They’ve been linked to drug traffickers. They’ve run a ‘death squad.’ Can Peru’s police be reformed?

They’ve been linked to drug traffickers. They’ve run a ‘death squad.’ Can Peru’s police be reformed?
LIMA, Peru — When news broke that a “death squad” within the Peruvian police had been murdering suspected criminals, there was outrage over the violation of human rights. But arguably even more damaging for a force widely viewed by the public as inept and corrupt — including collusion in cocaine trafficking — was the realization that some of its most spectacularly successful recent operations had been staged. In total, 27 alleged suspects died in “shootouts” between 2012 and 2015 as national police SWAT teams staged dramatic interceptions — in which no officers were…Read more …

Bolivia ended its drug war by kicking out the DEA and legalizing coca

Bolivia ended its drug war by kicking out the DEA and legalizing coca
Sitting barefoot on a log, a farmer surveys more than 200 pounds of coca leaves drying out in front of his ramshackle lean-to here in the rainforest of the Chapare region, the muggy heart of Bolivia's coca country. The leaves, he says, represent one of his three harvests per year, grown under Bolivia's policy of legal but regulated production of the crop. Each harvest will fetch about $200 at market, but half of that goes toward expenses, including pesticides and wages for locals who help pluck the ripe leaves quickly before they spoil.…Read more …