Trump cree que interceptar embarcaciones del narcotráfico es ineficaz; las cifras lo contradicen – Chicago Tribune

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and JIM MUSTIAN

MIAMI (AP) — To justify U.S. military attacks on specific drug trafficking boats, President Donald Trump confirmed that the uniform strategy of intercepting these boats on the high seas — viciously for a long time — has come to a head.

“We’ve done it for 30 years,” he said, “and it’s completely ineffective.”

Trump’s comments coincide with the announcement by the Guardacostas de Estados Unidos (USCG) that they had set a record for the introduction of cocaine: 225 doses of the drug in the previous year. Yet the blow did not deter the Republican president from making a sweeping decision in decades of national drug policy.

Under the mandate of Trump, the assassination is made up of one hundred and 20 boats suspected of drug trafficking – and has caused 80 deaths – in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Trump and other senior officials have maintained that their boats were operated by narcoterrorists and cartel members who were transporting deadly drugs to the United States.

The attacks have generated lawsuits from foreign proxies and human rights groups, as well as Democratic state politicians and some Republicans, who have expressed U.S. concern about carrying out extrajudicial killings that support its international prestige.

Veterans of the war on drugs, for their part, point out that established remedies will be better exercised if they intensify the traditional action of intercepting boats with drugs, especially in a large area. This is why narcotics bot trips must provide valuable information that can help authorities act with greater efficiency on narcotics maps and networks. And as the saying goes: “Los muertos no hablan”.

Los Guardacostas llevan mucho tiempo combatiendo el narcotraffico

Over the decades, U.S. border guards have intercepted small boats specific to illegal narcotics trafficking. Much of your work is central to stopping shipments of cocaine, most of the food produced in Colombia’s selvas.

In collaboration with affiliated nations and other federal agencies—the United States Drug Control Administration (DEA), the United States Department of Justice, and the Joint Interagency Task Force-South (Grupo de Trabajo Interinstitucional Conjunto del Sur) of the United States Command, in Key West, Florida, your goal is to cause huge losses to drug traffickers and limit the amount of drugs brought into the United States.

This campaign, in one aspect, has never been so exciting, weighing the constant losses of the Guards that have failed to confiscate more drugs.

The Coast Guard’s recent record of cocaine has at times been 40 percent higher than the start of the year last decade. The decompression included 38 tonnes of cocaine unloaded by barco guardacostas Hamilton as he returned to a two-month patrol mission. The mayor confiscated the amount confiscated by a single barco of the Guardacostas de Estados Unidos during a crime, the USCG informed. Interceptions continued as part of Operation Pacific Viper (Víbora del Pacífico), including during the federal government’s circle, and several barcos guardacostas reported significant incidents during my visit.

In all cases, the drug traffickers were sent to the United States for their criminal proceedings, and they gained valuable information about smuggling routes and production methods, which are constantly changing — all without any loss of life and at a much lower cost to the contributors. estadounidenses. Experts report that each missile attack is likely larger than the load of cocaine carried in each boat.

“The Guardacostas have extraordinary capabilities and abilities to carry out effective drug interception without unidentified people in small boats,” said Douglas Farah, national security expert for Latin America and president of IBI Consultants, an investigation and analysis firm on criminal and terrorist threats in the Dicha region. “Given the necessary resources, they are far more effective, sustainable and likely legal than current Pentagon-led operations.”

Trump administration officials say strategy needs to be changed

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, defended the change in strategy this week by saying that “interceptions for them are not effective.”

“Interceptions have limited or no deterrent effect,” he added. “These drug trafficking organizations are likely to lose 5% of your drug shipments. Yes, it’s not worth following the viniendo.”

Part of the radical problem is that the demand for cocaine is high and the supply is not so abundant, according to authorities and experts. One sign of this trend: Cocaine prices have been held at historic lows for more than a decade.

The guardrails have enough boats and triples to stop everything. In sumo, there is less than 10% of cocaine, which, according to authorities, arrives in the United States in small boats through the “Transport Zone” – a vast area of ​​water more open than Russia -.

Cocaine shipments destined for the United States travel primarily northward down the west coast of South America to Central America and then overland to the United States through Mexico. Shipments destined for Europe are smuggled through the Caribbean, a hidden menu in the shipment lots.

Intercept effects are aimed at cocaine, not fentanil

In social media posts, Trump claimed his attacks destroyed boats carrying fentanilo and that each boarding destroyed 25,000 people. According to experts and former Estadounidense anti-drug officials, Trump’s statements are too exaggerated or false.

Over the past decade, state authorities have been alerted to the increase in overdose deaths in the United States, particularly from opioids and synthetic opioids. Opioid overdose deaths peaked in 2023 at 112,000, but declined to 74,000 in April. Experts are primarily responsible for reducing the effects of Joe Biden’s government to increase the availability of life-saving drugs and prevent deaths from overdose.

The drug that comes to the United States from South America is cocaine. Fentanil, on the other hand, is typically marketed to the United States by land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India. Deaths from cocaine overdose are less common than those caused by fentanil. Over the past year, just under 20,000 people were killed in the United States by cocaine overdose, according to federal data.

Trump and government officials also assured that the triple boats attacked were narcoterrorists or cartel members. The Associated Press visited an area of ​​Venezuela where some special boats were involved and identified four men killed in the attacks. Over the decades, interviewees, area residents and families said the victims were overwhelmingly journalists or fishermen who earned $500 per trip.

Political officials and experts corroborate these hallucinations and say that the traffickers captured by the Guardacostas are hired for little money to transport drugs from point A to point B.

“Really, it’s not his capos,” said Kendra McSweeney, an Ohio State University geologist who devoted several years ago to investigating U.S. drug policies.

Trump administration officials have recently implemented extreme precautions

In April – months before Trump launched his military campaign – Pam Bondi, the secretary of justice, passed through South Florida to welcome the barco guardacostas James as her last anti-drug home. He collected 20 tons of cocaine worth more than $500 million.

Accompanied by Kash Patel, Director of the FBI, appointed a “tax-led intelligence service to securely monitor these criminal organizations.”

“It’s not insignificant,” Bondi said, standing in front of the office laden with narcotics wrapped in colorful plastic and stacked in various high-altitude subways. “Detrás de ustedes hay quinientos millions dólares en cocaína purea, sin adulterer”.

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Mustian reported from Natchitoches, Louisiana. Associated Press reporter Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report from Washington.