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War On Drugs

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Parent Issue
Month
October
Year
1989
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
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Agenda Publications
OCR Text

NEWS ANALYSIS

WAR on DRUGS
U.S. Disinformation Campaign Targets Cuba

by Jon Reed

HAVANA, CUBA--Recent White House attempts to frame Fidel Castro and the Cuban government as kingpin cocaine traffickers should be viewed with deep suspicion in the light of an ongoing 30 year program of disinformation and covert warfare designed to destroy the Cuban Revolution. In the wake of the spectacular July trial and execution of the General Arnaldo Ochoa and three other high-ranking, Cuban military officers for cocaine smuggling and black market profiteering, the U.S. has tried to revive previously discredited charges of Castro's involvement in the international drug trade. These charges have run all the way from a preposterous claim of a meeting between Che Guevara and Salvador Allende as far back as 1961 to plan the undermining of the U.S. system by importing drugs to recent allegations of a consipracy between Castro, Nicaragua, and the Medellin Cartel.
The White House has ignored Castro's repeated offers to cooperate with the U.S. in drug interdiction, and seems to have conveniently forgotten Cuba's close cooperation with the Carter administration in the late 1970s-when the Cubans seized numerous ships and aircraft carrying contraband drugs. Instead the Bush administration has planted stories in the the mass media claiming that Castro scapegoated Ochoa and the others in order to head off a mythical, Soviet-backed coup d'etat (to force glasnost on the Cubans) and to hide his own role as Latin American drug kingpin. According to the New York Times, General Ochoa "may have been leading a group of dissidents and planning some type of action against the Cuban government."
The most recent administration rejection of a Castro offer to cooperate with the U.S. in stopping the drug flow and a false Reuters story released by U.S. Customs officials on July 9 ("Two Cuban MiG jet fighters kept a U.S. Customs aircraft at bay while a small plane dropped a load of cocaine") provide furthur evidence that the so-called "Cuban Connection" is basically a hoax.
As an August article in the New York Times by Juan Mendez of America's Watch points out, the Medellin Cartel works hand-in-hand with the chief U.S. allies in Colombia-the military and police authorities, not with left-wingers. Left-wing guerilla cooperation with these drug cartels, so-called "narco-terrorism," is either minimal or non-existent. See M. Rabione, "The War on Drugs" (Zeta Magazine Jan. '89); Collett, "the Myth of Narco-Guerillas" (The Nation, Aug. 13, '88); Morales, "The War on Drugs: A New U.S. National Security Doctrine?" (Third World Quarterly, July '89) and "The CIA and Drugs" (Covert Action Information Bulletin, Summer '87).
Unfortunately the "Colombianization" of inner cities in the U.S. is not a myth, but rather a troubling reality and burning political issue which must be addressed by the left. President Bush's nationally-televised War on Drugs speech on Sept. 5 makes it clear that the administration plans to make this issue a centerpiece of reactionary, bipartisan politics. The cocaine epidemic of the late 1980s has done more to fuel racism and to destroy Black, Latino, and youth community consciousness and political organization than perhaps any other domestic counter-insurgency tool that could have been devised by CIA and the National Security State. Not only does this multi-billion dollar industry provide strategic funds for a worldwide network of contras, death squads, and right-wing dictatorships, but its social and political effects are poisoning everyday efforts to build a broad-based radical movement in the United States.
As Jesse Jackson and others have pointed out, every misguided, desperate crack addict is a loss to the movement-a potential political activist who may never have the opportunity to become politically involved. This the the real reason the the White House is happy to promote the myth of the left-wing narco-terrorism and the "Cuban-Nicaraguan connection" while hiding the fact that the CIA and its "secret teams" have been directly involved with major right-wing heroin and cocaine syndicates for the last 40 years- from the Corsican Mafia and the 

