Issue # 7 Subscribe and Be Alerted to New Reports

WELCOME READER 800,000

"Tough-minded reporting on the failed war on drugs"

-- Dan Kennedy, the Boston Phoenix, December 28, 2000

A Narco News Global Alert

Dutch TV Footage:

Herbicide Sprayed On Water Supply in Colombia

On Saturday, December 30th, Holland's TV News Program "Nova" Showed Video of US-Funded Herbicide Spraying in the town of Ponte, Colombia.

The crop duster, however, was not spraying coca fields.

The video reveals repeated spraying over a forest stream that is the water supply for a village of Inago Indians, causing illness and skin blisters in young children and eliminating food and medicine plants.

The Colombian Government Denies the Spraying

The Video Tells the Truth

"Plan Colombia" Includes Biological Warfare, not to Eradicate Coca, but to Clear the Native People Out of the Region

"Even now, eradicating for five or six years in Colombia, and the coca crop continues to grow. No one outside of Washington believes in the war on drugs. I think that this war with the guerrillas is going to fail. I hate to see my country get into another failed war such as Vietnam or Central America."

-- Former US Ambassador Robert White, quoted by Nova

To see the footage that disproves the claims of Washington and Bogotá, click the Nova program and then click "Zaterdag" (Saturday) in the section titled "Afgelopen Week"

The program, in the Dutch language, is available on either Realplayer or Windows Media Player
The section on Colombia begins 13 minutes and 30 seconds into the half-hour program

The Narco News Bulletin

"The Name of Our Country is América"

-- Simón Bolívar

Publisher: Al Giordano narconews@hotmail.com

Newsroom Volunteers: narconewsdefense@excite.com

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December 31, 2000 811,725 Hits Since April 18, 2000

Tiro de Gracia del Día (12/31/00): Waste Deep in the Big Muddy and the Village Idiot Says Push On

Where's Monty?

Perú Government Takes to Internet in Search of Montesinos

Where's Al?

Internet Hunt for Narco News Publisher, Too?

(Memo to Akin Gump on barrycrimmins.com)

This is the Face of the US-Imposed Drug War in América

NARCO OF THE YEAR 2000

But there is also good news...

HERO OF THE YEAR 2000

Uruguay President Jorge Batlle

First Américan Chief of State to Say...

"LEGALIZE DRUGS"

(A Story Broken by Narco News)

Left Behind?

Mexico's "Amnesty" Won't Free Those Condemned on Federal Crimes

Mexican Political Prisoners Framed on Drug Charges Might Get Left Behind as State Governors in Chiapas and Oaxaca Proceed with Amnesty Plans

In Mexico, drug crimes are exclusively federal charges

President Vicente Fox holds their freedom in his hands

A Holiday Season Report and Editorial

And Thanks to Our Litigious Newsmakers...

"Drug War Goes on Trial"

From Today's Village Voice of New York:
It's a libel action with all the elements of a political thriller. Two left-wing publishers use the Internet to accuse a powerful Mexican banker of pushing cocaine from his Caribbean beachfront-and the banker hires Vernon Jordan's law firm to sue for libel in New York. Turning the tables, the defendants hire top First Amendment lawyers and prepare to put the drug war on trial in the media capital of the world...
"Everything I have printed I know to be true and I have documented with the facts," says Al Giordano, publisher of The Narco News Bulletin, a Web site that covers the drug war in Latin America (www.narconews.com). My friend Giordano, a former political reporter for the Boston Phoenix, has never been sued for libel before; indeed, he's usually the one making the accusations. This past October, an AP correspondent resigned after Narco News caught the reporter lobbying the Bolivian government on behalf of a private company.
The other defendant is Mario Renato Menéndez Rodriguez, editor and publisher of Por Esto!, a daily newspaper with a paid circulation of about 70,000 on the Yucatán peninsula. Menéndez says he has eyewitness testimony, documents, and photos to back up his allegations that Hernández has turned miles of once-pristine beachfront into an outpost for the drug trade. The publisher is outraged by what he calls the banker's attempt "to destroy me economically, politically, and professionally."
...Giordano sees the case as a golden opportunity to exercise his skills as a pro se defender, if he so chooses. "I'm looking forward to deposing Hernández," he says. "In the long run, this will be an educational process for the public that will reveal information about the atrocity of the drug war and how it's being waged by the U.S. government and its friends in Latin America."
Read The Entire VOICE Story by Cynthia Cotts

