MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

WaPo says Paraná Waterway riddled with drug trafficking

Drug trafficking would go from airstrips in Bolivia to Paraguay and then on to the River Plate, the Washington Post explained

The Paraguay-Paraná Waterway channeling myriads of tons of cargo every year is one of the leading passages of cocaine shipments bound for Hamburg and Antwerp, among other destinations, the Washington Post reported. It runs for more than 3,300 kilometers, connecting at least 150 ports in five countries. It is arguably the most important river trade route on the continent.

In 1992, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay agreed to use the two natural rivers that meet at the border between Argentina and Paraguay as a transit route for goods and to dredge them to allow commercial barge traffic to and from the Atlantic Ocean. This trade route would now include drugs from airstrips in Bolivia to Paraguay and then on to the River Plate. Between 2010 and 2021, cocaine seizures linked to the Paraguay-Parana waterway increased fivefold, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found.

Paraguay, one of the world's leading exporters of soybeans, beef, and organic sugar, owns the third-largest fleet of river vessels in the world, behind the United States and China. Despite new detecting technology, drug traffickers keep finding ways to dodge controls by mixing cocaine with liquids, powders, and other materials. “Paraguay, unlike its neighbors, has virtually no air radars. This makes it easy for traffickers in Bolivia to fly drugs — cocaine produced in either Colombia, Peru, or Bolivia — onto illegal airstrips in the northern part of Paraguay, one of the most sparsely inhabited areas on the continent,” the WP pointed out.

Earlier this month, Paraguay's anti-drug agency Senad announced the suspension of cooperation with the United States DEA and backtracked, adding to the confusion on the matter. According to the WaPo, Asunción's decision was aimed at protecting high-level Paraguayan politicians.

The Argentine port of Rosario is deep enough for ocean-bound vessels so smaller barges need to transfer their cargo there or further south before reaching the Atlantic. Rosario has become a hub for cocaine shipments to as far away as Australia, the WaPo noted. In August 2022, authorities seized more than 1.5 tons of cocaine in a Rosario warehouse. The city is also one of the most violent in Argentina, although things are calmer under Libertarian President Javier Milei, who deployed extra federal forces there.

Rosario has been known for decades as “The Argentine Chicago.” First, because it is where the Grain Exchange operates and then because of its crime rate. It is also where General Manuel Belgrano created the Argentine flag in the early 1810s.