Drug boss Jose Adolfo Macias is at large after escaping from an Ecuadorean prison, triggering wave of gang violence.
The wife and children of Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive, drug kingpin Jose Adolfo Macias, were arrested in Argentina and have been deported to Ecuador.
The Los Choneros gang leader, known as “Fito”, escaped from a prison in the port city of Guayaquil this month, leading to a surge in gang violence across Ecuador that prompted President Daniel Noboa to declare a 60-day state of emergency in the country, which is home to 17.8 million people.
Argentina’s security minister Patricia Bullrich said: “We are proud that Argentina was a hostile territory for a group of drug dealers who could’ve come to settle here. Mr Fito had a sentence of 38 years and he escaped, leaving a trail of blood and death in Ecuador.”
Fito’s wife Mariela Macias, her three children, a nephew, a family friend and a nanny were deported, Bullrich told a news conference on Friday.
Mariela arrived in Argentina two weeks ago just before her husband escaped. In December, they bought a house in an exclusive neighbourhood of Cordoba, in central Argentina, in cash.
The authorities were still investigating whether Fito only sent his family to Argentina or if he was or is in the country, Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor Lucia Newman reported from Buenos Aires.
Soldiers stand guard outside Simon Bolivar airbase in Guayaquil after the wife and children of fugitive drug trafficker Jose Adolfo Macias were deported to Ecuador from Argentina [Vicente Gaibor del Pino/Reuters]
Cordoba official Juan Pablo Quinteros said the family’s temporary residence permit had been cancelled, allowing the authorities “to detain them and expel them from the country”.
Interior minister Guillermo Francos said: “Argentina will not be a den for criminals.”
Fito escaped on January 7 from a prison in Guayaquil where he was serving time for various crimes, including drug trafficking and murder.
Authorities have tied Los Choneros to extortion, murder and drug trafficking and accuse the group of controlling Ecuador’s crime-plagued and overcrowded prisons.
Under the state of emergency declared after Fito disappeared, the military was deployed onto the streets and a nationwide nightly curfew was mandated.
Incidents in January alone have included an on-air attack by armed men on a TV station, the taking of more than 200 prison officials hostage and the kidnapping of police officers, as well as the murder of a prosecutor pursuing organised crime.
An estimated 10 civilians have been killed in air strikes targeting the neighbouring towns of Arman and Malh in the southeast Syrian province of Sweida, according to local media.
Jordanian forces are believed to be behind Thursday’s attacks, though its government has yet to confirm any involvement.
Sweida 24, a news platform based in its namesake city, said warplanes carried out simultaneous strikes on residential neighbourhoods after midnight local time (21:00 GMT).
The attack in Malh caused material damage to some houses. The second strike in Arman, however, collapsed two houses and killed at least 10 civilians, including four women and two girls, both under the age of five.
Jordan is thought to have carried out previous raids in Syria, mostly near the countries’ shared border, in an effort to disrupt weapons smuggling and drug-trafficking operations.
The news outlet Suwayda shared this image on social media of the wreckage following a suspected Jordanian air raid on January 18 [Suwayda 24 via Reuters]
But inhabitants of the towns struck on Thursday questioned the choice of targets.
“What happened was a massacre against children and women,” Murad al-Abdullah, a resident of Arman, told Al Jazeera. “The air strikes that targeted the villages are far from being identified as fighting drug traffickers.”
Al-Abdullah said the bombing was not limited to houses of people suspected to be involved in drug trafficking. He noted other homes were damaged as well, terrorising villagers while they were asleep and causing needless civilian deaths.
“It is unreasonable for two girls who are no more than five years old to be involved in drug trafficking,” al-Abdullah said.
Tribes and residents of the villages near the Jordanian border issued separate statements this week disavowing any involvement in drug smuggling.
The statements also pledged to lend a hand to Jordan to eliminate criminal networks trafficking narcotics and other drugs across the border. In turn, they asked Jordan to suspend its bombings of civilian sites.
The spiritual leader of the Druze religious group in Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, appealed to Jordan to prevent further civilian bloodshed.
“The attacks should be heavily focused towards the smugglers and their supporters exclusively,” al-Hajri said in a public statement.
Al-Abdullah, the Arman resident, also called on Jordan to collaborate with Syrian locals to stop the trafficking operations.
“We are a society that does not accept the manufacture or trade of drugs, and the Jordanian government should have communicated with our elders to cooperate in combating drug traffickers, instead of bombing residential neighbourhoods,” al-Abdullah said.
Suspected attacks aimed at drug-trafficking operations
Thursday’s attack is believed to be the third time this year that Jordanian planes have carried out air raids on Syrian territory.
A previous attack occurred on January 9, resulting in the deaths of three people in the countryside of Sweida, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based rights monitor.
The Observatory said that five smugglers were also killed in a border attack on January 7. Fighting that day took place sporadically over 10 hours.
By the end of the raid, Jordanian forces had arrested 15 suspects. They also claimed to have recovered 627,000 pills of Captagon, an illicitly manufactured amphetamine, and 3.4kg of cannabis.
“What Jordan is doing can certainly delay drug-smuggling operations but unfortunately, cannot stop them completely. The border with Syria is 375km (233 miles) long, and smuggling operations are carried out by professional groups, not some random individuals carrying out bags of drugs to cross the border,” said Essam al-Zoubi, a lawyer and human rights activist.
Drug enforcement officials in the United States and other Western countries have said that war-torn Syria has become a major hub in the Middle East for the drug trade.
The country, for instance, has become the primary manufacturer for Captagon, a multibillion-dollar business. Experts have said smugglers are using Jordan as a route through which Syrian drugs can reach the oil-rich Gulf states.
A Syrian soldier arranges packets of Captagon pills in Damascus, Syria, on November 30, 2021 [File: SANA via AP Photo]
Al-Zoubi and other human rights advocates have warned the Syrian government itself is involved in the drug trade, in an effort to shore up its war-drained finances.
Reports indicated that the Fourth Armoured Division of the Syrian Army has played a role in overseeing the country’s drug operations, alongside the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government.
