Botched DEA Raid Exposes How Militarization Terrorizes Communities Around the World
BySandra Cuffe and Karen Spring
Botched DEA Raid Exposes How Militarization Terrorizes Communities Around the World
A deadly May raid brought the impact of the drug war on local communities in Honduras into the global spotlight.
July 6, 2012 |
A de facto military post in Ahuas. The blue pipante (boat) in the background is the boat that was carrying the passengers and shot at from helicopters during a May 11 DEA-assisted raid.
Photo Credit: Karen Spring
A boat riddled with bullet impact marks sits docked at a landing along the bank of the Patuca River. A few feet from the boat, a small building on stilts has become a de facto temporary military outpost. Armed forces patrol the small community of Paptalaya, in the municipality of Ahuas, the heart of the Honduran Moskitia
The boat is evidence from an anti-narcotics operation on May 11 involving the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Honduran police and private military contractors. Four indigenous Miskitu residents were killed in the operation. Despite a regional outcry from local indigenous communities and organizations, the region rich in natural resources continues to be heavily militarized. The May 11 raid brought the impacts of the drug war on local communities in Honduras into the global spotlight.
The presence of Honduran and US security forces has dramatically increased over the past several years and even more so since the June 2009 coup, particularly in communities along the Patuca River where recent DEA-led operations have occurred. The militarization of the region is being attributed to fighting drug smuggling, but local residents do not trust the authorities that justify the strong security presence in the name of the “war on drugs.”
“More than anything else, they’re militarizing because of the natural resources that are in the Moskitia, especially the strategic spots where there is oil,” says Norvin Goff Salinas, president of MASTA, an indigenous Miskitu federation.
More:
http://www.alternet.org/world/156198/botched_dea_raid_exposes_how_militarization_terrorizes_communities_around_the_world/
