South American crisis handled

Here's a link to the piece I did last week for Antiwar.com, explaining that many of the roots of the Colombian/Venezuelan crisis lie very much in the misguided and misbegotten U.S. war on drugs. Since that was written, the crisis seems to have been resolved -- as one would expect, since none of the parties had a real interest in going to the mattresses and spilling actual blood. The significant thing is that there was no need for outside intervention here, by the U.S., Europe or anybody else. People in a region can settle their own disputes? What a concept!

Venezuela and Colombia on the brink

Here's a link to the Register's editorial on the trouble brewing between Venezuela and Colombia, following a raid by Colombian forces into Ecuadoran territory to bomb a FARC guerrilla camp. What there wasn't space to discuss was the extent to which troubles in Colombia are exacerbated by the drug war. The 40-year civil war/insurrection/whatever was relatively quiescent until the drug war was ramped up following "success" in drug suppression in Peru and Bolivia, which shifted more coca production to Colombia. Both the FARC and the right-wing paramilitaries found they could finance their activities by protecting narcotraffickers and growers and taking a cut of the huge prohibition premiums.