LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

South Africa’s harsh anti-drug laws have aroused great interest in Washington because of the impending visit by General Alfredo Stroessner, President of Paraguay, who arrives in Pretoria on Tuesday. For the past year General Stroessner has had to live with public charges that some of his top government, military and secret police officers were involved in the largest heroin smuggling operation in the world. Many of the charges were contained in the May 1973 edition of Readers Digest, which has an estimated 100-milion readers in the world. In view of the staggering list of charges against Paraguay, observers in Washington find it difficult to understand the relationship between South Africa and Paraguay, whose attitudes to the drug evil appear to be so diametrically opposed. The charges against Paraguay led to a bitter confrontation between President Richard Nixon and President Stroessner in 1972 over the extradition of Auguste Joseph Ricord, the mastermind behind the vast heroin smuggling racket who had his headquarters in Asuncion, in Paraguay.

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The Mozambican Supreme Court has dropped all charges against Foreign Affairs official Robert McBride, 12 months after he was arrested in Maputo on charges of gunrunning, espionage and criminal conspiracy. The former member of the ANC’s armed wing spent six months in the notorious Machava Prison before being released on bail last September, when he returned home. Foreign Affairs spokesman Marco Boni said: “Our embassy in Maputo informed the department of the court’s decision on Friday.” McBride was arrested last March in Maputo while trying to flee Mozambique after police spotted him outside the home of known gunrunner Alex Mamba. McBride had wrongfully used his diplomatic passport to enter Mozambique and was found with $11,000 (R65,000) in cash in his possession.