Month: April 2024

AstraZeneca has admitted for the first time in a recent court document filing that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause rare side effects.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca admitted in court documents, as part of a class action lawsuit filed against them, that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS for short.

TTS is a rare medical condition when a person suffers from blood clots together with a low platelet count.

Currently, AstraZeneca is facing a massive class action suit by individuals who claim the AstraZeneca vaccine caused serious injuries or resulted in the death of a family member.

AstraZeneca has admitted for the first time in court documents that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare side effect, in an apparent about-turn that could pave the way for a multi-million pound legal payout https://t.co/OpkWtytjrv

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 28, 2024

AstraZeneca has admitted for the first time in court documents that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare side effect, in an apparent about-turn that could pave the way for a multi-million pound legal payout.

The pharmaceutical giant is being sued in a class action over claims that its vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases.

Lawyers argue the vaccine produced a side effect which has had a devastating effect on a small number of families.

The first case was lodged last year by Jamie Scott, a father of two, who was left with a permanent brain injury after developing a blood clot and a bleed on the brain that has prevented him from working after he received the vaccine in April 2021. The hospital called his wife three times to tell her that her husband was going to die.

AstraZeneca is contesting the claims but has accepted, in a legal document submitted to the High Court in February, that its Covid vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS”.

BOMBSHELL NEWS

AstraZeneca just ADMITTED IN COURT that their covid injection can cause a severe blood clot side effect.

This is absolutely huge news.

They are now being sued in a class action lawsuit from victims that have suffered after being lied to by the “experts” about… pic.twitter.com/4CcISuihLA

— PeterSweden (@PeterSweden7) April 29, 2024

In March 2021, several countries worldwide suspended issuing AstraZeneca’s vaccine due to its link to blood clots.

Last week, The Gateway Pundit reported that a coroner determined that 32-year-old British doctor, Dr. Stephen Wright, died from a cerebral blood clot caused by a reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

READ:

Coroner Finds Healthy 32-Year-Old Doctor Died From Cerebral Blood Clot Caused By COVID Vaccine — Wife Now Suing AstraZeneca

The post AstraZeneca Finally Admits in Court Documents Its COVID-19 Vaccine Can Cause Rare Side Effects appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Frankly, I don’t care about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. I am agnostic, and so have no special religious inclination towards being a party to that fight, which, despite what geopolitical analysts might say, remains at its core a millennium-old theological feud. I am neither an Israeli nor a Palestinian myself. My core belief is that one’s loyalty should be to the land beneath one’s feet—not to one’s ancestral homeland or culture, but to the country that feeds you. The idea of assimilation and a republican citizenry is to actively reorient instincts and loyalties. Assimilation isn’t just the burden of the host country. Waving a foreign flag on the streets, no matter how deep the cause, is something that should be viewed as politically toxic. Never trust a banished man who seeks to change the politics of the faraway land to which he owes loyalty with the blood of his new country, as Machiavelli once warned. 

The recent campus protests, however, have been driven by more than just questions about faraway foreign loyalties. They constitute a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for conservatives to demonstrate that the entire higher-education sector is bloated and toxic at best, and outrightly hostile to civilization at worst. The professors, as Richard Nixon once warned, are the enemies—but so are the administrators. 

In fact, anyone who has worked in top-tier academia in the U.S.—or, in my case, among the Russell Group Universities in the UK—will remember that most professors are gutless midwits who talk a big game about principles but are simultaneously instrumental in sacrificing the academy to bureaucrats and activists, and often both at the same time. The bureaucrats’ ranks have swelled by over 200 percent in the last 30 years; faculty, by comparison, rose by around 10 percent in the same timespan. It is the bureaucrats who amplify a certain toxic section of activist academia. It is the bureaucracy that is the chief cause of cost and tuition increase. 

The current round of on-campus rage also highlights a couple of things. One cannot simply go back to ignoring or laughing off the higher-ed sector. It was the greatest mistake of the conservative movement to think that students would grow up. The bloat in the government continues to grow because positions are filled by those coming out of an activist, self-loathing higher-ed. Most organs of the national security bureaucracy, for example, are filled with those who are but cogs in the machine. They owe their student debt, and by definition, their loyalty, to the institutions of liberal internationalism and the government that promotes those institutions. If you want to know why the intelligence and surveillance sector is so partisan and hostile to conservatives, look at who works there and where they went to school.