“The officials responsible for drug smuggling in Syria are Hezbollah of Lebanon, the Fourth Division, and the security apparatuses of the Syrian regime that control southern Syria,” al-Zoubi said.
Jordan and its allies have also taken other approaches to stopping the drug trade.
In March last year, for instance, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on six people, including two relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, for their role in producing and trafficking Captagon. Some of those sanctioned had ties to Hezbollah as well.
But al-Zoubi warns that even targeted attacks on Syrian drug dealers will not be enough to stop the trade.
“It does not matter to the drug officials from Hezbollah or the Fourth Division if traders are killed, as the trades themselves will continue regardless of the people,” al-Zoubi said, pointing to an example in May 2023.
Jordanian soldiers patrol the Jordan-Syria border in 2022, as the country seeks to crack down on drug smuggling [File: Raad Adayleh/AP Photo]
Jordanian planes, at the time, had carried out air raids in the Sweida countryside, targeting the house of one of the most famous drug traffickers in Syria, Marai al-Ramthan. He was ultimately killed in the attack.
But, al-Zoubi said, his death “did not limit drug trafficking but, in fact, increased it”. Other smugglers used his demise as an opportunity to expand their trade in his absence.
Omar Idlibi, director of the Doha office at the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies, said that geopolitical turmoil in the region has also allowed trafficking to flourish.
“Drug-smuggling operations to Jordan did not exist before 2018, that is, before the Syrian regime and its Iranian allies regained control of southern Syria from the opposition factions,” he told Al Jazeera.
Idlibi explained that the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has had a direct effect on the expanding drug operations.
As it focused on Ukraine, Russia withdrew some of its troops in Syria, allowing Iranian militias and Hezbollah forces to spread. Those groups then turned some of the Syrian army’s headquarters into logistical centres for the manufacture, transport and smuggling of drugs to Jordan.
Russia’s need for military equipment from Iran also prompted it to turn a blind eye to the drug-smuggling activity in Syria, Idlibi explained.
“Everyone knows that the Syrian regime and Iran are behind the terrorist activity on the Syrian-Jordanian border, and unless it is terminated from the source, it will continue at different rates,” Idlibi said.
With city streets largely deserted apart from a massive military deployment, Ecuador found itself in a “state of war” as drug cartels waged a brutal campaign of kidnappings and attacks in response to a government crackdown.
Hundreds of soldiers patrolled the capital, Quito, where residents were gripped by fear over a surge in violence that has also prompted alarm abroad.
The small South American country has been plunged into crisis after years of increasing control by transnational cartels that use its ports to ship cocaine to the United States and Europe.
The latest outburst of violence was sparked by the discovery on Sunday of the prison escape of one of the country’s most powerful narco bosses, Jose Adolfo Macias, known by the alias “Fito”.
On Monday, President Daniel Noboa imposed a state of emergency and nighttime curfew, but the gangs hit back with a declaration of “war” – threatening to execute civilians and security forces.
They also instigated numerous prison riots, set off explosions in public places and waged attacks in which at least 14 people have been killed.
More than 100 prison guards and administrative staff have been taken hostage, the prisons authority said.
In the port city of Guayaquil, attackers wearing balaclavas stormed a state-owned TV station on Tuesday, briefly taking several journalists and staff members hostage and firing shots in dramatic scenes broadcast live before police arrived.
Local media reported some of the attackers were as young as 16.
This attack, in particular, spread panic among the general population, many of whom left work and closed shops to return to the safety of their homes.
“Today we are not safe, anything can happen,” said Luis Chiligano, a 53-year-old security guard in Quito who explained he was opting to hide rather than confront “the criminals, who are better armed”.
Noboa said on Wednesday that the country was now in a “state of war,” as he promised not to yield to the gangs.
Ecuador has declared a state of emergency after an “extremely dangerous” druglord escaped from maximum-security detention and unrest broke out at several prisons in the violence-plagued country.
President Daniel Noboa, in office since November, announced a 60-day mobilisation of soldiers in Ecuador’s streets and prisons as authorities searched for Jose Adolfo Macias, alias Fito.
There would also be a curfew from 11pm (04:00 GMT) to 5am (10:00 GMT) daily, the president said.
The state of emergency, Noboa said in a video on Instagram, would give members of the armed forces “all the political and legal support” they need to carry out their duties in a battle against what he described as “narcoterrorists”.
“We will not negotiate with terrorists nor rest until we return peace to all Ecuadorans,” Noboa said.
On Sunday, Fito, the leader of the powerful Los Choneros gang, was found missing by police conducting an inspection of a prison in the port city of Guayaquil.
The 44-year-old, who is said to have instilled terror in his fellow inmates, is believed to have escaped just hours before police arrived, according to presidency spokesperson Roberto Izurieta. He was apparently tipped off.
“The full force of the state is being deployed to find this extremely dangerous individual,” Izurieta told domestic television on Monday.
He said the prison system had failed and bemoaned “the level of infiltration” by criminal groups.
The prosecutor’s office, meanwhile, said it had opened an investigation and filed charges against two prison officials “allegedly involved in the escape” of Fito.
‘He must be found’
Fito had been serving a 34-year sentence for organised crime, drug trafficking and murder since 2011.
This is his second prison escape – the last was in 2013 when he was recaptured after three months.
A week before his death, anti-cartel candidate Villavicencio said he had received threats from Fito.
Long a peaceful haven between top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as rival gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
Gang wars largely play out in the country’s prisons, where criminal leaders such as Fito wield immense control.
Some 460 inmates have been killed in these battles since 2021, and their bodies are often found dismembered, decapitated or incinerated.
Izurieta said Fito, who studied law in prison, was a “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics, whose activities have characteristics of terrorism”.
“The search continues … He will be found, he must be found,” said the spokesperson.
After Fito’s escape, unrest broke out at penitentiaries in six of Ecuador’s 24 provinces on Monday, according to the SNAI prison authority, with guards taken hostage at some of the facilities.
Heavily armed police and soldiers entered the prisons of El Oro, Loja, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Azuay and Pichincha, after which the military distributed images of half-naked inmates rounded up in courtyards.
