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Rodrigo Abd / AP
Clara Wood Rivas, 59, whose son Antonie Brooks Symore, 14, was killed during a drug raid that appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in a remote jungle area of Honduras, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others.
The Associated Press reports — AHUAS, Honduras — A fearsome rattle of gunfire from the sky. The roar of helicopters descending on a tiny, Honduran town. And the sound of commandos speaking in English as they battered down doors and detained locals in the hunt for a drug trafficker.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
An aerial view of the Mosquitia region near the remote community of Ahuas, Honduras, on May 21, 2012.
Villagers say the drug bust that left four passengers of a riverboat dead after helicopters mistakenly fired on civilians continued into the predawn hours when commandos, including Americans, raided their town.
Mexico's drug war: No sign of 'light at the end of the tunnel'
Heavily armed Honduran police in at least two helicopters landed and took off numerous times while agents searched homes and detained several people in the village on the banks of a river deep in Honduras' Mosquitia region, named for the Miskito Indians. In the end, enraged residents torched the home of the town's suspected drug trafficker in retaliation for the fatalities on the river.
Central American migrants protest targeting by Mexico gangs
The May 11 shooting and subsequent raid raises questions about what role, if any, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents who were on the helicopters played in the events described by villagers. The DEA has repeatedly said its agents on the mission, which included two U.S. helicopters, acted only in an advisory role to their Honduran National Police counterparts and did not use their weapons. Read the full story.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Clara Wood Rivas, right, accompanied by her daughter July, 18, mourns in front of the tomb of her son in Ahuas on May 22, 2012.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Honduran soldiers patrol in Ahuas on May 22, 2012. Following the raid on May 11 Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small town for a suspected drug trafficker, according to villagers.
The burnt house of an alleged drug dealer know as 'El Renco', one of four homes burned after the raid. "The family and friends of the victims burned the homes because of the narcos," villager Hilaria Zavala said. "This whole mess was their fault ... because of them, we all had to pay."
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Wilmer Lucas Walter, 14, rests while recovering in a public hospital from the wounds caused during the attack. On May 11, Wilmer and more than a dozen others dove from a riverboat into the water for cover from Honduran police, who say they were hitting drug traffickers who fired first. Four died.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A dog bites meat drying outside a house in Ahuas on May 22, 2012. Ahuas Mayor Lucio Baquedano, who said all the shooting victims were innocents, said that there is a drug trafficking cell in his town and that the number of clandestine landing strips is not only increasing, but getting closer to populated areas and putting more uninvolved people at risk.
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I'll have to check the stats but doesnt murder happen once a minute here in the US..
It is once an hour. We average a little over 23 murders per day.
The DEA is out of control, and has no business in foreign countries and no business here at home, either. Read the constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The War on Drugs is criminal, and these fighters are needed for the war on the Islamics who hate us and aim to destroy western freedoms and values — a righteous war (to use a terrorist term).
No, John, people like you are out of control, and the DEA has every right to friggin butcher anyone that is threatening the lives of our children in this nation. THAT is something that is totally lost on people who cannot see the inherant dangers of asymetrical, low-intensity conflict involving weapons other than AK-47's. These people that were targeted KNEW that a drug trafficer lived in their midst and did nothing. As far as I'm concerned, they are just as guilty as the scum-bags in Mexico that have killed 50,000 of their and several hundred American citizens across the border. The real danger to the future of the USA does NOT come from Islamic terrorists or 3rd world despots that we can annhihilate in about 2 minutes if they piss us off enough; it comes from a rapidly deteriorating infrastructure South of the Border than can not only butcher their own with impunity but probably smuggle in WMD's to eventually take-out entire American cities. The war is NOW my friend - and it's happening in your own back-yard.
Without the DEA and the drug war wasting many billions a year supporting the prison industrial complex at taxpayers expense we wouldn't have this world-wide problem (which is essentially US-funded narco-terroism). We lock up more of our children than any other country including Iran and China. That's either because our (for-profit) police state is out of control or because Americas are the most evil people on the planet.
The courts and cops and task forces who waste endless hours and loads and loads of money (to the tune of many of billions a year...) doing practically nothing to make it unavailable ...you have to ask yourself...who stands to gain from prohibition and who stands to lose...? A policy that ruins lives destroys families and neighborhoods and kills more people than leaglized drugs ever could (prohibition made al capone and organized crime and they have been thriving on it ever since...want to save south american economies and end the drug cartels? legalize drugs. Why are blacks arrested at 10 times the rate of whites even though addiction statistics between both groups are the same? Why do imprison more of our children in this country than any other including china and iran? And then enslave them in privately run for profit prisons? Why does most of the USA including pat robertson think it should be legal while the entities and posturing politicians that PROFIT from the illegality and misery continue to financially/politically support each other rather than citizens? Well I guess it's not new news that our govt is corrupt. Worse are the fools who behave just like germans in the 30s who didnt question their own govt. and support the rascist nazi-esque persection for profit of a minority group (drug users)....yes I'm saying if you are against legalization of drugs you are a de-facto nazi, an ignorant collaborator.
If American druggies would stand up for their country in this war, we could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars. But they are so damn weak, they MUST get high at ANY cost.
And you say that sipping your beer! And smoking a cigarette, really weak!
Tumbleweed,
When you're standing up for your country, pot smokers are less susceptible to PTSD. Bring the kids home from Afghanistan, I feel bad for them. No booze, no pot, no short time. What the hell kind of a war is that anyway?