Second, the mass of tribal students—guttural in their hatred, proud of their ignorance, confused about their identity, purpose, and theology, and at the same time deferential to rituals such as Muslim calls to prayer—demonstrates the need for discipline. This is a generation whose members were never punished and always got what they wanted; they grew up in a world of nominal egalitarianism and participation trophies, and therefore, seek, almost subliminally, a strong hand to restore order. Any future conservative leader who fails to understand that, or lacks a plan to transform this heterogenous mass into a movement by repurposing them towards a life with some meaning, should go back to studying history. The metaphorical crown is lying in the gutter. 

An understandable instinct of American conservatives would be to provide more power to DEI bureaucrats to be the arbiters of decency in response to growing antisemitism or power struggles. As Chris Rufo said, that would be a mistake, not unlike George W. Bush’s expansion of the national-security bureaucracy in the name of providing security to Americans. 

The correct lesson is that too many people go to colleges for degrees that are irrelevant, accruing debts that they don’t need, extending their perpetual adolescence and the resulting ethos of victimhood and tantrums.

Far too many universities are accredited. Destroy the pipeline. Let the campus protests ensure that the colleges are the architects of their own destruction. 

The post Torch the Higher-Ed Sector appeared first on The American Conservative.

A devastating tornado struck south China during the weekend, killing five people, injuring dozens, and damaging more than 140 factory buildings in the industrial city of Guangzhou.

Associated Press reported:

“The China Meteorological Administration said the tornado struck about 3 p.m. [on Saturday] in the Baiyun district of Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis and manufacturing center near Hong Kong.

Videos posted online showed a mid-afternoon sky darkened by storm clouds and debris swirling up into the air.

Authorities said that another 33 people were injured and 141 factory buildings were damaged, the official Xinhua News Agency said.”

The severe weather was prefaced with heavy a hailstorm, some bigger than golf balls, that damaged cars and buildings.

Guangzhou, China: severe hail storm. pic.twitter.com/MgasZkKqYJ

— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 29, 2024

Tornado warnings were issued for several parts of Guangzhou, a city formerly known as Canton.

The metropolis holds the Canton Fair, a major export and import exhibition that draws buyers from around the world.

Debris flying during deadly tornado in Guangzhou, China. pic.twitter.com/rJOOrcubbv

— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 29, 2024

“As businesses and residents began cleaning debris, the images showed block upon block of devastation in the hardest-hit areas with a few clusters of buildings standing amid the destruction, a truck overturned on its side and cars crushed by rubble. The sheet metal roofs on some buildings were torn off.”

The Guardian reported:

“Guangdong, China’s most populous province, is home to 127 million people and thousands of factories that power the nation’s export sector.

Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed the tornado had caused wide devastation in parts of the city. The images showed block upon block of damage in the hardest-hit areas with a few clusters of buildings standing amid the destruction.”

Devastating Tornado hit the power lines in Guangzhou, China. pic.twitter.com/dG1uw3iytX

— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 29, 2024

The post Heavy Hailstorm, Devastating Tornado Hit Industrial Metropolis of Guangzhou, China (VIDEOS) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

As the June European Elections approach, all countries see a flurry of maneuvering by the political forces in order to get the best possible outcome.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has officially joined as a candidate, announcing it on the stage of the programmatic conference of her ‘Brothers of Italy’ party.

Meloni will run in the European elections to boost support for her party, but she will not take up a seat if elected.

Read: Conservative PM Giorgia Meloni’s Italy is the Fastest Growing European Economy, Leaving Liberal Germany Behind

The June 6-9 European Parliament vote is seen as a key test of strength for her conservative coalition.

Reuters reported:

“‘We want to do in Europe what we did in Italy… create a majority that brings together the centre-right forces and send the left into opposition’, Meloni told cheering party faithful at a party conference in the coastal city of Pescara to set out EU policies and launch the campaign.”

While Meloni called for Italy to leave the eurozone when she was in opposition, she has followed a pro-European line in office, particularly on foreign policy matters such as Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Her party is Italy’s most popular with 27% of support, according to recent polls, ahead of the opposition Democratic Party (PD) on around 20% and the left-leaning 5-Star Movement on 16%.