The SNAI said there had been no injuries due to the “incidents”.
Other videos on social media, not verified by the authorities, purported to show hooded inmates threatening officials with knives as they pleaded for their lives.
On the campaign trail, he proposed creating a separate judicial system for the most serious crimes, militarising the borders with Colombia and Peru, and jailing the most violent offenders on barges offshore.
Last week, he announced the construction of two new maximum-security prisons similar to those built by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has led a controversial crackdown on gangs credited with drastically reducing his country’s murder rate.
From the deepening conflict in Myanmar as a result of the 2021 coup to North Korea’s record years of weapons testing and confrontations in the South China Sea, it has been a busy year in the Asia Pacific.
Here are some of our most-read and must-reads from our original reporting in 2023.
Myanmar
More than two years since the generals seized power in a coup in February 2021, civilians found themselves caught in an escalating conflict, and targeted by a military notorious for its brutality.
Starting with satellite imagery of five villages burned to ashes in the country’s Sagaing region, Zaheena Rasheed and Nu Nu Lusan gathered evidence from villagers and witnesses to piece together what had happened.
“We have been working so hard for generations to build these houses and own this land, but they burned our homes and our grain in just one day,” one farmer told them. “They want us to become so poor that we do not resist them. I think they believe that if we are left with nothing, we would not resist. But they are wrong.”
At the end of October, three ethnic armed groups formed an alliance to begin a major offensive against the military in northern Shan state along the border with China.
Emily Fishbein, Jaw Tu Hkawng and Zau Myet Awng found Operation 1027, as the offensive was dubbed, sparking renewed optimism among anti-coup forces as the armed groups notched up early gains.
They have since made further advances from Shan state across to western Rakhine state despite a ferocious response from the military.
The fighting has worsened the humanitarian situation for many civilians, with local relief agencies providing assistance in the absence of an international response.
In Rakhine’s Minbya, a Rohingya woman told Al Jazeera she was living in fear amid relentless shelling and artillery fire.
“We can’t get out of Minbya right now. The fighting is all around,” she said in November. “I can hear bombing and gunfire every day, but I don’t know where they’re fighting. There’s no internet and the phone also often doesn’t work. I worry about everything.”
Rakhine has long been a troubled state. Home to the mostly Muslim Rohingya, it was where the military launched a brutal crackdown that sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017.
Cyclone Mocha caused devastation in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state [File: Sai Aung Main/AFP]
Many of those who remain are forced to live in camps where their movements are restricted.
These areas were hit in May by Cyclone Mocha, the most serious storm to hit Myanmar since Cyclone Nargis killed thousands of people in 2008.
Hpan Ja Brang, working with Emily Fishbein, were the first to report in international media of the devastation wreaked by the storm, especially in the Rohingya camps. You can read their report here.
Surge in trafficking
The Myanmar crisis has also had an increasing effect regionally – not just as a result of the generals’ refusal to carry through on promises to end the violence made to fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but because the instability is driving criminality.
Kevin Doyle travelled up to northern Thailand and the so-called Golden Triangle where seizures of drugs including methamphetamine and heroin have soared since the coup.
Chris Humphrey, meanwhile, who is based in Hanoi, found a surge in the number of Vietnamese being trafficked into Myanmar and forced to work as sex slaves or in scam call centres.
And Alastair McCready went to Laos where he discovered the supply of methamphetamine had grown so much that it had become cheaper than beer.
The crisis in Myanmar has increased the regional drugs trade [Alastair McCready/Al Jazeera]
Vietnam
Hanoi-based Chris Humphrey heard foreigners were being held in Vietnamese detention long after they had completed their prison sentences. The reason? Unpaid court fines and compensation to the victims of their crimes.
At the time the story was published, nationals from countries including Malaysia, Cambodia, South Africa and Nigeria were being held beyond their sentences in sometimes horrific conditions.
“It’s terrible. It is prison after prison,” Nigerian Ezeigwe Evaristus Chukwuebuka told Al Jazeera. “I was seriously humiliated, locked up in a dark, stinky, small room without a toilet, and my legs locked up in bars for two weeks.”
Indonesia
For 30 years until May 1998, Indonesia was ruled by strongman Soeharto.
His departure, amid mass protests, brought new freedoms for Indonesia’s more than 200 million people, particularly its ethnic Chinese minority who had long endured government-sponsored discrimination and were often targeted for their perceived wealth.
Randy Mulyanto and Charlenne Kayla Roeslie spoke to five Indonesians of Chinese descent to find out more about those times and how things had changed.
Iskandar Salim told them that he used to struggle with his identity – feeling like he was not Indonesian enough but not fully Chinese either. Now, he is proud to define himself.
“I can simply say, ‘I am Indonesian, more specifically Chinese Indonesian’,” Iskander told Al Jazeera. “In the end, our identity is ours to decide and define.” Find out more here.
Staying in Indonesia, after Aisyah Llewellyn heard that school children had been caught up in tear gas fired by police at protesters on the island of Rempang – not too far from Singapore – she went there to find out what was going on.
She discovered a controversial plan for a Chinese factory to make glass for solar panels and develop a massive eco-city. The problem? Thousands of residents would have to move to make way for it.
“This is my home and this is where I want to die,” 80-year-old Halimah told Al Jazeera. “I love this place more than anything.”
You can learn more about the villagers and their determination to stop the project here.
A year after the tragedy at the Kanjuruhan football stadium in Malang, Llewellyn flew to the city to speak to the families of some of the 135 people who died.
The stadium has been demolished and will be redeveloped but the struggle to reform Indonesian football will not be so simple. You can read that piece here.
Phillip Mehrtens was taken captive by Papuan independence fighters in February [The West Papua National Liberation Army via Reuters]
And finally, the kidnapping of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens by an armed group fighting for independence in Papua drew renewed international attention to the long-running conflict in the resource-rich region.
Here’s the story from Kate Mayberry. Mehrtens is still being held captive.
