Colette Cosner, Witness for Peace Northwest Regional Organizer, speaks to the Merida Initiative, free trade and immigration to the U.S.

President Barack Obama initially followed in his predecessors' footsteps by expanding military aid to Latin America for the so-called "Drug War", but now appears to be headed down a wiser path.

The war on drugs in Guerrero, like much of the rest of Mexico, is a head-on collision of poverty and militarization, and the victims of the military presence are almost always the poor.

In March 2006, Martha Giraldo returned to her father’s farm outside of Cali, Colombia, to find the property surrounded by soldiers and her father dead. Giraldo speaks about the impunity enjoyed by the government actors carrying out extrajudicial killings of Colombian civilians.

Rafael Coicue from the Association of Indigenous Councils speaks about Plan Colombia and the Colombia Free Trade Agreement on a WFP-sponsored speaker tour.

WFP Andean Regional Director, Jess Hunter-Bowman, calls on Congress to end the costly, ineffective and unethical aerial fumigation program in Colombia.

President Barack Obama discussed a free-trade agreement with his Colombian counterpart Monday, while scores of protesters clogged streets near the White House to demonstrate against the pact.

Will military aid to Mexico end the drug war? The war on drugs in Mexico is a "war" that abuses the civilian population, dramatically increases violence, and arguably has very little effect on the flow of illegal drugs to the largest market in the world, the U.S. Military aid is the wrong approach to Mexico's problems in the face of the international financial crisis which has resulted in the reduction of remittances and threatens to push impoverished Mexicans into complete economic desperation. A healthy economy in Mexico and a reduced demand for drugs in the U.S. would drastically weaken the appeal of drug cartels and organized crime.

In the wake of President Obama's visit to Mexico, WFP Andean Regional Director provides a hard-hitting analysis of the failed U.S. drug war in this op-ed.

El Espectador, a Colombian newspaper, reports on the protest in Washington calling for a shift from military aid for Colombia to humanitarian assistance for the displaced and a continued hold on the U.S.-Colombia FTA.

Colombia's largest daily, El Tiempo, reports on the U.S. activities for the National Day of Action for Peace in Colombia.

An opinion piece by Andean Regional Director Jess Hunter-Bowman indicates that chemical spraying in the Amazon is a failed drug policy with terrible consequences for Colombian farmers.

An opinion piece by Andean Regional Director Jess Hunter-Bowman suggests military aid to Colombia should be halted due to a reported increase in killings by the Colombian military.

Political cartoon by Diego Benitez, WFP Colombia Team

by Janna Bowman Common Dreams News Center, July 6, 2005