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Manaus
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Manaus, hustling town. South American center of drug
trafficking.
The American DEA (Drugs Enforcement Agency) moved
in. The situation is out of control. |
Facts
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Facts:
60 to 70 killings last year. All death was minor gangsters
involved in or related to the cocaine business. Most
of the executions took place on the road leading to
the yacht harbor servicing a lot of motorboats in the
heart of the Amazon jungle. Recently the Federal Police
had closed the harbor when they discovered drugs on
board of some yachts.
Facts: the guerilla army FARC that
controls the southern part of Colombia wishes to establish
a trade union to favor the farmers who cultivate raw
materials necessary for the cocaine production. They
stimulate transport via Brazil. By air (more than two-hundred
illegal airstrips in the northern part of the Amazon)
and by secret bush roads. It is time consuming and as
a consequence more expensive than the regularly transports
of one or two ton cocaine by fastboat or submarine to
the St Andres Islands, the Lesser Antilles (Curacao
and Bonaire) and from there over Dominica, Puerto Rico,
Jamaica or Sint Marten into Florida. On the other hand
the Colombian drug cartels lost too many transports
due to intensified air and sea monitoring by the American
Coastguard and the Royal Dutch Navy. The blockade of
the Caribbean Sea by patrol boats, frigates, Orion aircraft’s
based at Curacao and helicopters seems to be effective.
Facts: the Peruvian Mafia exports drugs
over Iquitos and the Amazon River into Manaus.
Facts: riverboats to Belem, trucks and other motorized
vehicles and 40ft containers on board of sea going vessels,
carry the drugs to any destination in the world.
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Now
you know where the shit comes from. Welcome to the ecological
beating heart of the Amazonas. Feel free, feel confident
and be prepared of being brutalized robbed or stabbed
in downtown city. Or raped by the dozens Eco-tourist
travel agencies who charge for a five days and four
nights jungle tour for two persons between 800 and 1500
US dollar. Indeed, the Gods must have been crazy.
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 Oneandhalf million people living in the jungle. A few roads going in and out. An Amazonian replica of West Berlin before the Wall broke down. Whores near the floating docks that serve ocean going vessels any day of the year. They copied Paris' Les Halles markets. At the corners of the streets a true cocktail of rhythms. No Hyde Park, no
bushes, no isolated trees.
Hundreds of Brazilians at the Jesus Maria Plaza. River
boats, all sorts. Going to Iquitos, Puerto Velho and
Belem. Nice hammock accommodation.
Maaike and I book for next week sail. We take a hut
on a romantic Mississippi kind of river love boat. Isn't
it sweet to travel around and to make so many friends?
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