Meloni will be the first name on the ballot for Brothers of Italy in all five of Italy’s constituencies for the EU election, but pledged she would not use ‘a single minute’ of her time as prime minister to campaign.”

Read: Italy’s PM Meloni Unveils Her ‘Africa Plan’ To Create an Energy Hub and Curb Illegal Immigration

Euronews reported:

“On stage, Meloni recalled the previous European electoral challenges, of 2014 when the party did not reach the quorum of 4 percent and those of 2019 when it reached 6.5 percent. ‘In six years we have increased by two percent, in the last three we have reached 26.5 percent’, said Meloni. ‘I don’t remember this story as a rhetorical exercise of self-satisfaction and self-celebration, I say it to remind myself and all of us that what we have earned is not something we have acquired forever, we must continue to deserve it’. added Meloni.”

Read: Prime Minister Meloni Keeps Her Promise, as Italy Leaves the Chinese ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ – Then Reassures Relations With Beijing Will Remain ‘Excellent’

Meloni claims to have put Italy at the centre of Europe and international politics, and credited herself for the agreements with Tunisia and Egypt for the management of migrants.

“There was no shortage of criticism of the European Green Deal and the ‘bureaucrats locked in a glass palace’. Meloni claimed the obligation to advance the energy class to be achieved in a few years and on electric cars he reiterated that Europe must stop, ‘it must leave it up to research, the market and companies to develop the cleanest technologies and the Member States, also based on their social model, to decide how to achieve those objectives’, said Meloni and added: ‘Because while we save the environment, we also want to save the thousands of businesses and the thousands of jobs’.”

Her ‘Brothers of Italy’ party elected six deputies in the last European Parliament, but according to the recent Ipsos poll, could obtain up to 24 seats in the next elections.

Read more:

Italian PM Meloni’s Plan to Send Migrants to Albania for Asylum Processing Approved in Lower Parliament Chamber, Expected to Also Clear Senate Vote

The post Italian PM Meloni Will Run in June European Elections, Wants To ‘Bring Together the Centre-Right Forces and Send the Left Into Opposition’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

There’s one thing that most unbelievers – especially Muslim terrorists – don’t quite get about Christians: if you kill a holy man, you turn him into a martyr, and his word will echo through centuries.

And if you don’t kill him, he comes back much stronger in the love of Christ.

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, carrying a gold cross and sporting a white eye patch, returned triumphantly to the pulpit on Orthodox Palm Sunday – of all days – and delivered a fiery sermon, calling out Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an impassioned defense of freedom of speech and religion.

The New York Post reported:

“I say to our beloved, the Australian government, and our beloved Prime Minister, the honorable Mr. Albanese, I believe in one thing and that is the integrity and the identity of the human being. This human identity, this human integrity, is a God-given gift, no one else. Every human being has the right to their freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”

Bishop Emmanuel said all religions – Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Atheists – had the right to express their beliefs.

“Also the Christians have the right to express their beliefs, and for us to say, that free speech is dangerous, that free speech cannot be possible in a democratic country, I’m yet to fathom this. I’m yet to fathom this. We should be able as civilized human beings, as intellectuals, we should be able to criticize, to speak, and maybe, at some certain times, we may sound, or we may come across offensive to some degree, but we should be able to say, ‘I should not worry for my life to be exposed to threat or to be taken away’. A non Christian can criticize my faith, can attack my faith. I will say one thing, ‘may God forgive you, and may God bless you.”

He said it is unacceptable to state that freedom of speech ‘is causing dramas and dilemmas’ and that it should be censored. He asked: ‘Then where is democracy?’

“Then, where is humanity, where is integrity, where are the morals, where are the ethics, where are the principles, where are the values which the Western world, more so, have been fighting for human rights, which is the value of the human.”

After a 16-year-old Muslim terrorist stabbed the bishop during a live-streamed sermon, the video of the attack quickly spread online.

Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant ordered social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to take down posts commenting on the attack.

X has stated it will challenge the take-down order.

