The White Home has launched its annual checklist of worldwide drug struggle scofflaws, cartel faction violence continues in Sinaloa, and extra.
Coca Nasa merchandise. The corporate is suing Coca-Cola over trademark points. (Coca Nasa)
Drug Coverage
Biden Indicators Invoice to Examine Financing of Unlawful Artificial Medication. Final Friday, President Joe Biden (D) signed into regulation HR 1076, the “Stopping the Financing of Unlawful Artificial Medication Act,” which requires the Authorities Accountability Workplace to hold out a examine on illicit financing in reference to the trafficking of artificial medicine.
Launched by Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), the invoice sailed by means of each chambers of Congress, shifting by means of varied committees with nary a no vote and passing out of committees on unanimous consent motions.
The Congressional Analysis Service abstract of the invoice says it’s going to require the GAO to “perform a examine on illicit financing in reference to the trafficking of artificial medicine, together with fentanyl and methamphetamine, fentanyl- and methamphetamine-related substances, Captagon, and fentanyl and methamphetamine precursors, and to report back to Congress.”
Overseas Coverage
Biden Administration Designates Bolivia, Burma, Venezuela as Having Did not Comply with to US Drug Insurance policies. In its annual Memorandum on the Presidential Dedication on Main Drug Transit or Main Illicit Drug Producing International locations, the White Home listed 23 international locations as “main drug transit or main illicit drug producing international locations (together with international locations which are a major direct supply of precursor chemical substances used within the manufacturing of sure medicine and substances considerably affecting the USA),” however solely named three of them — Bolivia, Burma and Venezuela — as “having failed demonstrably through the earlier 12 months to each adhere to their obligations underneath worldwide counternarcotics agreements and to take the measures required by part 489(a)(1) of the Overseas Help Act.”
Notably, all three international locations are political foes of the USA; Bolivia and Venezuela due to their leftist governments and Burma due to its brutal navy dictatorship. Whereas all three international locations are concerned within the illicit drug commerce, their roles pale compared to international locations that weren’t cited as “having failed demonstrably” to advance US drug coverage targets, akin to Colombia and Mexico.
The international locations named as main drug transit or illicit drug producing international locations are Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, the Individuals’s Republic of China (PRC), Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Though the administration names Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela as drug struggle scofflaws, it isn’t barring any international help to these international locations as a result of “I’ve additionally decided, in accordance with provisions of part 706(3)(A) of the FRAA, that United States applications that help Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela are very important to the nationwide pursuits of the USA,” Biden wrote within the memo.
Worldwide
Colombian Coca Firm Challenges Coca-Cola’s Trademark. Coca Nasa, a quarter-century previous firm making coca-based vitality drinks, beers, and liquors is suing Coca-Cola to have its century-old trademark on the phrase “coca” eliminated. Coca Nasa says the hassle is the results of repeated bullying by Coca-Cola over use of the time period in Coca Nasa’s merchandise.
Coca Nasa says it’s appearing “in protection of the coca leaf” and that extending trademark defending to Coca-Cola “the elemental rights of Indigenous peoples.” The mechanism has been used “abusively” by Coca- and must be rescinded.
Motivating the motion, Coca Nasa says, is what it calls a historical past of Coca-Cola bullying smaller companies into capitulating to its calls for.
“That is as if David and Goliath have been battling over colonialism,” stated David Curtidor, cofounder of Coca Nasa. “These enterprise giants arrive considering they’re entitled to our cultural heritage and that they’ll then demand that we cease utilizing it. What we’re saying is: ‘We have had sufficient.'”
Coca-Cola responded with the next temporary assertion: “The Coca-Cola Firm respects all communities and their traditions in addition to the legal guidelines and rules of every nation the place it operates.”
Curtido stated he and his enterprise accomplice based the corporate “present the opposite face of coca and assist it shed its soiled picture.” The 1961 Single Conference on Narcotic Medication considers the plant a drug and requires the “uprooting of all coca bushes which develop wild” and bans the distribution of merchandise with even hint quantities of the plant. However Coca-Cola operates by means of a loophole that permits leaves to be offered internationally if the cocaine alkaloid is distilled to make a “flavoring agent.”
“And that is all extremely ironic and hypocritical, as a result of we have had our merchandise banned and our cultural heritage destroyed whereas Coca-Cola has been allowed to proceed promoting with out points,” Curtidor stated.
So as to add insult to harm, Coca-Cola filed trademark infringement lawsuits towards Coca Nasa in 2007 over its Coca Sek vitality drink and once more with the current launch of Coca Pola, “pola” being a Colombian slang time period for beer. Coke demanded that Coca Nasa “stop and desist completely from utilizing the identify Coca Pola or any related time period that could possibly be confused with the industrial manufacturers” it owned. Although Coca Pola rhymes with Coca-Cola, Curtidor insisted that it was simply “the plain option to identify a beer made with coca.” Coke stated Coca Nasa had ten days to behave.
“That is after we went, ‘Truly, no. You’re the one who has ten days to clarify who gave you permission to make use of the coca plant and who gave you permission to make use of the identify of a key component of our tradition in your merchandise,'” Curtido stated. “We despatched them a letter to that impact and, effectively, they by no means responded.”
So, now Coca Nasa has requested Colombia’s trademark company to intervene. Keep tuned.
Mexico’s Sinaloa Sees Extra Deaths in Cartel Faction Fights. At the least 15 individuals have been killed in combating between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel prior to now week, together with civilians. And that was earlier than final Saturday when a number of extra individuals have been killed within the state.
The state public safety division stated Saturday that three civilians have been killed in clashes between the military and “armed civilians” and that a further “two homicides” have been reported that day. A day earlier, 5 individuals have been killed within the city of Concordia, which has been the scene of “violent occasions” between cartel factions.
The state and federal governments have despatched safety reinforcements to the capital metropolis of Culiacan in an effort to quell the violence.
The clashes are fallout from the late July kidnapping of Sinaloa Cartel faction chief Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and his supply to US authorities by one of many sons of imprisoned cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman’s sons lead a rival faction, “los Chapitos.”
America final Thursday issued a safety alert due to “experiences of automobile thefts, gunfire, safety forces operations, roadblocks, burning automobiles, and closed roadways” within the neighborhood of Culiacan.
