US Vice President Joe Biden headed to Latin America yesterday amid unprecedented pressure from political and business leaders to talk about something US officials have no interest in debating: decriminalizing drugs.
Presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico, all grappling with the extremely violent fallout of a failing drug war, have said in recent weeks they would like to open up the discussion of legalizing drugs. Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico already allow the use of small amounts of marijuana for personal consumption, while political leaders from Brazil and Colombia are discussing alternatives to locking up drug users.
Business leaders are weighing in as well: Last month, a group of banking, medical and legal experts sponsored a drug policy conference in Mexico City that concluded that current drug control policies are not working and need reform.
“It’s a different moment when you have actual heads of state talking about the need for a thorough debate on this,” said John Walsh, a drug policy expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, an independent think tank. “It’s certainly different for sitting presidents to be uttering those words. You wouldn’t have thought it possible just a few years ago.”
US Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Dan Restrepo, the top Latin America official in the White House, briefing reporters about Biden’s trip, said the vice president expected a “robust conversation” about the security problems Latin American countries face as drug traffickers battle to control the lucrative US sales, but he said that Latin American leaders should not -expect a shift in policy.
“The Obama administration has been quite clear in our opposition to decriminalization or legalization of illicit drugs,” Restrepo said.
Biden was scheduled to arrive in Mexico City yesterday to discuss economic and security issues with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He also plans to meet today with the three top Mexican presidential candidates running for a six-year term to replace Calderon this year.
Tomorrow, Biden is slated to travel to Honduras to meet Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, along with the presidents of El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala, all countries struggling with the sweeping consequences of expanding drug cartels. Drug gangs have killed tens of thousands and overcrowded prisons are overflowing with accused drug users while powerful cartels fuel corruption — influencing elections, weakening democracies and threatening fragile economies.
“I do think that the issue of legalization will be raised by the leaders to Biden, but in private,” said Walter McKay, a policing expert on security issues in Mexico, where more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug gang violence since 2006.
Two weeks ago, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, a right wing conservative and former army general, stunned observers when he said that the US inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves his country with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs. He vowed to galvanize regional support.
Since then, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla and Salvadorean President Mauricio Funes have said they are open to the discussion, while Panama’s leaders say they do not agree with decriminalizing drugs.
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