Articles by Ron Chepesiuk

Since President Ronald Reagan launched the modern War on Drugs 20 years ago, the US has spent billions in a largely unsuccessful attempt to put some of the world’s biggest criminal organizations out of business, while imprisoning thousands on drug-related offenses. Yet, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other illegal drugs still enter the US freely.

Can anything be done to change the course of this war? Yes, there are alternatives that can ameliorate the effects of illegal drugs Ñ if the country chooses realistic objectives and seeks to achieve them by practical means. Let’s consider 10 strategies. read more

Since Sept. 11, deep concerns have arisen about the threats to civil liberties and basic rights posed by the US government’s anti-terrorist campaign. Among other things, Uncle Sam has profiled the Muslim-American community, eavesdropped on conversations between people held in detention and their lawyers, and required colleges to provide certain records on foreign students.

Less publicized has been the federal government’s bold move to drastically restrict the right to know what officials are doing. But this is also part of a trend involving several other Western countries, not coincidentally some of US’s closet allies in the “war on terrorism.” read more

In Colombia’s northeast Norte de Santander province, the country’s richest oil region, an indigenous people known as the U’wa are in a life and death struggle with Occidental Petroleum (OXY), one of the world’s largest multinational oil companies. It’s been going on since the early 1990s, when OXY began oil exploration plans that threaten to destroy the tribe’s culture and way of life. The U’wa oppose oil drilling in their ancestral lands, saying that oil is “the blood of Mother Earth” and therefore must not be touched. read more

When the US officially handed over the Panama Canal to the Republic of Panama last December, the historic transfer was praised as the beginning a new bilateral relationship between the two countries. But in at least one important area – the environment – nothing has changed. The US no longer controls the canal, but its imperial legacy is evident in Panama in the unexploded shells, grenades, and other munitions left by the military after decades of training and arms testing. More than 110,000 pieces of undetected ordinance may be laying on the ground, or buried under the jungle canapŽ covering 7000 hectares of land, according to figures released by the US. read more

For Panama, the end of the millennium should be a time of celebration. After all, when Old Glory slides down the Panama Canal Commission flagpole for the last time at noon on December 31, the US will complete the most significant territorial concession in its history – the surrender of 430,000 acres of prime real estate straddling the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Finally gone will be 11,000 US armed forces personnel based at the headquarters of the US Southern Command. This will make it the first time since the 1800s that the US doesn’t have a military presence on the Panamanian isthmus. read more