Guatemalan president proposes legalizing drugs
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina -light blue tie- and Salvadorean President Mauricio Funes -pink tie- are contemplating the legalization of drugs in Central America (photo: www.guatemala.gob.gt )
By MANUEL RUEDA
Channel: Latin American Affairs
A proposal to legalize and regulate the transport, production, and sale of drugs in Central America began to slowly gain ground on Monday following a meeting between the presidents of Guatemala and El Salvador.
Guatemalan president, Otto Perez Molina, had initially suggested over the weekend that Central American countries should seriously consider legalizing drugs in order to decrease drug violence in the region and save local governments millions of dollars spent in efforts to fight cartels and stop drug shipments from making it to the U.S.
On Monday, Salvadorean president Mauricio Funes said he would consider Guatemala’s proposal and discuss it with his country’s congress, despite protests by the U.S. embassy in Guatemala, which issued a strong statement against the legalization proposal over the weekend.
“If the traffic and use of illegal drugs were decriminalized tomorrow in Central America, transnational criminal organizations and gangs would continue to engage in illicit activiy, including trafficking in persons and illegal arms, kidnapping … and money laundering,” the embassy’s statement said.
But Funes and Perez Molina argued that their proposal would not be implemented over-night, and said that it would only come about if a consensus throughout Central America was achieved. They added that the issue should at least be debated with hard facts before any conclusions are reached.
“Legalization could be a hard hit against the pockets of criminals groups,” Funes said. “We must open our ears, minds and hearts … in order to win the battle against criminality.”
The willingness of Central American countries to discuss the legalization of drugs could highlight the United States’ diminishing influence in the region. But more importantly, it shows that governments in Central America and elsewhere in the region are beginning to tire of prohibitionist anti-drug policies that have so far not diminished the size of the international drug trade or the overall levels of violence in Latin America.
Already, the former presidents of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil have called on regional leaders to legalize soft drugs like marijuana.
In the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where murder rates are ten to twenty times higher than in the U.S., a legalization policy would mark a radical shift from current efforts aimed at interdicting drug shipments and capturing cartel leaders.
Perez Molina argues that interdiction policies in Colombia and Mexico have had a bloody and inconclusive outcome.
“We have seen that when you capture a cartel boss, the cartel restructures itself and business goes on,” said the retired general who was elected on promises to fight crime with “an iron fist.”
“While there is demand in the U.S., the drug trade will continue here,” he added
Perez Molina said that eventually, he would like to convince the U.S. and other countries in the region to discuss the legalization of drugs and other crime prevention strategies, arguing that if the policy is not implemented on a regional basis it will not be as effective.
“We have to reach a consensus, but the debate is already on the table,” he said.