Military developments
Military developments were a key focus of the year, with North Korea testing a record number of weapons as it stepped up efforts to modernise its armed forces.
In September, leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip out of his country, boarding his armoured train on a mission to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Putin agreed to help Kim build satellites and officials showed off Russia’s military technology, In November, North Korea put its first spy satellite into the air – after three failed launches – and is promising more for 2024.
Experts say it continues to fund such activities by illicit means – from hacking to money laundering (you can read more on the ghostly North Korean restaurants that continue to trade in Laos here). The big question is what North Korea is giving Russia in return for its help. Weapons, probably.
Kim argues he needs to develop his country’s arsenal because the United States is deepening its military and political relationship with South Korea. The US, meanwhile, says it has to work more closely with Seoul and its allies because of the increasing threat from Pyongyang.
It is a similar story in the South China Sea, where Beijing has come into multiple confrontations with Manila in the Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal.
To much concern in Beijing, the situation has pushed the Philippines closer to the US. Zaheena Rasheed travelled to the country to find out why. You can read that story here.
China
2023 was the year China emerged from years of isolation as a result of its zero-COVID strategy.
That policy meant relentless testing, isolation or quarantine camp. Erin Hale discovered months after the policy was lifted that many of the vast camps remained.
Meanwhile, in this story, Frederik Kelter reported many Chinese had struggled to recover from the trauma of zero-COVID and the abrupt decision to drop it following unprecedented protests.
“So many people suffered under the zero-COVID policy and so many people died when it ended,” Evelyn Ma told Al Jazeera.
The famous Kampung Baru Mosque’s bubur [Lai Seng Sin/AP Photo]
We also took a closer look at China’s growing influence in the Solomon Islands and the curious case of a shipment of what were said to be “replica” weapons from China.
The Asia Pacific is home to a wide variety of religions, from Buddhism to Christianity and Islam.
Raphael Rashid looked at how plans for a tiny mosque in the South Korean city of Daegu triggered a wave of virulent Islamophobia, which saw pig heads left rotting outside the building and protesters holding pork barbecues. You can read more on that story here.
We also reported on how Beijing is asserting control over religions, from Catholicism to Islam.
As Theresa Liu, a Chinese Catholic who follows the church in Rome, told Al Jazeera: “The government is trying to control everything about our religion – how our churches look, who our priests are, the way we pray. I think different religious groups all over China are having trouble with the government.”
People wave Chinese and Hong Kong flags, as Pope Francis arrives to attend the Holy Mass in Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia in September [Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters]
On a lighter – or should it be heavier – note, Marco Ferrarese profiled the Taiwanese death metal band Dharma. Their unique selling point – their lyrics are actually Buddhist verses and nuns join them on stage.
In Malaysia, meanwhile, Ramadan is known for unique dishes that can only be found during the Muslim fasting month. One of them is bubur lambuk from the Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru Mosque.
Ushar Daniele and Bhavya Vemulapalli joined the mosque’s volunteer chefs to find out the secret to the creamy porridge’s popularity.
Washington, DC – It was a hot summer day in July when Shekita McBroom received a phone call from a local hair salon.
The stylist on the other end of the line urgently needed a resupply — not of hair dye or shampoo, but of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
Commonly known by the brand name Narcan, naloxone is a life-saving medication, often taken as a nasal spray to counteract the symptoms of opioid consumption.
That a hair salon had a backroom supply of the drug came as no surprise, though, to McBroom, a community advocate in Washington, DC, who campaigns to prevent overdoses. If anything, she would like to see naloxone available more widely — including through vending machines.
“I try to connect people with more supply because they don’t always know where to find it,” she told Al Jazeera. But with vending machines, she sees a convenient solution: a quick and easy way to dispense emergency care at all hours of the day, in neighbourhoods where services might otherwise be limited.
More and more communities in the United States are adopting that approach. In 2023, there has been a boom in vending machines dispensing overdose reversal drugs for free — as well as fentanyl testing strips, clean needles and other “harm reduction” items.
Community advocate Shekita McBroom helps to connect people in the community with Narcan, in an effort to prevent overdoses [Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]
US ‘behind everyone’ in adopting method
Washington, DC, was among several cities to launch a vending machine programme this year. It currently has seven vending machines overseen by two local community health organisations.
Four of those machines, overseen by the Family and Medical Counseling Service Inc, dispensed 204 packages of Narcan from October to November. That meant, on an average day, about three boxes of Narcan, each containing two doses, made their way to those in need.
“We’ve been surprised at the amount of activity that the machines actually can get,” said Angela Wood, the group’s chief operating officer.
She pointed out that the vending machines do not require users to produce any personal information — or even interact with a real person, thereby reducing the potential for stigma.
“It’s a way for people to gain access to these products in their own time, in their own way, without having to fully engage with a programme,” she told Al Jazeera.
Chicago likewise introduced a pilot programme for naloxone vending machines in November, and New York City opened its first machine in Brooklyn in June.
There were also advances on the state level. West Virginia, Wisconsin, Vermont, Missouri, Kansas and Connecticut all either unveiled or approved deployments of the vending machines this year.
Even tribal governments have embraced the strategy. In April, the Pala Band of Mission Indians installed what it described as the first naloxone vending machine on tribal land in the US. Four months later, the Tulalip reservation in Washington state set up its own machine.
The spread of the vending machines has been dramatic, according to Rebecca Stewart, an assistant professor at the Penn Center for Mental Health who studies substance abuse treatment.
“They’re really popping up all over the country,” she said.
The trend began in the US only five years ago, in 2017, with a vending machine programme in Nevada. But as Stewart pointed out, similar programmes had already existed for years in Europe, Australia and even Puerto Rico.
“The United States is sort of behind everyone in this aspect,” she said. “In terms of harm reduction vending machines, these have been implemented for decades all over the world. And so these implementations in the United States are just beginning.”
Four of the seven naloxone vending machines in Washington, DC, dispensed 204 packages of the medication over two months alone [Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]
Escaping the ‘moral hazard’ argument
One of the biggest hurdles to adopting the vending machines has traditionally been public opinion.
