For the last century or so, the vast majority of governments has approached the fight against drug trafficking with force, whether police or military. However, after decades of relying on this method, a question arises: is it effective? The question may be simple, but the answer is complex. And if we take the recent events on the border between Paraguay and Brazil into account, the answer would seem to be “no.”
Last Sunday saw the seizure of a cargo just short of a ton of weed that was being snuck from Paraguay and was ultimately apprehended by agents of the Brazilian Federal Police and Military Police, according to La Política Online.
Hold on: if such an amount of drugs was seized successfully, how come we consider this militarized approach a failure? The thing is, the events took place just days after the deployment of Operation “Guaraní Shield” by Paraguayan law enforcement. The National Defense Council had announced the mobilization of 4,000 soldiers and 7,000 police officers to reinforce the fight against organized crime on the borders with Brazil and Argentina. And it’s worth noting that this deployment was specifically targeted at areas like Canindeyú and Alto Paraná, very close to Lake Itaipu, where the seizure occurred.
In other words: with 11,000 armed personnel in the area, they still failed to stop the illegal transport of 952.3 kilos (about 2,100 pounds) of weed.
Just two days before the incident, Enrique Riera (Paraguay’s Minister of the Interior) and Ricardo Lewandowski (Brazil’s Minister of Justice) had signed an agreement to coordinate both countries’ security forces. Under said agreement, they would share information and carry out joint operations in response to drug trafficking, in addition to the establishment of the Salto del Guairá/Canindeyú – Guairá/Paraná Joint Command.
As reported by La Nación Paraguay, the Paraguayan …
Read More
Author: Marian Venini / High Times