The day after the VOICE story, Akin Gump's McLish suddenly "not authorized to speak to the press" by client Banamex, according to Metroland newspaper report by Larry Goodwin:

Lawyers, Guns and Money

And...

The Ken Layne Cavalry Arrives

"Giordano is one of the few heroes in journalism these days. He gave up his newspaper job in the U.S., went to Mexico and taught himself Spanish. Then, he started publishing Narco News, one of the most damning news outlets I've ever seen..." - Media Critic Ken Layne

"Narco-Lobbyist" firm responds to Newsroom Volunteers Letter

Read Akin Gump Letter and Publisher's Response:

"Let the Readers decide who is telling the truth"

Coming in February 2001 to América's Biggest Apple

On to Mexico City!

Zapatista Command Will Advance on the Capital

Marcos Letter to Fox:

"You Start from Zero"

And also new this week:

The Fine Print

Two More Zapatista Communiqués that Set the Conditions and Paths of Dialogue with the Fox Government

The Mexican Transition: Immediate History

Part I: Mexico's Next Secretary of State says Legalize Drugs

II: Fox's 1st Challenge is to enact the Chiapas San Andrés Accords

III: Fox Names Drug Reformer Gertz as Nation's Top Cop

IV: Answer the Call to Mexico City, February 2001

V: Marcos to Zedillo: "You Lost the War"

VI: A Play in Two Acts by Marcos

VII. Marcos Welcomes Fox: "You Start from Zero"

VIII. The Fine Print: Two More EZLN Communiqués

See Our Previous Nine Part Series on the Narco in Chiapas

Free Translation and Analysis Service for Journalists and Citizens:

Narco News Press Briefings

Plan Colombia, the Bolivia Revolt, Perú Coverage and More...

November 1: Colombian Voters Reject "Plan Colombia"

October 11: Media Simulation: Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico

October 5: Bolivia's Secret Offer to Coca Growers

October 3-4: Generals Don't Want to Fight Bolivian People

October 1-2: Zero Hour in Bolivia

September 29-30: Bolivia, US, "Narco-tize" the Conflict

September 28: Bolivia, in Context of Perú and Colombia

September 22-27: Perú Analysis

September 21: The Closing of the Geopolitical Drug Observatory

September 19-20: Plan Colombia -- Rhetoric of Peace, Acts of War

September 8-18: Sloppy NYT Attack on Chávez of Venezuela

September 1-7: Brasilia Summit, Ecuador Airbase

August 30: Clinton and Viceroys to Colombia

August 24-29: Covert Ops and pre-Clinton Visit

Exiled Colombian Journalist Alfredo Molano's Narco News Interview Now in Spanish on vivecondrogas.com...

Nuevo: Entrevista con Alfredo Molano sobre Plan Colombia

The DSFX Files

Private Sector Espionage Firm Spied on Por Esto! and Narco News in New York City

Mexican Attorney General Used DSFX Spy Info to Seek Secret Arrest Warrant vs. Por Esto! Editor, Photographer and Reporters

Mexican Attorney General Used Info Provided by Narco-Spies In Failed Effort to Jail The Journos

¡Only in América!

What is The Narco News Bulletin?

Read our Welcome statement in English

¡bienvenidos en español!

¡informations en Français!

Links (to be updated, send submissions)

Narco News Issue #6: October 6 - November 30, 2000

Narco News Issue # 5: September 9 - October 5, 2000

Narco News Issue # 4: July 19 - September 8, 2000

Archivos de Narco News en Español Archives of Issues 1 to 3 in English

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Reporting the Immediate History of Our América