Stewart said many Americans — including politicians and policymakers — feared that the vending machines would encourage drug use by making the practice safer. She calls it the “moral hazard” argument.
Even this year, officials echoed that line of thinking. Kentucky installed its first naloxone vending machine in 2022, but some local politicians remain opposed to their expansion into neighbouring counties.
“You’re basically promoting and enabling the people that’s got the problem with the drugs instead of maybe trying to help them get off the drugs,” Nelson County Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins told the TV news station WHAS11 in February.
Still, overdose deaths continue to rise in the US. Every year since 2021, more than 100,000 people have died from drug overdoses — double what was recorded in 2015.
The majority of those overdose deaths have been linked to opioids, with experts blaming the emergence of synthetics like fentanyl for sending the death toll skyrocketing.
Ryan Hampton, an activist and organiser who focuses on addiction, sees the increase in vending machines as evidence of the immediacy of the opioid crisis.
He fears the US continues to overlook “harm reduction” strategies as a tool to bring the death rate down. The term “harm reduction” is used broadly to describe methods that can help prevent overdoses or other knock-on effects of drug use, like disease transmission through needle sharing.
“For too long, harm reduction has been a stigmatised strategy,” Hampton said.
Instead, he explained that the US has invested more in a “prevention/interdiction” model that discourages drug use in the first place. The result, he added, has been few resources dedicated to stopping overdoses and other drug-related harms.
“What is being invested by no means meets the demand for the services or the scale for what’s needed right now,” he said.
“With the toxic drug supply that we’re faced with, harm reduction has to be a mechanism that we deploy in every setting that we can, whether that be in vending machines or community care settings.”
For her part, Stewart has noticed a shift away from perceptions that naloxone is an “enabler” for opioid use.
Rather, her research, which focused on Philadelphia, found that community members were open to the prospect of overdose-reversal medications being readily available in vending machines.
“One of the things we found from talking to these different stakeholders is that Narcan was universally accepted,” she added. “And I feel like this is a really promising finding because I don’t think Narcan was universally accepted five years ago.”
A package of Narcan sits among hair salon supplies in Washington, DC [Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]
Lower tech, higher access
But the vending machines themselves are no silver bullet. Attention must also be paid to how they are deployed, said Nabarun Dasgupta, a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Injury Prevention Research Center.
As the co-founder of Remedy Alliance/For the People, an organisation that seeks to make naloxone more easily available, Dasgupta said he has seen unnecessary requirements be tacked onto how the vending machines are used.
For example, several jurisdictions have required the machines to be refrigerated. But Dasgupta called that requirement a costly “commercial misdirection”, unnecessary for naloxone’s storage.
“The better version of the vending machine paradigm is to go with lower tech [and] higher access,” Dasgupta told Al Jazeera.
He believes community input is key to designing programmes that reach the people whose needs are greatest. One start-up, he pointed out, is using old newspaper stands on city streets to distribute naloxone in Michigan.
“I think, with 100,000 people a year dying of overdose, something isn’t working,” Dasgupta said. “It’s time for new solutions. And the vending machines are part of a generation of new solutions.”
Other changes are also under way to make naloxone more easily accessible across the US.
In March, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first naloxone nasal spray for use without a prescription, which paved the way for drug stores, corner markets and gas stations to stock the product for over-the-counter use.
Hair salon owner LaShaun Love says she receives requests for Narcan in her shop weekly, if not daily [Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]
A personal battle
Back in Washington, DC, community advocate McBroom found herself eyeing an empty vending machine in the hair salon of her friend, LaShaun Love.
Where once there had been snacks for sale, McBroom imagined rows of naloxone and other “harm reduction” items on the vending machine’s shelves, ready for anyone who might need them.
And the need is great in Washington, DC. The city saw 448 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022, giving it one of the highest per-capita rates in the country.
Love, the salon’s owner, revealed she kept a cardboard box full of Narcan on hand, just in case.
“Normally, I keep one right here on my station and then another right up at the front,” she told Al Jazeera. That way, neighbourhood residents can have easy access.
“They’ll knock on the door and say, ‘Miss Shaun, you got any Narcan?’ Even ambulance workers have asked me for it.” Requests from the community come weekly, if not daily, Love added.
For McBroom, the fight to prevent overdoses is personal. Her own daughter Jayla died in 2021 at age 17, following a fentanyl overdose.
She hopes to see more vending machines integrated into the community, where they can have the greatest impact.
“The person who needs Narcan could be your family,” she said. “Wouldn’t you rather they were able to have access to something that could ultimately save their life?”
Jakarta, Indonesia – For more than a decade, Mary Jane Veloso has been held in a prison in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta awaiting execution after being found guilty of drug trafficking.
This year, her family got to see her for the first time in five years.
“Mary Jane has been here in Indonesia for a very long time already. Before Mary Jane’s father and I pass away, we hope that she comes home for her children and she will be the one that takes care of her children,” her mother Celia told Al Jazeera.
“It’s been a very long time. We want her back,” she added.
Like many Filipinos, Veloso sought work overseas because the money was better than at home.
Leaving her two sons with her mother, she first went to Dubai where she spent nine months as a domestic worker.
After another household employee allegedly tried to rape her, Veloso left her job and returned home to the Philippines where she was approached by a woman named Maria Kristina Sergio who said she had a job for her in Malaysia.
Eager for another chance, Veloso accepted the offer but when she got to Malaysia, she found there was no work.
Sergio, her contact, instead suggested Veloso join her on a holiday to Indonesia, but when the women landed at Yogyakarta’s Adisutjipto Airport in April 2010, officials found 2.6kg (5.7 pounds) of heroin in 25-year-old Veloso’s suitcase.
Six months later, she was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to death.
Despite a tough line on drugs by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who was first elected in 2014, Veloso has so far managed to escape the firing squad.
Veloso’s family speaking to the media about their efforts to secure clemency earlier this year [File: Rolex Dela Pena/EPA]
She won a last-minute reprieve in 2015, when seven foreigners and an Indonesian were executed, after Sergio turned herself in to the Philippines police on allegations of people trafficking and the government in Manila under then President Benigno Aquino asked for Veloso’s case to be reviewed.