The recent attacks in Australia are a horrific assault on free society. Our condolences go out to those who have been affected, and we stand with the Australian people in calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Following these events, the Australian eSafety…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) April 19, 2024

Bishop Emmanuel: “May this holy and blessed day, the day of Hosanna, Palm Sunday according to the [Orthodox] church calendar, may the Lord Jesus bless every Christian who is celebrating Palm Sunday today, and those who have celebrated it earlier.” he said to his congregation.

He said ‘love never fails’: “This is our Christian faith, but above all this is our Christ, who is all. And always taught to love one another, because God is love, and the Lord Jesus, he is God, revealed in the flesh, period. He taught us to love everyone, without any differentiation. This will never change.”

The Bishop also delivered a message to his attacker, forgiving him, showing the power of Christianity in real time, to all the world to hear.

“I’ll say it again, this young man who did this act, almost two weeks ago, I say to you, ‘my dear, you are my son and you will always be my son’. I will always pray for you, I will always wish you nothing but the best.”

Read more:

BREAKING: Another Mass Stabbing in Sydney as Attacker Targets Bishop and Multiple Worshippers in Good Shepherd Church (SHOCK VIDEO)

The post Australian Orthodox Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel’s Makes a Triumphant Return on Palm Sunday: Defends Freedom of Speech, Forgives His Attacker (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The federal government is giving voter registration forms to non-citizen ‘refugees.’

According to South Carolina state representative and congressional candidate Adam Morgan, the federal government is including voter registration forms in packets at the Social Security Office in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

“Is the Federal Gov giving voter registration forms to non-citizens?” Adam Morgan said on X.

“Yes, at least in SC. A refugee sent us this form that was given to her in a packet at the Social Security Office in Spartanburg. She asked “Why are they giving these to non-citizens?”” he said.

Attached to Adam Morgan’s post was a photo of the voter registration form included in the welcome packet for refugees.

Is the Federal Gov giving voter registration forms to non-citizens?

Yes, at least in SC. A refugee sent us this form that was given to her in a packet at the Social Security Office in Spartanburg. She asked “Why are they giving these to non-citizens?”

EXACTLY. pic.twitter.com/5IDYhlIzrv

— Adam Morgan (@RepAdamMorgan) April 29, 2024

It gets worse.

According to Rep. Adam Morgan, the refugee’s relative “mailed the forms back and criticized the office for distributing them to people they knew were non-citizens.”

“A few weeks later the refugees received more voter registration forms in the mail,” Rep. Morgan said.

“None of this is by accident,” he said.

But the story gets worse. Her relative mailed the forms back and criticized the office for distributing them to people they knew were non-citizens.

A few weeks later the refugees received more voter registration forms in the mail.

None of this is by accident.

— Adam Morgan (@RepAdamMorgan) April 29, 2024

Earlier this year Kamala Harris met with “voting rights leaders” at the White House to announce new ways the Biden regime will help register people to vote in 2024.

The Biden regime also announced plans to pay college kids to register voters.

AXIOS reported:

The Democratic plan includes a call to reinforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has been weakened by recent Supreme Court decisions. Harris also is announcing new strategies that federal agencies will use to encourage millions of Americans to vote in November.

The post CONFIRMED: Federal Government Giving Voter Registration Forms to Non-Citizen Refugees appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The US Supreme Court on Monday denied Dr. Peter Navarro’s bid to be freed from prison pending his appeal.

Excerpt from The Hill:

The Supreme Court’s denial of Navarro’s request follows his second ask to the nation’s highest court to set him free while he challenges his conviction.

By default, Navarro’s first emergency request to stay out of prison while appealing the conviction went to Chief Justice John Roberts.

Roberts, who acted on the request alone, said in March that he would not pause Navarro’s four-month prison sentence as his appeal moves forward, forcing the onetime Trump adviser to report to a federal prison in Miami on March 19.

Navarro then renewed his motion to Justice Neil Gorsuch. As the court typically does to avoid repeated efforts, Gorsuch referred the matter to the full court for a vote. Navarro’s request was again denied.

The decision means that Navarro will likely serve his four-month prison term before arguing the appeal of his conviction before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Last month Peter Navarro reported to prison for his 4-month sentence. He is the first high-ranking Trump aide to be imprisoned by the Biden Regime.

A federal appeals court previously denied Navarro’s request to remain out of jail.