DRUG WAR
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right-wing Laotian tribesmen to the Afghan contras and the Guatemalan military high command. From the standpoint of the national security state, the North American-European crack epidemic is a phenomenon to be prolonged for as long as possible-since it divides and weakens opposition forces while providing a demonic replacement for the traditiional "Evil Empire" of the Soviet Union.
While police and military-affiliated drug lords in Colombia and Central America bolster counter-insurgency campaigns though assassinations and kidnappings of left-wing grassroots leaders; violence, robbery, and gang warfare have reached epidemic proportions in many North American urban areas, stimulating racist attacks and reactionary calls for police-state repression. While a crack dealer shoots down and kills former Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton in the streets of Oakland, Miami Vice stereotypes have replaced Malcolm X and Che Guevara as role models for an unfortunate proportion of youth.
National polls indicate that the cocaine epidemic has now begun to destabilize the U.S. itself, with fearful citizens ranking drugs as the country's number one problem. If the public won't support sending U.S. combat troops into Latin America to fight the FMLN, the Sandinistas, or the Colombian guerillas, then perhaps they'll support a normalization of relations with the socialist Cuba; perhaps this dangerous tendency can be reversed by painting the Castroites as crack wholesalers. If sending the Green Berets into Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico is too unpopular, then the White House will be glad to send in an army of militarized DEA thugs instead.
In the absence of a propaganda and action offensive by the left government calls for increased funds for the police and military intervention have an undeniable attraction for many people who should know better. Instead of demanding the controlled legalization of drugs and recognizing the crack epidemic as a deep-rooted socio-economic and medical problem, we are sked to support sending combat troops to Colombia and Peru and to sanction widespread spraying of deadly herbacides in the war zones of Guatemala. Instead of qualitatively improving economic opportunities for disadvantaged youth or pumping the huge funds needed into drug rehabilitation programs, what the bipartisan hard-liners suggest is the imposition of police state measures in the ghetto and the society at large. If present trends continue, we can expect White House denunciations of ghetto violence and left-wing "narco-terrorism" to increase, not decrease-especially as the myth of the "communist menace" loses its rationale in the Gorbachev era.
Even through evidence uncovered by the Christic Institute and investigative reporters demonstrates conclusively that the Godfather of heroin and crack is really former CIA Director George Bush and his death squad/death drug peddling allies across the globe, we on the left have been losing the propaganda battle for the War of Drugs. Public receptivity (and relative silence by the left) to the Bush's recent disinformation campaign surrounding the drug scandal in Cuba are a depressing indication of just how far we have to go if we are to point our finger the real socioeconomic causes of the crack epidemic and clean up the biggest "Crack House" in the hemisphere, the White House.
After visiting Cuba firsthand, it's obvious that there's no significant cocaine or crack problem on the island-in fact other than alcohol abuse, there are no drug problems at all. The main problems are economic stagnation and political overcentralization, direct results of the White House's 30 year war against the Cuban revolution. After even a brief look at the situation, it's clear that the economic consequences of a normalization of relations with the U.S. would go a long way toward solving the country's major problems. If the travel blockade were lifted, the Cuban tourist industry would boom. If the Cubans could freely trade with the U.S., there would be no "hard currency" crisis. If U.S. peace activists and ordinary citizens could freely travel to the island, there would be a significant upsurge in solidarity and cross-cultural communication. With close cooperation between the U.S. and Cuba, the fundamental right-wing roots of the Medellin Cartel and international cocaine trafficking would become evident. These are the real reasons why the Bush team want us to believe that Castro and the Latin American left are at the root of our problems.
The achievements of the Cuban revolution are impressive and undeniable in education, in health care, in combating racism, in providing employment and eliminating poverty, and most of all in creating anti-imperialist consciousness and commitment on the part of the majority of the island's 10 million people. It's hard to imagine a more exciting or uplifting place to visit.
As part of a rousing send-off for an international delegation, several thousand young Cubans have massed on 23rd Calle this afternoon, dancing to a live Afro-reggae band and turning the Vedado neighborhood into an impromptu carnival. Fascinated by the multi-ethnic composition of the crowd and the exuberant energy of the dancers near me, I am forcefully reminded of all the good things about the Cuban revolution, it's internationalism, its emphasis upon the revolutionary potential of youth, and its vibrant Afro-Cuban culture.
As my Cuban campanera reminds me, many of the young men and women in the crowd have recently returned from volunteer duty in Angola, fighting against the South African Army and the UNITA mercenaries of Jonas Savimbi. After 13 years of bloody war, many Cubans believe that Angola's enemies have finally been defeated. Without the Duban volunteers, the Angolans would probably have been defeated by the U.S.-backed counter-revolution--a fact widely acknowledged in the Third World, if not in North America.
After months of travelling through the war-battered cities and villages of Central America, it's a relief to see so many beautiful, smiling faces. It's reassuring to look out across the crowd and see how well dressed and healthy everyone looks. Standing in the shade of tropical foliage that borders the Cuban Pavillion, I try to make myself heard above the amplified sound system, asking serveral women dancing beside me what they think about the trial and execution of General Ochoa and the others.
"It's terrible. I can hardly believe it," a Black women in jeans tells me, shaking her head. "Ochoa was a war hero in Angola and a long-time associate of Fidel."
"As I watched the testimony of the accused officers on television," the other young women adds, "I didn't know what to think...How could this have happened?"
Everyone I talk to on the streets is careful not to blame Fidel, who after 30 years in power remains very popular. But It's obvious that my questions stimulate an uneasy guardedness, a defensiveness arising out the average Cuban's desire to protect the image of the revolution. People are willing to criticize lower-level Communist Party bureaucrats for corruption and ineffiency, but not the top leadership.
One very articulate Cuban I spoke with, off the record, felt sorry for Ochoa and the others--defending their action by pointing out that perhaps they were only trying to earn badly-needed hard currency in order to be able to continue financing Cuba's anti-imperialist activities in Africa and Central America. He reminded me that the Soviet Union can no longer afford to provide such large sums of money for its allies in the Third World. Since drug trafficking is obviously used as an important fundraising tool by the CIA and its allies, perhaps Ochoa and the others believed that they were justified in using "any means necessary" to raise needed funds. Most people I talked with, however, blamed Ochoa and the other accused officials for corruption, condemning them forcefully staining the reputation of the Revolution.
The majority of Cubans on the street seemed genuinely shocked when I described to them the terrible social and political effects of the crack epidemic in the U.S. No one was able to answer my question in a satisfactory way as to why the Cuban press still appeared to support General Noriega of Panama in an uncritical fashion, when it is clear that Noriega was involved in the money-laundering and cocaine smuggling, that he worked hand-in-hand with the right-wing Medellin Cartel and the he had a long prior record of cooperation with the Reagan administration and DEA. One person speculated that perhaps Noriega had played the role of a "double agent," working with the DEA and the Bush/North network in order to be able to expose them afterwards--otherwise why would the U.S. be trying so hard to get rid of him now?
Given the desperate conditions that prevail in much of the world, robbing banks, collecting war taxes, and kidnapping right-wing businessmen for ransom may be seen as justifiable and necessary--after all, a revolutionary struggle cannot be carried out without significant sums of money. But I would hope that comrades on the left would continue to make one thing clear; trafficking in cocaine and herion and other death drugs is not justifiable. Instead of falling silent in the face of right-wing propaganda surrounding the War on Drugs, we should be defending Cuba and the freedom fighters of the world, and turning the spotlight on the real source of the drug problem: the Bush White House and its reactionary allies across the globe.

