The US Office of National Drug Control Policy rolled out its new drug control strategy Tuesday, and top administration counternarcotics officials are suggesting that a new paradigm is in the process of being formed. The AP’s coverage quotes US drug czar Gil Kerlikowske on the new strategy: “It changes the whole discussion about ending the war on drugs and recognizes that we have a responsibility to reduce our own drug use in this country.” Significant changes include a new emphasis on community-based anti-drug programs, encouraging health-care providers to “screen for drug problems before addiction sets in,” and an expansion of treatment “beyond specialty centers to mainstream health-care facilities.” In the AP’s words, the plan begins to “treat illegal drug use more as a public health issue and less as a criminal justice problem.” The White House, meanwhile, notes that the plan includes five-year objectives for “reducing drug use and its consequences through a balanced policy of prevention, treatment, enforcement, and international cooperation.”
Amidst great hope, however, there remains some skepticism among drug reform advocates. “The improved rhetoric is not matched by any fundamental shift in the budget or the broader thrust of the drug policy,” argues Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. According to Nadelmann, there are important changes that should be welcomed, but still too many resources are committed to arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people for drug use.
In the White House’s news release that accompanies the new strategy, the international component of US drug policy is emphasized. “The recent violence in Mexico serves as a tragic reminder of the threat that drug trafficking presents and the need for every nation to take steps to protect its people from violence, corruption and instability caused by illegal drug trafficking,” according to the administration. The idea that drug policy is a hemispheric problem is central to a recent discussion on drug reform hosted by the Washington Office on Latin America and the Transnational Institute in Washington DC. In particular, the discussion examined innovative drug reform strategies being implemented across the hemisphere, from Mexico to Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.
“The costly effort to curtail drug availability that has defined global drug policy for decades has failed in its own terms, and has generated enormous suffering along the way,” said WOLA Senior Associate, John Walsh. [For full videos of the event, click here.] About Tuesday’s new drug strategy roll-out, Walsh also emphasizes the need to bring reality in line with the promising new rhetoric. “The new Strategy is by no means a clean break with that past,” he says. “But the emphasis on addressing the consequences of drug use through evidence-based strategies provides hope for a more realistic and constructive policy debate going forward.”
In other stories today:
· The New York Times has more on the story of suspected collusion between high-level anti-drug officials and the Sinaloa cartel which apparently led to sensitive intelligence falling into the hands of the notorious drug syndicate last year. According to the Times’ reporting, the issue shows that Joaquín Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, runs a “sophisticated counterintelligence operation” and “is a master at buying off top police officers and soldiers with his ample drug profits.” Despite an aggressive antidrug fight by the Mexican government, the Sinaloa Cartel “continues to dominate the market and much of its top leadership remains intact,” the Times reports. And this has led critics of the government to suggest that the government has gone particularly easy on Guzmán’s organization – an accusation President Felipe Calderón denies.
· Also on drug violence in Mexico, the AP reports on the grisly killing of a newly married man and two members of his wedding party in Ciudad Juarez over the weekend. The men were kidnapped at gunpoint as they exited the church. Their bodies were found Tuesday.
· In Colombia, a senior prosecutor said this week that, from 2005 to the present, 3,131 bodies of individuals killed by right-wing paramilitary groups have been exhumed. Since the passage of the Justice and Peace Law, Luis Gonzalez, head of the unit in the responsible for applying law, also says a database of some 29,000 disappeared persons has been put together. Also on the human rights situation in Colombia, El Tiempo has a piece looking at the potential human rights agendas of the country’s top presidential contenders, Antanas Mockus and Juan Manuel Santos.
· Moving south, the AP reports on Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana’s testimony in an ongoing dirty war trial in Argentina. Taiana spent three years imprisoned during the Argentine military dictatorship and spoke publicly of his mistreatment this week. Afterwards he spoke to reporters, saying “to participate in a trial as a witness, and judge those responsible for violations of human rights, is a contribution that all of us must do so that we have justice and truth in Argentina.”
· Across the river in Uruguay, departmental election results from over the weekend are being seen as a “wake up call” to the governing Frente Amplio coalition which lost a handful of governorships. However, FA did retain its control over the capital, Montevideo, electing the Frente’s candidate, Ana Olivera, of the Uruguayan Communist Party to the post of intendente.
· In Chile, a Pakistani man is being held under the country’s anti-terrorism law after he was arrested at the US embassy in Santiago. The man’s body apparently had traces of explosives’ residue when he went through a security checkpoint at the embassy compound. According to the AP, the US had summoned the man to the embassy to tell him his visa for the United States was being revoked. An investigation is underway.
· At IPS, a fascinating interview with Martin Becerra, Argentine media specialist and co-author of the new book “Los Dueños de la Palabra. Acceso, estructura y concentración de los medios en la América Latina del Siglo XXI.” The interview looks at the power of media magnates who concentrate and filter access to information throughout Latin America. On average, says Becerra, “more than 82 percent of all information and communications activities” in any given country in Latin America are controlled by the country’s “top four operators.”
· Honduras Culture and Politics has a translation (and analysis) of a new letter Mel Zelaya is circulating amongst UNASUR member states, calling for “the re-establishment of democracy and national reconciliation” in Honduras.” Meanwhile, the Washington Office on Latin America has a new Honduras statement out, saying it backs the findings of a new report by some of its counterparts in Honduras, including the creation of an “alternative truth commission.” For the full report entitled, “Crisis Persists and National Problems are Aggravated after 100 Days of Governance,” click here.
· The new issue of NACLA, entitled “Empire’s Apprentice,” takes a critical look at Canada’s role in the hemisphere. And also, in the New York Review of Books, another Latin America piece finds its way into the most recent issue. This time it’s Alma Guillermoprieto with a piece on the new revelations surrounding the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Again, I recommend the full article.
· Finally today, a few interesting economy-related pieces. First, the Wilson Center has a new report out on development challenges facing the Caribbean in “an uncertain world.” An interesting piece about the revival of industrial policy in the region, says there are lessons and warnings to be taken away from Brazil’s renewable energy policies over the last two or three decades. And respected Brazilian economist Maria da Conceição Tavares, in a recent talk at the Economic Commission for Latin America’s Santiago de Chile offices, highlights the need for Latin American countries to continue investing in infrastructure and more robust and universally inclusive social welfare programs in order to “ensure development with fairness and equality” in the region.
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