Colombian Plane Crash Update
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 12:01 PM

It seems as if some of the information in my earlier post (from yesterday
-- can't seem to get the permalink to work) about a coca crop fumigation plane
crashing in Colombia was incorrect, according to a story (registration required) in the New York Times.
(The Chicago Tribune today carries a similar update.) The crash was not
accidental; rather the plane "was apparently shot down." Also, the earlier
post claimed that the pilot was an American, but he actually was a citizen of Costa Rica.
Here are two almost chilling paragraphs (but not the most chilling) from the Times story:

A Colombian army commander said the anti-narcotics offensive in which Alvarado was participating will continue until all drug crops in the region have been fumigated.

Operation Holocaust, being waged by U.S.-trained Colombian Army soldiers in the mountain-studded jungles of Norte de Santander state, is aimed at destroying huge cocaine-producing plantations that finance leftist insurgents, said Gen. Eduardo Morales.

Operation Holocaust?

Labels: coca, drugs, Prohibition