Jon Reed is a U.S. reporter who has been travelling and writing in Mexico and Guatemala for the past several months, as well, as in previous years. S/he uses a psuedonym because of Latin America's record of political repression, as well as, the U.S. government's harassment of individuals and groups opposing U.S. policy in the region.

Drug War Heats Up in A2
by David Nestle

ANN ARBOR--Calling it an embarrassment to the city, Mayor Jerry Jernigan, last month revealed plans to revise the city's $5 pot law. The proposed revision of the current law would  change possession of the small amounts of marijuana to a civil, rather than criminal infraction, but would raise the fine to $25 for the first offense, $50 for a second and $100 for a third (the same state fine structure as for possession of alcohol by a minor.) City Council Republicans expect to have the revision on the ballot for the April 1990 city elections.
In spite of attendance on the U-M diag by 2,000-5,000 people at the past two Ann Arbor Hash Bashes, The Ann Arbor News has ignored any voice for liberalized marijuana laws in their aggressive anti-pot campaign in recent months. However, The News ran several anti-pot articles with headlines such as "Marijuana: Getting Tough" and "Backlash builds against liberal pot laws."
The local chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which sponsored the Hash Bash in 1988 and 1989, is an educational and political group fighting marijuana prohibition and the criminialization of 26 million pot-smoking, but otherwise law-abiding citizens.
U-M, for its part, has been attempting to block NORML from organizing Hash Bashes. For instance, Henry Johnson, U-M Vice President for Student Services, vowed that NORML will not be given permission to use the diag for the 1990 Hash Bash. Johnson and other U-M officials blame the Bash for two nights of drunken rioting after Michigan's victories in the NCAA basketball tournament on April 1 and 3 (The Ann Arbor News, 4/7/89). Attempting to deflect blame from the University and area bars (and the city's $14,000 bill for damages in the South University area) U-M President james Duderstadt blamed the $5 pot law, the Hash Bash and concurrent Grateful Dead Concerts for the damages. In response the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA), U-M's student government, passed an April 18 resolution deploring the administration's attempts to "scapegoat NORML for the events following the NCAA basketball games."
On September 5, after President Bush's most recent drug war plans were revealed, NORML organanized a nighttime picket at the Federal Building in Ann Arbor, in conjunction with similiar pickets around the nation.
Activities underway among forces for liberalized marijuana laws will include: Last Thursday of the month NORML meetings at Dominick's, 812 Monroe at 8 pm, and telecasts of previous Hash Bashes on Ann Arbor Cable Community Access TV. Clandestine marijuana promoters promise a "Joints for Jerry" compaign, targeting Mayor Jernigan for mailings of marijuana cigarettes.

Write NORML at P.O. Box 6014, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 or call 453-8840