Global Ganja Report

The US Central Intelligence Agency and other international agencies "don't fight drug traffickers," a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico was quoted by Al Jazeera TV, saying that instead "they try to manage the drug trade." Charges from activists and academics about official complicity in the drug traffic are nothing new—but this was the first time a sitting official from a Mexican state government made such accusations. "It's like pest control companies, they only control," spokesman Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva reportedly told Al Jazeera last month at his office in Ciudad Juárez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."

A spokesman for the CIA in Washington wouldn't comment on the accusations directly, but referred Al Jazeera to an official website. More senior officials in Chihuahua state rejected the comments—including the mayor of Juárez, who dismissed the claims as "baloney." Said Mayor Hector Murguia: "I think the CIA and DEA are on the same side as us in fighting drug gangs. We have excellent collaboration with the US." (AlJazeera, July 24)

Terrazas, speaking to local media, later denied the comment, saying the Al Jazeera report was "calumnious." (Juarez News, July 27)

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