Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges...
Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges
Colombia preparing tropical paradise for tourism after 500...
Hacktivists leak 178,000 documents from Colombia’s military
Colombia’s sentenced for exterminating political party
Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy
OAS urges Colombia to release people arrested over...
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal hears notorious former warlord
Colombia’s GDP and GNI
Panama arrests US citizen suspected in Colombia of...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
News

Brazil and Colombia pledge to fight drug trafficking

by Reuters February 1, 2017

Defense ministers from Brazil and Colombia agreed to step up their fight against drug traffickers at a meeting on Tuesday in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where feuding drug gangs set off a recent string of deadly prison riots.

The countries promised to share intelligence and transportation along a porous 1,000-mile (1,600 km) border cutting through the Amazon rainforest, where they have struggled to slow the flow of drugs in recent years.

Demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as part of a deal ending more than 50 years of war has raised concerns that heavily armed former combatants could join with increasingly powerful drug gangs in Brazil.

“We cannot let peace in Colombia be cause for concern in the region,” said Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas. “We must stop the so-called dissident FARC forces from advancing toward our borders … All of our military and policing muscle will be brought against the dissidents.”

The splintering of FARC forces coincides with a bloody realignment among the drug gangs running the roughly $4.5 billion cocaine trade in Brazil, the world’s biggest consumer after the United States, and funneling drugs to Europe.


How drug trafficking in Colombia works

For years, Brazil’s two most powerful gangs, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, based in Rio de Janeiro, divided the national drug market and shared the most lucrative trafficking routes.

However, a wave of prison massacres starting in Manaus this month signaled a violent break between the PCC and gangs allied with the rival Red Command, leaving about 140 dead and underscoring the chaos in Brazil’s penitentiary system.

Brazilian Defense Minister Raul Jungmann stepped up visits to the country’s remote border regions, pledging to double the budget for a high-tech surveillance program supporting some 1,500 soldiers in the 24 garrisons along the Amazon border.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota and Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo; Editing by David Gregorio)

border issuesBrazildrug traffickingforeign relationsluis carlos villegas

Trending

  • Panama arrests US citizen suspected in Colombia of murdering fiancé

  • Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy

  • Colombia’s war crimes tribunal hears notorious former warlord

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • Colombia seeking mastermind behind Paraguay prosecutor kill plot

  • Colombia condemns far-right attacks on Brazil’s democratic institutions

  • Colombia and Venezuela reopen land border

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion