National Police Chief Resigns

Colombia’s top police official and a key U.S. ally in the war on drugs announced that he is resigning. Five years after dismantling the Cali cocaine cartel, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said his nation’s battle against drugs, kidnapping and guerrilla violence has claimed too many lives. “I’ve been to so many police officers’ funerals I can’t bear another,” he said. Nearly 2,000 police have died since 1994, the year Serrano became national police chief. Serrano, whose retirement was widely expected, is highly regarded in Washington for his cooperation in the drug war.