Page 12 - aruba-today-20170317

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 17 March 2017

For Spanish drug mules caught in Peru, a long journey home

There are currently more the time, she was a new
than 200 Spaniards in Peru- mother in need of money.
vian prisons on drug charg- Officials at Lima’s airport
es, more inmates than from caught her with 3.6 kilos
any other foreign country. (7.9 pounds) of cocaine as
The Associated Press visit- she was about to board a
ed with Spanish inmates at flight to Madrid.
a prison near this Andean She spent her first night de-
country’s capital Wednes- tained sitting on a chair
day. cuffed by the hands and
The agreement under feet at the airport’s anti-
which they will leave Thurs- narcotics division. She later
day was brokered be- slept on a mattress she re-
tween the two countries to members as being filthy
allow the inmates to serve and full of fleas.
the rest of their sentences One of the most painful
in Spain. parts of experience was
“I do not sleep,” said Calvi- being separated from her
no, 26, cooling herself with daughter, who was born
a black fan in a passage- just a few months before
way at the Piedras Gor- the ill-fated trip.
das II prison, on a hill near Inmates say the distance
Lima’s desert coast. “I can- from their native Spain
Spanish prisoners arrive at a police base near the airport before their repatriation, in Callao, Peru, not imagine the hour when means that many don’t
Thursday, March 16, 2017. A group of 50 Spanish citizens serving out long drug sentences are anx- I can arrive and embrace receive visitors and this in-
iously awaiting to be repatriated Thursday as part of an airlift brokered by the two governments. my family.” creases their loneliness.
Peru is the world’s second-largest cocaine producer, and much of the narcotics arriving in Europe Calvino, who is from Angel Lopez Berlanga, a
passes through Spain, where traffickers prowl for recruits, offering a hefty sum to travel to Lima Mieres, a town of 45,000 in 45-year-old native of Ma-
and bring back cocaine. There are currently more than 200 Spaniards in Peruvian prisons on drug northern Spain, offered no drid serving a 12-year sen-
charges, more inmates than from any other foreign country.
(AP Photo/Martin Mejia) excuses to justify her crime tence for drug trafficking,
and said it had taught her said that since he arrived in
FRANKLIN BRICENO from her daughter in Spain. Peru is the world’s second- an important lesson: the the Peruvian prison in 2008
Associated Press Three years and seven largest cocaine producer, value of the smallest liber- more than a dozen Span-
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Patricia months later, Calvino will and much of the narcotics ties, even, sipping a glass ish inmates have died from
Calvino has marked every join 30 other Spanish pris- arriving in Europe passes of water. various diseases, including
day spent in a Peruvian oners Thursday on a flight through Spain, where traf- Like many “drug mules,” hepatitis.
prison on drug charges back home — the largest fickers prowl for recruits like Calvino said she was re- “But I believe also from sad-
since 2013 with a cross repatriation of Spaniards Calvino in nightclubs, offer- cruited in a club and of- ness because many never
through a calendar, a so- serving prison sentences ing a hefty sum to travel to fered $10,725 to fly to Peru received a visitor because
bering reminder of how abroad in the European Lima and bring back co- and return with luggage their families are far away,”
long she has spent away nation’s history. caine. containing cocaine. At said Berlanga, who will fin-
ish his sentence in Spain.
Aside from the 30 prisoners
Colombia vice president quits amid talk of presidential run still serving sentences, 19
former inmates who have
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) day night asking lawmakers one of the front-runners to right-wing opponents be- been living as indigents
— Colombian Vice Presi- to relieve him of his duties. succeed President Juan cause of his lukewarm sup- in Lima with no means of
dent German Vargas Lleras A vote is expected next Manuel Santos after hav- port for a peace deal with paying for their return trip
has offered his resignation week. Sitting officials must ing overseen the biggest leftist rebels. to Spain will also be on
amid speculation he’ll seek resign by May in order to infrastructure buildout in Santos has already tapped Thursday’s charter flight,
the country’s top office in be eligible to run in the May decades. former police chief Oscar Spanish Minister of Foreign
next year’s election. 2018 election. But he’s mistrusted by many Naranjo to replace Vargas Affairs and Cooperation
Vargas Lleras delivered a Polls show the famously of Santos’ supporters and Lleras.q Alfonso Dastis has said.q
letter to Congress Wednes- hot-tempered politician is being courted by some