Paraguay River
Paraguay (09/04)
Terrain: East of the Paraguay River--grassy plains, wooded hills, tropical forests; west of the Paraguay River (Chaco region)--low, flat, marshy plain. ... The United States and Paraguay have an extensive relationship at the government, business, and personal level. Paraguay is a partner in hemispheric initiatives to improve counternarcotics cooperation, combat money laundering, trafficking in persons, and other illicit cross-border activities, and adequately protect intellectual property rights. The United States looks to Paraguay, which has substantial rainforest and riverine resources, to engage in hemispheric efforts to ensure sustainable development. As a member of MERCOSUR, Paraguay supports the move toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas. The United States and Paraguay also cooperate in a variety of international organizations. ... [Read More]
US Department Of State Post Report
Popular fishing areas are Guraty, a 20-25-minute drive from Asuncion, where boats can be rented; Santa Rosa, 85 kilometers downriver by boat; and Ayolas (300 kilometers south), which has a modern hotel and boat rentals. Villa Florida, a small town on the Tebicuary, a tributary of the Paraguay River, has hotel or camping facilities and boat rentals. Swift currents and an abundance of small piranhas make swimming unsafe in these rivers. Fishing equipment brought to post should include a heavy-duty rod, combination of trolling and bait-casting reel capable of holding 200 yards of 40-pound test line, large spoons, and plugs and wire leaders, as both surubi (catfish) and dorado sometimes exceed 30-40 pounds. Motors are not usually available for rental and are expensive locally. Outboard motors are not covered under household effects (HHE) allowances; they must be shipped at your expense. Small boats (3-8-passenger motor launches) may be purchased locally. Garages service them. Dock-and-stor ... [Read More]
(G) Latin America Overview
In April, government authorities captured Shining Path (SL) commander Jose Arcela Chiroque (a.k.a. Ormeno) and as of late November 2000 continued large-scale efforts to apprehend SL leaders Macario Ala (a.k.a. Artemio) and "Comrade Alipio." Government operations targeted pockets of terrorist activity in the Upper Huallaga River Valley and the Apurimac/Ene River Valley, where SL columns continued to conduct periodic attacks. ... [Read More]
Troubled Waters - Managing a Vital Resource -- Global Issues Electronic Journal, March 1999 - USIA
Providing alternative livelihoods for people whose current activities threaten environmental conditions in the Bermejo basin is a major goal. Overlogging in the jungles is one environmentally damaging activity that the people of the region should reconsider to preserve both the forest and the river. Enrique Bello says, "The jungle is the most important area for the feeding of the river because of the rains; and if you lose this forest you lose one of the most important sources of the feeding of the river. To preserve this forest is a main issue." ... [Read More]
Writers on America - Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State
English, of course, articulated my American identity, the world I was born into. Spanish represented a kind of bridge, a way of crossing over into a new but knowable place. Years before a physical bridge existed, my wife and I took a ferry across the Parana River in southern Paraguay to Posadas, Argentina, where she bought me a paperback collection of the poetry of Borges, the first writer outside my own American culture whose work I tried to understand (I'm still trying). Guarani was different. It was local, rural, an impenetrable thicket. The language belonged to Paraguay, and it guarded its secrets. Only a few times -- listening to a Chaco War veteran describe his own personal horror in the desert; or drinking mate with a farmer while it rained too hard to go to the fields; or sharing a glass of cane whiskey with a restless dreamer planning a horse race to make travel money ... [Read More]
South America
The Road Ahead. In 2005, the USG plans to expand its support into several new areas, including the development of a drug intelligence fusion and analysis center, the initiation of riverine interdiction operations on the Orinoco, and the construction of a centralized storage and incineration facility for the safeguarding and destruction of seized drugs. ... Trafficking organizations continue to use all available methods to move coca products out of Peru via air, river, land and maritime routes to Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and other transshipment points. Opium latex and morphine moved overland north into Ecuador and/or Colombia, where they are collected and converted to heroin for subsequent export to the U.S. and Europe. Maritime smuggling of larger cocaine shipments has become the primary method of transporting multi-ton loads of cocaine base and cocaine hydrochloride (HCl). ... [Read More]
E) South America
The Orinoco River system, comparable in size to the Mississippi, flows from several rivers in Colombia into and across Venezuela, to empty through a delta into the convergence of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Narcotraffickers use of the Orinoco was illustrated in the spectacular August 2000 seizure of 8.8 metric tons of cocaine stockpiled at Ciudad Bolivar and other locations along the river. ... Colombian Navy (COLNAV) and Marine (COLMAR) forces achieved significant results in 2001. JTFS intelligence officials estimate that some 60 percent to 70 percent of drug material moves through southern Colombia by way of the rivers, and all 20 of the cocaine HCl labs destroyed by JTFS were located on or near a river. Operation Tsunami and others in the southwest region verified the presence of significant coca production in the region and provided a government presence that citizens had not witnessed for some time. Other operations (some in cooperation with other agencies under the 1997 Maritime Agreement) led to the capture of over 37 tons of cocaine. The COLNAV continues to contribute to the seizures of more than 50 percent of all illegal narcotics shipments. Additional riverine units and more Colombian Army and COLMAR joint operations would increase JTFS effectiveness in combating drug trafficking in the south. ... [Read More]
E) South America
The Riverine Program was designed to enable Peruvian police and Navy personnel to deny drug traffickers free access to the rivers and tributaries in the cocaine transshipment areas in Peru. Despite extensive USG investment in the Riverine Program, the GOP has shown little tangible, measurable results so far due primarily to a lack of coordinated effort and institutional rivalries between the Peruvian Navy, counternarcotics police and supporting regulations necessary for operations. This will be a major policy challenge in 2003. ... [Read More]
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