On Friday, November 6th, the U.S. government finally released itsestimate of how much coca was cultivated in Colombia in 2008. The result is the first reduction in coca-growing since 2002-2003, a significant drop from 167,000 hectares measured in 2007 to 119,000 hectares in 2008. (A hectare is equal to 2.47 acres.) This brings the U.S. government’s coca cultivation estimate to its lowest level since 2004. (The U.S. government has not yet released 2008 coca data for Peru and Bolivia.)
This matches a downward 2007-2008 trend – though not the number of hectares – that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime announced (PDF) back in June.
A reduction in coca cultivation is good news. But what caused it?
We're hitting the ground running with Human Rights NOW and we need you to join us in a taking an urgent action today.
Our mission?Convince as many congressional representatives as possible before December 7th
to sign on to a letter calling for real change in U.S. policy towards
Colombia, so that it can be sent out ASAP to Secretary of State
Clinton.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin recently traveled to Cuba in order todiscuss hurricane preparedness with the country’s leading experts. Inthe aftermath of the Mayor’s trip, the need to reinstate a workingrelationship between the United States and Cuba could not be moreapparent. Considering Cuba’s remarkable hurricane response system andproximity to New Orleans, it is logical to collaborate (or at leasecommunicate) about natural disasters. But the trade embargo and travelrestrictions against Cuba make co-operation rather difficult.
After months of a virtual standstill in Honduras between democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and regime leader Roberto Micheletti, we might be seeing the end of what one writer called, “The Little Coup That Couldn’t.” On October 29th, Honduras’ defacto leader Roberto Micheletti agreed to step down, allowing the Honduran Congress to decide whether President Zelaya would be returned to power. But, the fate of democracy in Honduras still remains to be seen.
On October 23rd, Crude made its debut in D.C. at the Landmark E Street Cinema. Crude, a documentary about the $27 billion dollar “Amazon Chernobyl” case, is making similar debuts across the nation in 2009. Here in Washington, viewers piled into the theater, even at the10:15 PM showing, only to be greeted by director Joe Berlinger whoopened the film stating, “I don’t want to say enjoy the film, because it’s not enjoyable. I hope that it’s provocative so that we can talk about it.” And talk about it we did.
UPDATE: The United Nations has voted 187 in favor, 3 against (US, Israel, Palau), and 2 abstentions (Micronesia, Marshall Islands) to condemn the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.
The United Nations General Assembly will vote on a resolution whichcondemns the U.S embargo against Cuba on Wednesday, October 28th, forthe 18th year in a row. According to a CBS news report written afterthe 2008 U.N vote, “The U.S. embargo has cost Cuba $230 million a yearin foreign investment and caused the country more than $93 billion ineconomic damage since its inception, according to Cuban officials.”
Hear LAWG's director talk on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview program about the "two Colombias": The one in which the war is winding down and all is going well; and the other one, in which hundreds of thousands of people are still fleeing their homes from violence, the army as well as guerrillas and paramilitaries are killing civilians, and the government is illegally wiretapping the institutions that are the basic building blocks of democracy.
Click here to listen to it on the Chicago Public Radio website.
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