew you pay $3 for in a Starbucks puts less than a penny into the hands of the poor man that raised the beans. Not only raised the beans but picked each one by hand and dried them on mats in areas where it rains a lot. This often entails running out to wrap them up when it showers and then putting them out again when the sun comes out. Too many wet days can mean mold.

Modernization has brought machines to dry the beans this but many growers do not have access to such and if they do, some rich conglomeration of capitalists just screws them a little more.

A prophet is seldom recognized among his own. When Jesus came along and preached in his hometown, they asked, isn't this the son of the carpenter?

Among us lesser types however, the people have real faults to identify when one rises to speak, to guide a nation, to open eyes, to comfort the oppressed, and to distress the comfortable. Like, isn't this the guy who's had countless wives, the guy who shot heroin into his veins, who left his children to pursue whatever compulsion came along?

©Copyright 2004 Don Henry Ford Jr.

Thu Nov 18th, 2004 (previously posted at The Agonist)

Monday I took a trip to Ciudad Acuña near the Texas border town of Del Rio. I took the trip in desperation, driven by the pain of a toothache and the recent knowledge that my American dentist would not extract it because my blood pressure is high. Afraid of getting sued.

©Copyright Don Henry Ford Jr. 2004

Previously posted in my diary at the Agonist

Manuel Garcia is as steady a ranch hand as they come. And like a lot of agricultural workers here in Texas, he is a native of Mexico. He first found me shortly after I had been released from prison. I was working on a small ranch my dad owns near Luling, Texas, thinning an oak forest with a chainsaw and selling firewood. The work was brutally hard and dangerous--the weather hot and humid--the wood heavy. But I had spent five years surrounded by the constant noise and confusion of a federal joint and appreciated being alone in the forest. And the hard work was a kind of therapy--a way for me to heal.

I have previously written on topics that may be of interest those that frequent this site, so I am going to repost some of these writings here at the Narcosphere. This first appeared in my diary at the Agonist.

©Copyright 2004 Don Henry Ford Jr.

A few years ago, I walked into the Hasting's bookstore in Seguin, Texas. A table was set up near the entrance for a book signing; behind the table stood a man. His head was shaved bald, his body fit and strong. Piercing dark brown eyes searched my face.

I approached. The man was well dressed but the grip of his hand was not that of someone who sits behind a desk all day. Only when he spoke did I realize that he was of Latin extraction. This guy was not your average author.