1,000 Protest Alleged CIA Links to Drug Ring
About 1,000 demonstrators and community leaders participated in a protest Thursday night to attack reports that the CIA may have eased the way for the U.S.-backed Contras to distribute crack cocaine in South-Central Los Angeles.
The candlelight vigil was held outside Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where speakers described the devastating effects of crack cocaine on the black community, including homelessness, joblessness, violence and drug-addicted babies.
Rep. Juanita Millender McDonald (D-Carson) said, “We are here tonight to start the march, and this march will not end until we see justice is done.”
Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke talked about the many crack babies born at the hospital.
“This is what happens as a result of crack in our community, “ she said from a platform in front of the hospital.
The rally, one of many held recently in South-Central Los Angeles, was in response to a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News. The paper said that two Nicaraguan drug dealers, who helped finance the U.S.-backed Contra war in the 1980s, also opened the door for the epidemic of crack and gang violence that has devastated South-Central Los Angeles.
Although the newspaper series was unable to prove that U.S. intelligence agencies directed or knew of drug sales, many of the speakers Thursday talked of their distrust of the U.S. government and their deep belief that the CIA was an active player in the distribution of crack cocaine in impoverished neighborhoods.
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