OLD STORY--SAME OL' SITUATION

Some words from Aruba's ex-Prime Minister, Jan Eman:

"Aruba's geographical position is a blessing and a curse at the same time"," says Ex-Prime Minister Jan (Henny) H. Eman, alluding to the pleasant climate which attract thousands of tourists each year, and the unpleasant closeness of the Colombian and Venezuelan northern shores which makes it vulnerable for drug-traffickers.


According to Eman, Aruba is burdened with the problem of other nations: "The drug trade is not Aruba's primary responsibility. The market is in Europe and the United States. It is not our fault they (How about Aruba controlling their own borders? It's always the blame game with these people...) cannot control their borders, that Aruba is used as a transit point".

"The US Government is not as dismissive as Mr Eman. Within three years Aruba rose from a 'medium risk' to a 'high risk' country in the State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. The island is used as a base for bulk transhipment of cocaine to the US and Europe, through its Free Trade Zone.

Off-shore corporate banking facilities, the casino/resort complexes, high volume tourism (not anymore!), and a stable currency all make Aruba attractive to money laundering organizations. Eman considers these reports as too negative and suggests that Aruba is in good company since ""the US and Holland rank number one on the list as well". (Hidden excuse: Well, it's ok if others do it!)

"The US is concerned about credible reports that some members of the Aruban government met regularly with individuals associated with drug trafficking and money laundering syndicates.


In spite of, or perhaps because of, the denials by Aruba officials, the US remains convinced that entrenched money laundering organizations direct large cash deposits into land development and other construction projects on the island."

The Netherlands is equally worried. ""I think we are going to loose it on Aruba"," Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, the Dutch Attorney General, said about the counter-narcotics efforts on the island. Aruba is in the hands of some powerful families and Holland can't do anything about it, due to constitutional restraints.


The reasons for Docters' pessimism were revealed when a confidential report on the Aruban Security Service – the Veiligheidsdienst Aruba (VDA) – leaked in the Dutch press. In October 1994 its director Martien Ras had sounded the alarm-bell. He had written to Docters, then chief of the Dutch security service, that democratically elected officials promoted the interests of private business-men to such an extent that Aruba's democratic institutions were in danger.


Both the Dutch security service and the American CIA had assisted Ras with his investigations. Ras wrote to Docters because Eman – freshly re-elected as Prime Minister – demanded to see the VDA-files about Aruban entrepreneurs who Ras suspected of money laundering and linked to drug traffickers. The Dutch rapidly removed the files, but Ras had to quit his job. Since then he Ras has lived in hiding somewhere in Holland. His interim successor, a Dutch intelligence officer, confirmed his conclusions.

December 1996 President Clinton put Aruba on the list of Major Illicit Drug-transit Countries.