Viva la War on Drugs, PEDEJÍSIMOS!
Oh no! Poor little gringuitos have to be protected from themselves and their cocaine habit!
And the moronic Honduran government supports this BULS#¡T!!!
Well Raul, there are about 110 million armed gringos just waiting for the word to put a stop to this BS SOUTH OF THE BORDER, includijg ANYONE that doesn't get out of the way. Happened before - and it can very easily happen again. If I were you I'd quit putting coke in my frijoles!
The U.S is reaping the bittter harvest of decades of undermining democratic governments in Central AMerica out of a mis[placed fear of Commmunism. One of the more significant examples of this errroneous behavior took place in GUatemala where the U.S. destabilized and eventuallly helped overthrow the democraticallly elected President Arbenz installling a despotic government in his place. For more recent examples of U.S. misbehavior look to the late ROnald Reagan and his trusty sidekick Oliver North who totallly ignored the U.S. COnstitutio0n to pursude their own misguided policy.
JP, you sound like one sick SOB. Guess you believe you are emperor of the world, and want to stands anyone who stands in the way of your world vision. If only you had received an educations, we wouldn't have to listen to your macho man crap. Guess you'll be on the front lines, gunning down anyone who gets in your way. Viva the nut jobs!
Maybe a few enraged villagers in the U.S. should take back their neighborhoods. A nice reliable .22 bolt action rifle ( catch the empties) to the head might help matters. Suppressors optional-legal in 40 states with a Federal Tax Stamp or a subsonic round. You are welcome.
Collateral damage. These locals know who the traffickers are and who supports them. Unfortunately, the drug money is usually all the income a whole village will have. Go after the big guys -- India and China export more illegal drugs through Mexico every year then the whole of South America.
Of cource our military "acted" as only advisors. And my bicycle doesn't have tires, but it rolls fast. WTF people? When is our government going to just stop meddling and start taking care of ours instead of theirs? Just sentence all who traffic in drugs to death here, case resolved. No more drug trafficing!! :-))
Why don't they go into Mexico where they chop off people's heads, hands and feet and allow this crap to leak over our borders? Legalize pot, make speed a prescription and bomb the Mexican cartels and there will be no more killings, no more drug running over the border and the US will get out of debt as there will be mucho taxes paid for the legalized drugs. The DEA and US government has spent billions on this so called "War on Drugs" and it has done absolutely nothing to curb what the people want. It didn't work with alcohol and it is obviously not working with pot. Get a F-ING CLUE ALREADY!!!
They don't want to curb anything, the drug war is paying for the police state. next they'll be wanting the taxpayer to fund a giant wall between texas and the USA or something...oh really? Already? Well, you see where this is going...
I must admit if I was making my way thru an alley and crossed pathes with scrappy lookin coca gal like that there , my trigger finger might comence ta twitchin real bad. That little doggie best leave her shorts alone on that there clothes line iffen he knows best.
This war on drugs is nothing more than welfare for all those DEA, corporate prisons, and para-military suppliers who participate. Spend that money to correct the social issues that create the problem.
Sounds like the readvent if The College of the Americas. They didn't terrorize enough civilians years ago they need to go at it again. This facist controlled U. S. is going to unravel. Support for causes is getting pretty thin. What is the congressional aproval rating this month? I'll bet it is really in single digits.
i love this banter, because at least i know there are some people who are aware that the war on drugs is laughable, government agents, politicians and their agencies, such as the DEA make so mouch money from drugs that they must keep this lie going for them to enrich themselves. as frank markropolis states, "don't turst the government!" most people know that governments are inunadated w/ criminals profiting from the drug trade. i really would like to know who in the hell are the fooling, who believes anything the government or a politician says? and i do mean anything!!
I am AMAZED at the number of Patriotic Americans on this blog who do not understand that the War on Drugs, is a War on Their Personal Freedoms.
One of you wizards please show me where in the US Constitution it says that the government has any right to to regulate any drug.
Nixon started the War on Drugs so he could keep an eye on Americans, and control even the prison terms of people who got busted in his non-existent war. Nixon's war was a war on personal freedoms that is continued to this day by a government that wants to be in our bedrooms, our cars, our yards, our workplaces, everywhere. Now the newest incarnation is the War on Terror; roll eyes, that was added to the war on drugs. There is no war on terror, unless you consider the war on terror is a war brought to you by the American government, and it against you.
The naivety of some people never ceases to amaze me!
AAHH, a member of the C-4 being overran by the DEA killing innocent people like they tend to do often in Latin America over the last 40 years or so. I detest our government's fascist policies in this matter, like turning a blind eye to the coup that threw the previous leader Zelaya out, when Honduras was not as dangerous. You know I am so glad we also have countries in Central America where the US military is not welcome, like Nicaragua. Yet they seem NOT to have this huge problem they have just over the border, and their country is A LOT SAFER (2nd behind Canada in this hemisphere - a fact). Say what you want about Ortega (not the biggest fan myself), but the Country is safer, and you actually have a constitutional guarantee there regarding freedom of movement. Oh, the economy is growing (exports up 30% in 2011) too. Imagine a place where you negotiate a minimum wage twice a year, which is required by law. Imagine Americans having that right. Not saying Nicaragua is perfect, just saying it is a lot better than Honduras. Remember also, the US already screwed Nicaragua over so many times, so it is very unlikely that they will be welcome back anytime soon. Honduras undoubtedly will learn this lesson soon.
wow this issue really draws some wild rants (on both sides)