As Widodo enters his last few months in office, Veloso’s family are now hoping the outgoing president will agree to clemency for the Filipino after, in March, giving a rare pardon to another domestic worker who had also been sentenced to death.
‘Forced to go abroad’
Veloso’s supporters argue she is a victim of human trafficking.
According to the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), which is raising awareness about Veloso’s case, the drugs were “secretly stashed in a bag given to her by the brother of Tintin’s [Sergio’s] boyfriend in Malaysia without Mary Jane’s knowledge, consent or intention”.
Hailing from Nueva Ecija, north of Manila on the island of Luzon, all the women in the Veloso family were among the millions of Filipinos working overseas to provide for their families.
“Our life is very difficult, it’s very hard, we don’t have much [money] to eat,” their mother Celia Veloso explained. “That’s why we are forced to make a choice to go abroad. All of my daughters, four of them… all worked overseas”.
Mary Jane’s recruiters for the supposed job in Malaysia, Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, were found guilty in January 2020 of running an alleged illegal recruitment network and sentenced to life in prison.
Veloso has also filed a case against the pair in the same court but has been unable to give testimony because it needs to be delivered in person and she cannot do so because while being on death row in Indonesia.
“The only barrier right now for that to move forward is for both governments, both Indonesia and the Philippine government, to agree on the technicality… where this testimony will be taken,” said Joanna Concepcion, who chairs Migrante International, an organisation advocating for Veloso.
Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told Al Jazeera he had not followed up on the issue and referred questions to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
The law ministry spokesperson did not reply to Al Jazeera’s questions.
Mary Jane Veloso at a prison craft workshop in 2016 [Rana Dyandra/Antara Foto via Reuters]
Widodo and former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office after Aquino, shared the same hardline approach to drugs, with Duterte leading a brutal crackdown, which left thousands dead and is now the subject of an International Criminal Court investigation.
Instead of seeking clemency from Indonesia, Widodo said Duterte had given the green light for Veloso’s execution in 2015. The Philippines, which does not use capital punishment, said Duterte had said he would simply respect the judicial process.
Migrante International’s Concepcion says there does not seem to have been much of a change in approach since Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in June 2022.
“He continues the same policy and has not publicly said that it would change anything that Duterte had done,” she said.
Indonesia and the Philippines are founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Indonesia was the first country Marcos Jr visited after he was elected president..
“Maybe he is playing it safe,” Concepcion added. “It was his first state visit at that time as president, so I’m sure that the agenda items that he would discuss were very carefully planned out, of what specific issues that his first state visit would focus on”.
In the first two years of Widodo’s first term, 18 people, including two women, were executed. All had been found guilty of drug offences.
Under international law, where the death penalty exists, it is supposed to be used only for the “most serious crimes”, a threshold that does not include drug crimes.
Amid widespread criticism from national, regional and global human rights defenders, there has not been an execution in Indonesia since July 2016, according to Afif Abdul Qoyim, coordinator of the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBHM), an organisation that campaigns against the death penalty.
Activists have been calling for a moratorium, but one is not formally in place.
“[The president] still can arrange an execution any time he wants, or the next government can also do it in the early part of their reign,” Afif told Al Jazeera.
Maintaining pressure
Earlier this year, Jokowi gave clemency to another female migrant worker, Merri Utami, who was almost executed in 2016.
Even though Merri Utami’s and Veloso’s cases share some similarities, Afif notes some key differences.
“One of the factors, probably, is the nationality. Merri Utami is Indonesian, while Mary Jane has a foreign nationality,” he explained, adding that Indonesia often tried to suggest that it was foreigners who were most involved in drug trafficking.
Still, Mary Jane Veloso is not losing hope.
While Marcos Jr may seem to have continued the Duterte approach to the case, on the sidelines of his visit to Indonesia, his Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo made a request for “executive clemency” for Veloso during a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Jakarta.
Now Veloso’s legal team is lodging an appeal before Widodo leaves office.
“The truth is, the first clemency was to SBY [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president from 2004-2014]. Mary Jane never asked clemency to Jokowi,” Veloso’s lawyer Agus Salim told Al Jazeera.
The Indonesia general election is scheduled for February 2024.
“We are going to keep pushing until Widodo formally leaves the office… We’re still hopeful that there are some actions, some development,” Concepcion said.
Veloso’s family is anxiously awaiting developments.
Her eldest son Mark Danielle is now 20 years old,
“It’s hard to grow up without my mother,” he said. “We really want to be with my mother and be able to see her every day, to see her, to hug her.”
The US president says the actions are meant to address disparities in sentencing that have long taken a toll on the Black community.
US President Joe Biden has pardoned thousands of people convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, says the White House.
Friday’s action, Biden’s latest in executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system, broadened the criminal offences covered by the pardon.
Biden has also granted clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for non-violent drug offences.
In a statement, he said his actions would help make the “promise of equal justice a reality”.
“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said.
“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
The categorical pardon built on a similar round issued just before the 2022 midterm elections that pardoned thousands convicted of simple possession on federal lands.
The US has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but a fifth of its prisoners, and a disproportionate number of them are people of colour, a large segment of Biden’s support base.
Biden has been gearing up for an intense year of campaigning in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election as his popularity sags, especially among young people.
Some of the people pardoned were serving life sentences, the White House said, including Earlie Deacon Barber of Alabama for cocaine distribution and Deondre Cordell Higgins of Missouri for distributing crack cocaine.
Given recent reforms, each would have been eligible for reduced sentences if they were sentenced today.
Some of the long sentences reflect longstanding disparities in sentencing for crack-vs-powder cocaine convictions. Legal experts have now said that such punishments do not aid public safety and disproportionately affect Black communities.
Biden’s new marijuana proclamation pardoned people who were “committed or were convicted of the offense of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana,” including for use and possession on certain federal lands.
As of January 2022, no offenders sentenced solely for simple possession of marijuana were in federal prisons, the US Sentencing Commission found this year.