The three-judge panel – all Obama appointees – included Judges Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins.

“[T]he argument presupposes that privilege has actually been invoked in this case in some manner by the President,” the judges wrote in a two-page order, according to Politico. “That did not happen here.”

In September former Trump advisor Dr. Peter Navarro, 74, was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena in Liz Cheney’s January 6 investigation.

Navarro did not comply with the subpoena because he said Trump told him to assert executive privilege.

Biden’s DOJ has abused Dr. Navarro throughout the entire process.

According to Navarro, the feds put him in leg irons and threw him in a cell last year.

The post JUST IN: Supreme Court Denies Peter Navarro’s Bid to be Freed from Prison While Appealing Conviction appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld/Image:@newyorker/TikTok

Comic legend Jerry Seinfeld calls out the joy-killers in the far-left for ruining comedy.

The “Seinfeld” star joined New Yorker’s Radio Hour podcast and shared that, while people continue to crave comic relief, they can’t find it on television.

Seinfeld shared, “Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it.”

“It used to be that you’d go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, ’Cheers’ is on. Oh, ‘M.A.S.H.’ is on. Oh, ‘Mary Tyler Moore ’ is on, ‘All in the Family’ is on.’ You just expected [there will] be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.”

“Well, guess what? Where is it? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap and people worrying so much about offending other people.”

“When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups…’ here’s our thought about this joke’ well that’s the end of your comedy.”

“They move the gates, like in skiing. Culture – the gates are moving. Your job is to be agile and clever enough that wherever they put the gates, I’m going to make the gate.”

Watch:

Jerry Seinfeld on how the Left destroyed comedy. One problem with the humorless activists in the camps, and in the media, is that they can’t stand to hear anyone else laugh, least of all at them! pic.twitter.com/VV8FKvHNfg

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) April 29, 2024

 

The post Comedian Jerry Seinfeld on How the Left and Being Politically Correct Ruined Comedy “This is the Result of the Extreme Left and P.C. Crap” (Video) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Palestinian flag is hoisted over Harvard University by Israel-hating protests. via Midnight Rider

Harvard Law Professor and author Alan Dershowitz joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures yesterday morning.

Professor Dershowitz accused George Soros and the Rockefeller brothers for funding the unprecedented, radical anti-Semitic protests on college campuses across the country.

This is true. George Soros funds the radical leftist group Jewish Voice for Peace that is promoting the Jew hatred on the American streets.

Watchdog group says Soros foundation funds nonprofit that finances massive pro-Palestine protests… https://t.co/kLUETl3ebY pic.twitter.com/9gjmsp1QxT

— AnalyzingAmerica (@AnalyzAmerica) December 10, 2023

And to think – It was not that long ago that if you said anything negative about George Soros you were labeled an “anti-Semite” by the mainstream media!

And here he is funding the Jew-hatred in America.

But that’s not all. American students and their families are also paying for the anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country.

FOX News reporter William La Jeunesse reported this on Monday morning.

William La Jeunesse: At least $1.3 million came from two liberal foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers and George Soros. But there are many other Democrat-led dark money groups that funnel money outside the IRS reporting structure that pay for talking points, posters, recruiting, activists who go campus to campus to organize these protests, but even universities bankroll anti-Israel groups through the student activity fee…

…These protest groups go by different names. The largest, Students for Justice in Palestine, receives funds, among others, from a liberal New York foundation called Westpack, as well as activity fees charged to each student by their university, according to the Watchdog Group NGO Monitor. Yet none of these universities would tell us how much student money is given to pro-Palestinian groups.

The fact that universities now are hiding or giving excuses for not providing that information when they absolutely have to know what that status is. It’s something that is very much, I say, counter to democratic processes.

Another group, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, claims to have led 43 protests or demonstrations last year. It provides banners and signs, salaries and stipends to hire fellows and activists who go campus to campus running campaigns demanding the US cut ties with Israel. Among their fellows, Malakafana, who disrupted a private dinner at UC Berkeley, and Craig Burkhead-Morton, who, according to the Yale Daily News, was arrested for truspensing. Another is Nida Laffy, who spoke Wednesday at a University of Texas protest US, and previously had been detained for blocking a Biden motorcade in Dallas, according to the Palestinian youth movement. The Campaign for Palestinian Rights reported 1.3 million in revenue in 2022, much of it coming from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and George Soros, Open Society Foundation.

