
Brazil: one prove more of the relation between the old State and drug trafficking in Latin America
Featured image: town of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas region. Source: A Nova Democracia.
On 21st of June, A Nova Democracia (AND) reported on a soldier of the Brazilian old State’s Army along with two former military and two women, were detained as they had around 340 kilograms of marijuana, ‘skunk’ variety, one way to define a variety of more quality. The detention was carried out at the town of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas region, bordering with Colombia and Venezuela. The seized drugs had a value of R$7 millions, which is equivalent to US $1.3 million. The network worked in several States and functioned under the usual procedures in these cases: they airports were used to send the drugs, and they used young women as ‘mulas’ (people who transport drugs).
AND highlights how the bordering cities such as São Gabriel da Cachoeira are suffering an increasing militarization which is justified under the pretext of ‘combating the drug trafficking’. This shows two key issues: how false are the pretexts used by the old State to increase militarization; the inherent corruption which exists at the institutions of the ruling classes; the role played by the armed forces in these corruption cases and as a fundamental pillar of the anti-popular repression carried out by the old States.
The fake pretexts used by the old State to increase militarization, the corporativization of the masses and the increasing repression against the people, can be increasingly seen in Latin America. The case of El Salvador is well-known, which is immersed in a repressive wave since a long time ago with the excuse of combating maras and crime. The same can be seen in Ecuador, were the Front for the Defense of the Struggles of the People of Ecuador has been actively denouncing a ‘false war’ against crime, which actually is a war against the people and an increasing fascistization. All of this following the directives by Yankee imperialist masters, who mark the path of this war against the people, covert as ‘war against crime’ or ‘war against drugs’.
The repressive forces in Latin America have served to suffocate the popular movements and to set regimes of repressive terror, in collusion with criminals, using drug trafficking to get profit from it, as a weapon against the people and as an excuse to increase repression and militarization. Peru has been a very outstanding case on it. While bourgeois politicians and media pointed with accusations of drug trafficking the revolutionaries and guerrillas in Peru, actually the biggest drug traffickers collaborated with the old Peruvian State or even were part of it. But this is not something from the past, from 80’s and 90’s, but the links between drug trafficking have continued until nowadays: politicians, judges and regional governors have been investigated due to their ties with drug trafficking networks and also former military, as well as happened recently in the old Brazilian State.
These cases of involvement by the old State with drug trafficking are not isolated cases, nor in Brazil neither in any part of Latin America, and are alerts which point out which is one of the paths of the ruling classes towards the increasing struggles of the peasants, workers and the people. Before them, the ruling classes with the invaluable help of Yankee imperialism, are ready to point the combative people and state: you are criminals, you are drug traffickers. But actually this is not anything else than a hoax to justify the war against the people.