Manila, Philippines – Leila de Lima was released from detention last month into what the former Philippines senator calls “a whole new world”.
In 2016, then-President Rodrigo Duterte promised to “destroy” de Lima, one of the loudest critics of his deadly drug war. The president’s supporters began targeting the first-term senator and former human rights commissioner – ridiculing her for an alleged romantic affair with her driver, and accusing her of involvement in drug trafficking.
In February 2017, she was arrested on drug charges she denies and that international observers have said are politically motivated.
“I had this deep sense of disbelief,” de Lima told Al Jazeera. “I never thought that Mr Duterte would go to that extent, that length, of jailing me. I thought it would just be daily vilification, personal attacks, attacks against my womanhood.”
In 2022, Duterte’s term came to an end and he was replaced by Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. While Marcos has abandoned much of Duterte’s incendiary rhetoric towards critics, drug war killings and human rights abuses have continued under his administration.
De Lima was finally granted bail last month after all but one of the witnesses who testified against her recanted their statements; some have said they gave forced testimonies. Duterte has now left politics, although his daughter, Sara, is vice president. Both could be subject to an investigation into the drug war by the International Criminal Court, even though Duterte pulled Manila out of the court in 2019.
A member of the opposition Liberal Party, de Lima spoke at length about Marcos, whose alliance with the Duterte family is beginning to fracture publicly. Marcos is now studying cooperation with the ICC after insisting earlier this year he would shut out its investigators.
De Lima, 64, says she plans to return to her private law practice and has no plans to run for office after losing a Senate reelection bid from prison last year. But she refuses to remain silent, promising not to give her political enemies the “satisfaction” after her prolonged detention. “I would ask myself, is it worth it?” she said. “The answer was always yes.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Al Jazeera: How are you adjusting to freedom?
Leila de Lima: I’m gradually adjusting and getting my bearings back. There’s a feeling of disorientation after spending almost seven years in closed, constricted, confined quarters.
It was painful for me to be away from my family and friends. There were nights that I would really cry. My mum [who suffers from dementia] didn’t know I was in jail. What she knew was that I was in the United States on study leave.
It was simply hurtful and revolting, at the same time, because I didn’t deserve to be in jail.
Al Jazeera: What did Duterte hope to achieve by arresting you?
Leila de Lima: He destroyed my public persona and my political life because so many people believed him. And that was, if I may say so, a brilliant strategy on his part, because [he and his allies] thought few people would believe those accusations about my alleged drug links. So they thought of first demeaning me and destroying my womanhood so that more people would believe their accusations.
It was so foul, it was so despicable of him to look into my private life, using that and demeaning my person, my character, my reputation.
Al Jazeera: You received extensive support from abroad, but less so in the Philippines. Were you surprised?
Leila de Lima: It was expected. I expected most in Congress, and even the Supreme Court, to be cowed. And the support of the international community was also expected because Duterte was not exactly the favourite of democratic countries. I just happened to be the symbol of opposition against his drug war, this murderous drug war.
I want the world to always be watching our country because it helped. Something worse could have been done to me were it not for the interest of the international community.
Leila de Lima pictured after a warrant was issued for her arrest in 2017 [File: Philippine Senate-Public Relations and Information Bureau via EPA]
Al Jazeera: Duterte and his allies habitually used misogynistic and gendered language to attack you and other women who opposed him. What has made such attacks so effective in the Philippines?
Leila de Lima: It’s still a male-dominated society. The machismo culture is still there. We see very successful women in almost all fields, but it’s still a challenge for us to be recognised for our own merits, not for our sexuality. Women have more empathy – it would be a more ideal society if more women leaders were in government.
After Duterte’s attacks, I got more than 2,000 hate messages on my cell phone. Unprintable words. So I had to get rid of my cell phone.
Al Jazeera: How did you react as you observed these tactics from within detention?
Leila de Lima: He caused a lot of harm to this country. He has demolished institutions, he has co-opted institutions, ruined our cultural values. But I never lost faith in the Filipino people, just as I didn’t lose faith in the justice system.
I worried about the desensitisation of the people, the madness of encouraging killings and not observing the rule of law and due process. I was alarmed that so few people were standing up against him.
Al Jazeera: Has that desensitisation carried over into the present under Marcos?
Leila de Lima: There are now some developments that show we are now in the normalisation process under the new administration. The approach to the drug problem has drastically changed, from [extrajudicial] and state-inspired killings to a more humane approach to the war on drugs. And there’s also some democratic space now. There’s less repression and less harassment of critics and dissenters.
I’d like to believe it’s a positive trend. We have to dismantle the bad legacies of the Duterte regime, especially in the area of human rights. Also, veering away from China and going back to our traditional allies is a very positive development.
Al Jazeera: When you were released, you thanked Marcos for “respecting the independence of the judiciary”. Do you think there’s still work to be done?
Leila de Lima: There’s still work to be done. But this administration just has to be clear in its respect for the independence of the judiciary. Duterte would always try to co-opt the judiciary, such as the removal [in 2018] of Chief Justice [Maria Lourdes] Sereno from the Supreme Court.
I don’t think there’s any country with a perfect justice system. But my case has been a visible example of how an independent judiciary can yield very positive results.
Al Jazeera: In September, activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro accused the military of forcibly abducting them. Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has publicly questioned their story, despite presumably being impartial, and their lawyer has accused the Supreme Court of failing to act after they filed a protection order. Should the Marcos administration be more proactive in such cases in ensuring judicial independence?
Leila de Lima: Of course, this administration should be more proactive in everything. It’s beset with a lot of challenges. And the remnants of the old regime are still there. So if the seeds are still there, and if nothing much is done to get rid of them, then you can expect the old ways to be revived.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict [alleged to play a large role in the abduction] should be dismantled right away. It has served no purpose except to sow disunity and encourage human rights violations. That’s why we have the cases of Jhed and Jonila.
Environmental activists Jhed Tamano, left, and Jonila Castro accused the Philippine military of kidnapping them as they appeared at a government news conference in September [File: Jam Sta Rosa/AFP]
Al Jazeera: How well do you know President Marcos?
