The Unwinnable War: Costa Rica’s Drug Trafficking Conundrum

 Piper PA-28 Cherokee Arrow,  TG-CEB, Tobias Bolaños Airport, October 10, 2010

Una avioneta con matrícula TG-CEB, en la que transportaban 176 kilos de cocaína, se accidentó ayer en un río en San José, Costa Rica. Uno de los dos guatemaltecos que resultaron heridos murió este lunes.

On October 10, 2010, a Piper airplane crashed in a riverbank soon after taking-off from Tobian Bolaños airport, located just outside Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose. While the death of one of the two passengers on board was notable, the big news was the cause of the crash: the plane’s wings were too heavy due to excess weight.

The crash was nothing more than a footnote elsewhere in the never-ending war on drugs. In Costa Rica, though, it made major headlines. The commandeering of the plane — and its contents of illegal substances — personified the much bigger transition in the nature of Costa Rica’s role in the American continent’s drug trafficking market:

Costa Rica is no longer simply a bridge to transport illegal drugs; it is now also an operating zone.

Story:  http://panampost.com

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