Brasília, 12/3/03 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazil and the United States are studying ways to cooperate in protecting children from drugs. The issue was recently discussed by the minister of Justice, Marcio Thomaz Bastos, and the US ambassador in Brazil, Donna Hrinak. Also joining the talks were American authorities in the fight against drugs: general Robert Bishop, Barry Crane and Ton Lloyd.

Crane, who is the deputy director of the US Program to Reduce the Supply of Drugs, declared that "Drug criminals are predators of our children and we cannot permit them to operate in this hemisphere. We are moving ahead with a cooperation effort that has been underway for many years." (AB)