A Big Double Murder Jolts Africa's Cocaine Hub
By VIVIENNE WALT / PARIS Vivienne Walt / Paris – 1 hr 59 mins ago
Guinea-Bissau is one of the Colombia cartels' most critical points for smuggling
cocaine into Europe and, just before dawn on Monday, the tiny West African
country plunged into a political power vacuum. At that moment, the long-time
president of the country was shot dead in his home just hours after an armed
attack on the military headquarters killed his Army chief of staff. The two men
were adversaries in a bitter power struggle, one that had fueled a civil war in
the late 1990s.
Military officers close to the Army chief of staff General Batista Tagme Na Wai
blamed those loyal to the president for the military leader's death as a massive
explosion destroyed the building he was in on Sunday. Shortly after that
incident, according to a Reuters journalist in the capital Bissau, Angolan
diplomats took the country's First Lady into safekeeping while President JoĆo
Bernado Vieira - known by his nickname "Nino" - apparently refused to flee his
home. He was reportedly shot in the head by Na Wai's loyalists. (See pictures of
Africa's cocaine hub.)......More
