In fight against drugs, Cuba and U.S. on same team
In fight against drugs, Cuba and U.S. on same team
By Joshua Partlow and Nick Miroff January 5
MEXICO CITY — The river of illegal drugs rushing north through Central America and the Caribbean tends to avoid one conspicuous hook-shaped obstacle.
Cuba is surrounded by countries used as cartel way stations. But it has distinguished itself as a tough place to traffic drugs — and as an unlikely behind-the-scenes partner with its decades-long rival, the United States.
While the U.S. and Cuban governments have squared off over politics and the American economic embargo for generations, they have also quietly cooperated on drug-enforcement issues, passing information on movements of suspected drug boats through the Caribbean. As relations may be warming between the United States and Cuba, and as Latin American drug flows to the United States are shifting away from Mexico and toward the Caribbean, the narcotics issue could be a source of further cooperation between the two countries.
The drug trade is “starting to move back into the Caribbean, and I think that is a call to arms. We need to work with the Cubans in a far greater capacity,” said Mike Vigil, a former director of international operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who also served as a special agent in charge of the Caribbean. “It’s insanity not to do so.”
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-fight-against-drugs-cuba-and-us-on-same-team/2015/01/05/6416305a-90fc-11e4-a66f-0ca5037a597d_story.html