Leila de Lima: I don’t know him, I just know him as the son of the former dictator. We met once [in 2016], and we hardly talked.
I just know him as a president now. And I’ve been observing him. He’s trying his best, I think, to cut himself from the legacy and stigma of his father. Although they’re not at all acknowledging that, they’re not apologetic about it. But he’s trying as much as possible to build his own image.
We talked over the phone after I was taken hostage in prison. He asked how I was and said he could transfer me to a more secure place, but I said I would rather stay in my detention quarters. He said he would make sure my quarters were more secure, and sure enough, they reinforced my security there.
Al Jazeera: Marcos Jr’s reluctance to acknowledge the atrocities of his father’s martial rule has led critics to worry his presidency doesn’t bode well for democracy in the Philippines. Should he do more to distance himself from his father?
Leila de Lima: Yes. It’s quite tough on his part. He had little political experience. He needs more or better advisers around him, legal and political advisers and consultants. And he must get his priorities straight, must really attend to the challenges of the economy, to inflation. It’s tough on his part because he’s trying to build his own name.
Al Jazeera: As president, Duterte embraced the legacy of Marcos Sr, which many believe paved the way for his son to become president. Is it fair to say this presidency wouldn’t exist without the one before it?
Leila de Lima: What is clear to me is that it was an alliance of convenience. They needed each other. Duterte would have wanted his daughter to be the candidate, but [former President] Gloria Macapagal Arroyo forged a partnership [where Marcos and Sara Duterte would share a ticket] because [Liberal Party candidate] Leni Robredo was having a strong showing with voters. It was a formidable alliance.
Al Jazeera: With Marcos in power, that alliance is now starting to fracture. Is there a point where, just as Marcos and Duterte needed each other, Marcos may need to turn to Duterte’s critics, such as yourself and Maria Ressa?
Leila de Lima: That remains to be seen. It all depends on what values we can commonly share. Right now, we are sharing those values, those targets, especially in the matter of the ICC investigation and the human rights aspect of this country.
So for as long as we share those ideals and those values, there’s always that possibility. We’re not ruling that out. And for as long as he treads the right path of governance, there is the likelihood that some of the support will be there.
But we still consider ourselves, the Liberal Party, as the opposition. We are not that noisy because we are still observing him. But we can see the difference from Duterte. That’s why we cannot openly be hostile to him at this point.
Al Jazeera: Do you think Duterte supporters may break from Marcos over a potential ICC investigation?
Leila de Lima: There’s always that possibility. But we can see the weakening of the Duterte influence. He was perceived to be invincible. But we can see now that he is not. We can say the same thing with Sara. She may not be that powerful. When her father’s influence weakens, then that goes with her.
Protesters carry a mock coffin in protest at the thousands of killings under Rodrigo Duterte”s war on drugs in 2017 [File: Bullit Marquez/AP Photo]
Al Jazeera: What sort of role would you play in an ICC investigation?
Leila de Lima: Both advisory and proactive. It depends on what the ICC needs from me.
Al Jazeera: Last week, a group of families of drug war victims released a statement through their attorneys, saying: “We would not have needed the ICC had the Philippine government squarely addressed the war on drugs. But it did not, and has not.” Indeed, since Marcos took power in June 2022, there have been no convictions in what could be up to 30,000 deaths.
Leila de Lima: There’s no argument that the justice system is working. We have been investigating already, but it’s very deficient. The ICC is willing and very much capable of doing these investigations. And nothing was happening insofar as the higher echelons of those responsible for the killings, no government or domestic authority was investigating Duterte and Senator Ronald dela Rosa [previously Duterte’s police chief and top enforcer of the war on drugs].
Al Jazeera: Should Marcos have ordered investigations into the drug war upon taking power?
Leila de Lima: Yes, that is the ideal situation. That is what we were expecting when the new administration came in. But as I said, more than one year, and there’s only an investigation into low-level perpetrators. We have not seen anything more than that.
So it would be too late now. The ICC is at a further stage of its investigation. So [deferring to the ICC] is reasonable, it’s practical, and it’s keeping with the dictates of justice and accountability.
The problem is just how soon the ICC investigation can move and result in a concrete development, like the issuance of a warrant of arrest. That would make people believe the ICC is serious, and that its investigation is something we can look forward to.
Al Jazeera: To you, would the prosecution of Duterte by the ICC feel like the beginning of a healing process?
Leila de Lima: He has to be made accountable for what he did to me. I’m not a vindictive person; it’s not for vengefulness. It’s a matter of justice. I’m a victim of gross injustice.
I need to be fully vindicated. I need people to know the truth about my innocence. I need people to know how and what he has done to me. So full vindication is what I’m after.
A recently opened Whole Foods Market in San Francisco closed its doors on Monday over growing crime in the downtown area, according to a report.
The popular grocery store chain shuttered its SF flagship location a little more than a year after it opened, citing worker safety concerns, The San Francisco Standard reported.
“We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being,” a Whole Foods spokesperson told the local outlet in a statement. “If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.”
The company said rampant drug use and growing crime lead to its decision, a city hall source told The Standard.
The Whole Foods store had already reduced its hours in October of last year after experiencing “high theft” and hostile patrons, a store manager said.
A month later, store managers restricted use of its bathrooms to customers only after syringes and pipes were found in the restrooms, the publication reported.
The city has also been plagued by a lack of foot traffic as many residents are no longer going into offices in the downtown area and are instead working from home.
Countless small businesses have shuttered.
San Francisco’s District 6 supervisor Matt Dorsey said he was “incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised” by the Whole Foods closure.
People maintain distance while waiting to enter the Whole Foods Market at the San Francisco location. AP Whole Foods store managers restricted use of its bathrooms to customers only after syringes and pipes were found in the restrooms. AP
“Our neighborhood waited a long time for this supermarket, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them,” Dorsey said in a statement.
The Democrat said he was drafting new legislation to ensure the San Francisco police department is fully staffed within five years.
The department has been down 335 officers since 2017 and well below its staffing goal, The Standard reported.
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