Via Midnight Rider.

The post Revealed: Students Around the Country are Paying for the Radical Anti-Israel, Anti-US Protests at Universities Through Their Student Dues (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

 

A Guatemalan Army service member participates in a poppy crop eradication operation in the municipalities of Ixchiguán and Tajumulco, July 3, 2022. (Photo: Guatemalan Army/ Twitter)

Many Americans are concerned that over 150 of their fellow citizens overdose on fentanyl every day, but do they ever stop to think about how this shift to fentanyl negatively affects the lives of opium and cocaine growers in Latin America? This seems to be the question being asked by human rights groups, and as always, the blame and the cost are put on the United States.

Fentanyl makes better business sense for the Mexican cartels compared to opium. It can be easily manufactured using chemicals sourced from China. Highly potent and compact, fentanyl is easy to transport and distribute. Unlike opium, its production is not affected by weather conditions, making it a more reliable option. Additionally, fentanyl labs can avoid detection and eradication efforts, unlike poppy farms, which are easily spotted by authorities using drones.

The decrease in demand for opium has resulted in a drastic drop in prices. Opium, which previously fetched $64 an ounce, is now trading for $9.60 an ounce. According to a Guatemalan poppy grower interviewed by the New York Times, “Poppies used to help a lot of people make ends meet.” The report further states, “Now.. the steep decline in poppy prices inflicted so much economic pain that ‘before the money runs out, people depart for the United States.’”

Apparently, the price of coca leaves used to manufacture cocaine is also declining, affecting 200,000 Colombian households that depend on the drug to make a living. Rights groups are focused on these people, missing the larger point that Latin American governments should be taking care of their people and that they should never have reached a point where a large percentage of the population is dependent on the drug trade.

According to the Congressional Research Service, “criminality related to drug trafficking has replaced political and regional conflicts as the primary source of citizen insecurity in the Americas.” Now, a drop in drug prices is adding to the hardship.

Across Latin America, governments fail to address their own economic and social problems or curb crime, often blaming the US instead. Some advocate for the legalization of hard drugs, mistakenly believing it will solve all their issues. They argue that drug legalization in the US will lower prices, weakening cartels and reducing violence in Latin America.

However, evidence from marijuana legalization and hard drug decriminalization in parts of the US shows increased drug use and overdoses. Moreover, because legal drugs are taxed, tested, and certified, illegal drugs remain cheaper, and the criminal gang-controlled illegal drug market persists unchanged.

Meanwhile, from Mexico to Colombia, corruption among law enforcement, courts, and politicians is facilitating the drug trade. Legalizing drugs in the US or Latin America will not resolve these countries’ issues.

Even with the decline in drug prices, opium continues to be cultivated in the poorest, mountainous region of Guatemala, where mature plants are processed into gum. This gum is then transported across the border to Mexico, where cartels refine it into heroin for distribution in the United States. And the US continues funding drug eradication programs because local governments are either unable or unwilling to control the cartels.

Since the 1970s, the US has allocated billions of dollars to Latin American governments to combat drug production and smuggling. American taxpayers fund the provision of weapons, training, equipment, and vehicles to local security forces. In Guatemala alone, the US is granting $10 to $20 million annually in aid to the military and law enforcement. With this funding, Guatemala succeeded in eradicating 7 acres of opium farms in 2023, down from over 2,000 acres in 2017.

The US was also financing aerial spraying of herbicides in drug-growing regions. However, human rights groups sent a letter to President Biden, urging him to cease funding these programs. They argued that such actions convey “a message of cruelty and callousness with which the United States should no longer be associated.”

The villagers in Guatemala are complaining that spraying and other eradication efforts are stripping away their livelihoods. Lucky for them, Guatemala still acts as a transit country for cocaine smuggled from the Andes and for fentanyl precursor chemicals from China. Given that the US is footing the bill for everything else, it’s surprising that no one has suggested having the US finance a retraining program for displaced opium farmers, teaching them to smuggle other drugs into the United States.

The post Guatemalan Poppy Farmers Suffer as Fentanyl Overtakes Heroin in the US appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.