THE HEART OF DARKNESS
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 On August 27, 1994, five agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration were lost in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Their plane crashed in the
Huallaga Valley, the place where sixty percent of the world's cocaine was coming from at
the time. Most of it ends up on the streets of the United States. At the time, you could
have called that place the heart of darkness.A newspaper headline the next day told of the five agents. They came
from five different cities in the United States. There was a lot of pain in that disaster.
The pain of the people who worked with them, the people who hiked a long way into the
jungle to recover their bodies. The pain of their families. The pain their boss Mr.
Constantine felt when he got this news, when he informed the families, when he attended
funerals in five different cities, when he went back to work the next day.Lest you think that this tragedy was without purpose, in fact during
the 1990s, courageous Special Agents like these and many other law enforcement
professionals in America, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and other nations affected by
international drug trafficking had the satisfaction of seeing coca production in Peru
brought down by sixty percent. An extraordinary achievement.The Southern Cross is a constellation of five bright stars that is
seen in the skies of the Southern Hemisphere. It helps sailors find their way on the
ocean the same way that the North Star does in the Northern Hemisphere.The Cordillera is the vast chain of mountains that runs from North
America all the way to the tip of South America. In the United States and Canada it forms
the Rocky Mountains. In South America it is called the Andes.The nations in the northern part of South America through which the
Cordillera runs are the source of the coca used to produce cocaine. The plant is native
to that region.THE SOUTHERN CROSS for: Frank Fernandez, Jr. Jay W. Seale Meredith Thompson Frank S. Wallace, Jr. Juan C. Vars 27 August 1994 From under the shining Southern Cross Comes news to us of tragic loss. Five lives in service to the law Are vanished in the jungle's maw. Was it turbulence, malfunction or simply pilot error Above the foothills of the Cordillera That caused this dull surveillance mission To end with "mayday" its last transmission? Who knows? What difference could it make Were it crime, mischance or just mistake? The Andes' vast magnificence Is dwarfed by the significance Of what they risked and dared and undertook And what we've lost. O, there should be a lengthy book To tell the tale of these and all Who in our time have harked the call To take up arms and travel far To lands where no familiar star Is in the heavens shining. How long were they in far Peru for home and loved ones pining? Too long. In a world so full of hopelessness and so devoid of song Where do we find these stalwart souls Who tilt at windmills and chase impossible goals? Whose deeds inspire us all to hope That time will come when we'll no longer in darkness grope? No more hurt. No more grief. No more messages of loss. In southern latitudes the seaman finds his way by Southern Cross. He scans the firmament above for that familiar constellation. Tonight, he'll be astonished when he sees its augmentation. Not four, but five new shining stars before his eyes From the very heart of darkness will rise. Go To TABLE OF CONTENTS  Questions? E-mail Us! CONSTANTINE'S CIRCUS, INC. PO Box 7223 Capitol Station Albany, NY 12224-0223 518-465-4413 518-465-3200 FAX |
