Where Governance Goes to Die

{
  "type": "gallery",
  "attrs": {
    "title": null
  },
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1260,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12625",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/ObSxhgd7CGsEuGm7YetDGyeR0OMIajhNQfx9dTtqIaj5rvfpcuay0LP0BsPJmm4ipRFF3MC8pIyY5G4mUEpnnVVe=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Since 2007, Guinea-Bissau has become the new hub for cocaine trafficking in Africa. Drug cartels from South America, terrorism organisations and the voracious appetite for cocaine in Europe has transformed the country into a living hell.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12626",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/FLElrXL1OY_0m6lZ3HdL2pfbivYkdhUPnVW5BKtVz_5bLbJqf2nFdmzbr-KwaRGPy06WlHiHODa8fI-Fz5FSr6cKFg=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "In March 2009, President Vieira was murdered by order of a few generals trying to make new alliances with drug cartels. According to Interpol, Vieira was personally involved in drug trafficking and was trying to keep his generals at the edge of his business.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12627",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/6tHToKNFkExLWU-WXh721y5_kTCho6BJD3kH6nXvhYDbUsi2xMXBTpa-QW4ZiXsb89Buub-Kby76HNQz1pevW9c0=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "The team of soldiers who executed President Joao Bernardo Vieira, in a portrait that was taken at military headquarters, seven hours after the assassination.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12628",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/fSuCSudnQNT40vnAj6EfZU0HU_RJS1XStH9Mx1gvMpiFUHc0p66rqMZ60ZJbSvWPTFhPRmtTscxWh_06V_v557OT4g=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Over the past two years abductions, murders and drug-related crimes have become the norm in West Africa. The hostage seen here, used to settle a dispute between two smalltime rug dealers, was finally abandoned in the middle of nowhere, still alive.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12629",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/yOWrMnBLQQ6OrsAT2cyK1VK5R5opnB5SyE39_pJIcMAY9Zk3t3gABMNREBvPATawXa2THc0dMAvtewHiiS82g-9LFg=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Two Nigerians affiliated with a Guinean drug ring prepare capsules containing cocaine that will be swallowed and then smuggled into Europe.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12630",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/LrPSZgL2BoZPvMIO8Eq3QA9_0M92eEkn2UOp6FtDnQc_WEKOz7lYMCxSTWaf2kmzNSD1zawneCeWxi1WicsAxBgIsw=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Drug traffickers in Bissau are kept in an old colonial halfway house, where inmates are free to leave from 2 to 6 pm. Usually they opt to return to jail, since there, they at least recieve a free daily meal.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12631",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/9Md-7XsHxbY5Y_8scnLaEPRYUScvJ2NfRMNhEof81LxbjDo_3mmarXlGVIc7TMfJ3zla1Jals4yU1N8yEyioy0R4Fw=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Crack-fuelled prostitution is just one of the side-effects of trafficking; it’s not a business for locals (who can’t afford to pay prostitutes) and most of the clients are foreigners; sometimes sailors, or UN or embassy employees. None of the girls interviewed used condoms and all of them were crack addicts.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12632",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/vmmZxFxuFLWyc6Jdp0-P-3Qu21A7B-E-tpHDZhqvBEXFeWI3G3PnQ5nTtgkleTuySo0rGhJQBgrSHkIFDb8EOvuZ=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "In Barrio de Reno, the poorest neighborhood in the capital, Bissau, smoking ‘pedra’ has become an obsession for many.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12633",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/zgS5PTplfqWy-M9-4l-hE0waB8sLne5HQCRG87OiViMNXgHxB4znPmhxrCD34N-ium8A5RxDv10YHA_h-8Ar-ekKWg=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Prostitutes dream of escape from the poverty and madness of Guinea-Bissau. Europe, especially Portugal, Spain and Italy, are their imagined Eldorado. The criminal network behind the drug trade also controls human trafficking from West Africa to Europe. Most of the girls who manage to leave their country will end up as sex slaves, working the streets of European cities.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12634",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/ODG-b2yNLhbZJXJIV8nYU9TZAL1Hwj_eLWW5Mo8YF_0xoaaaNJFjtVmPciHjyLailX8VufEPLApTW8ARQFUActWG=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "A portrait of a soldier who died in the 1998 civil war. The ghost of that conflict is still alive in the Guineans, who fear a new conflict resulting from of the struggle for power over the control of drug trafficking. Both the Army and several politicians are deeply involved in the drug trade, and the double assassination of the President and Chief of Staff in 2009 may have been just the beginning of a larger-scale process that could lead to the next civil war.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "{{name}}",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The past three years have seen a staggering increase in drug trafficking in particular, making West Africa the continent’s narcotics hub. International law enforcement officials say the profits are used to fund terrorist activities worldwide.

The steady stream of drugs pools in the slums of Guinea-Bissau, where crack-fuelled prostitution is driving a new AIDS epidemic in a region where even basic health care is beyond the reach of many; and where young people turning to the drug trade for jobs become unwitting foot soldiers of organised crime.

A series of drug-related political assassinations has brought Guinea-Bissau’s leaders’ ability to govern into question. The United States has said it cannot help the country with reforms until all suspected drug traffickers are purged from government. Meanwhile, a country with one of the lowest GDPs in the world carries on, as Africa’s first narco-state.