Weekly Report - 1 February 2007

Kuna chiefs, or sailas, are concerned that drug-trafficking is eroding the social fabric of traditional indigenous community life. Sailas from the Caribbean coastal region of Kuna Yala by the province of Darién, confessed to the anti-drug prosecutor, José Ayú Prado, last week that Kuna youths had taken to stealing some of the cocaine bundles dropped by Colombian drug-traffickers, which float ashore, and selling cocaine on to local gangs to make easy money. They argued that the Kuna Yala region was a transshipment corridor for cocaine smuggled out of Colombia, and appealed for greater police presence.