On this edition of Century: Drugs and Diplomacy.
The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs held a set of meetings December Fourth and Fifth, two of which were held in conjunction with the UN’s Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Among the items being discussed were the recommendation by the World Health Organization’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence to retain coca in Schedule One, rejecting the rescheduling petition which had been brought by Colombia and the Plurinational State of Bolivia; and recent military actions by the United States against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Pacific and Caribbean that have resulted in the deaths of several innocent civilians and which the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have described as violations of international human rights law.
This week on Century of Lies we hear some of that discussion, including interventions by Marie Nougier, Head of Research and Communications at the International Drug Policy Consortium; Hernan Vales, head of the Indigenous Peoples and Minority Section of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Her Excellency Claudio Salerno Caldera, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Plus, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) on the floor of the Senate speaking in support of S.3344, the Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act.
- KBOO