By Frrok Çupi
For us, Albanians, this was far from reach. The communist dictatorship “protected” us from the way it causes a state to decay. The nation and our state was ruined by dictatorship, isolation, war of classes and at the end, extreme poverty. Drugs were far from our reach…
Now, we have reached a milestone that may be called “drugs”. 2016 was the first year when our country entered the world map of drugs, which indicates the areas cultivated with the worldwide “wanted” drug. Not only there’s been a very large area of the country cultivated with the drugs, but “it is not known” what area is cultivated with drugs and what area isn’t; it is not known how many tons were cultivated and shipped; it is not known how many tons have been destroyed and where it has been destroyed. Recent evidence suggests that drugs may have never been destroyed; this substance may have filled tunnels and is trafficked toward the West under the custody of the government.
We have come to this point: The state is in chaos. Time for general elections has come, but there will be no elections, because elections as an institution, have collapsed. Today marked the end date for the constitutional deadline of the President of Republic; no candidates were presented in the first two parliamentary rounds. Justice doesn’t function, because Vetting has not been reached. The mandate of the Ombudsman has expired, Parliament’s term is coming to an end and the government cannot go on without Parliament, justice or elections.
This is chaos and drugs have caused the state to decay. We didn’t know anything on the way drugs causes a state to day; whereas now, we have the best models in the world.
Columbia is not the only country under the rule of drugs, clan wars and drug rings which is being quoted in the media.
Look at Mexico and notice how similar we are. Starting with the head of the state:
- President Enrique Peña Nieto. President of Mexico, who even threatens ISIS of being more brutal then them, has threatened that he will kill drug users on the street. He has come thus far because he’s been “surrounded” by drugs. The American conservative media Breitbart wrote in the past few days that Nieto was incapable of “rebelling” against the drug cartel. He has his hands tied, we may say. The head of the Mexican state went as far as supporting many politicians with ties to the drug cartel, because in 2012, Peña Nieto’s presidential elections were funded by the drug cartel. The funds were used to buy votes in cash. The proof was provided by the famous Mexican journalist, Carmen Aristegui.
This is where we are today in our paralyzed state. The opposition has come out on protest to prevent the Nieto model. It has been proven that the Prime Minister of the Republic, Edi Rama has close ties with drugs and its cartel. First of all, because he allowed its cultivation in thousands of parcels. Because his government has been said to help with the transport and sale of drugs. Because planes from neighboring countries come to be filled with drugs here. This is followed by the fact that he has brought in Parliament members of the drug cartel and traffic of human beings. Now, they are expected to do the same thing as the president of Mexico, Peña Nieto did in the elections: Buy votes with the drug cartel money. And this is why the opposition is protesting.
- Thomas Yarrington has been governor in the area of Tamaulipa in Mexico. Now an international warrant has been issued against him by the US State Department. He has transported drugs to America, but his country, Mexico lied and continued to keep him occupying several key positions. But at least, he has been arrested in Italy and his extradition is expected to take place. Although drug cartel members in Albania have been declared wanted abroad, the government hides them and uses them to cause diversions against the opposition, state and safety of the people.
- Eugenio Hernandez is member of a drug cartel, declared wanted by the United States justice. But while he has been declared clean in this country, American authorities have declared him wanted on the double count of money laundering and bank fraud. Of course, the laundered money comes from the drug cartel. The same phenomenon is being applied in Albania. Government militants, who have committed the same crimes in the European countries, have been elected mayors or MPs here. While they have been declared “guilty” in Europe, here they have been declared “clean”.
In Mexico, there are at least seven senior state leaders who are tied to drugs. Besides them:
Javier Duarte, governor of Veracruz is being accused of embezzling large amounts of public money. But he continues to be part of the state administration. Cesar Duarte Jaque, governor of Chihuahua has currently been declared wanted in his country for embezzling state money, but he goes in and out of the country on the account of the drug cartel. The prominent Mexican journalist, Miroslava Breach discovered his ties with the Revolutionary Institutional Party, but the journalist was killed. Humberto Moreira, who has been fingerprinted in the USA for being involved in drug related criminal acts, is running in Mexico for member of Congress as representative of the Party of Youth. Can you see the resemblance to a country where drugs have suffocated and asphyxiated the state?! Do we need to find any more similarities? Of course, each of one can relate to the names of politicians that they have in mind and who are known to have ties with crime and politics.
In Mexico, the state is looking to kill drug users on the streets, but not the drug cartel. The state can no longer do this. Even here, the state no longer has any institutions and as a result, it can do all kinds of insanities, apart from fighting crime.
The republication of this article is strictly forbidden without a written permission from the Albanian Free Press newsroom
Note: The stances expressed in the Opinion section do not necessarily represent the editorial line of Albanian Free Press
