Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’s reiterated criticisms of California’s Proposition 19 ballot initiative in a speech in Bogotá late Tuesday. The words echoed those of his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon. Here’s Santos, as quoted by AFP:
“How does one explain to indigenous people that they are not to grow marijuana at the risk of being thrown into jail, but that in the richest state of the United States, they have legalized its production, sale, and consumption?”
Santos continued, calling the initiative a “peculiar paradox” at a time when the region is trying to fight both illegal drug use and trafficking. Some are depicting the criticisms (and those of Felipe Calderon, for that matter) as in partial contradiction to statements made by both leaders earlier this year. As Colombia Reports writes, it was Santos who backed Calderon’s call for a “discussion” on legalization in August. The Juan Manuel Santos of August:
“We are entering an era of the narco-trafficking business where one must have these type of reflections. President Calderon is right to call for this to be discussed, without meaning that one is in agreement or not with the position of legalization.”
But in that same August speech, Santos made, almost word for word, the same argument he made Tuesday. Again, Santos from August:
“How would we explain to an indigenous person on a Colombian mountain that producing marijuana is illegal and take him to jail, or destroy the marijuana, when in the U.S. it is legal to consume it?”
For now it seems both Calderon and Santos just want to talk and, according to Santos, the issue should only be touched through regional deliberation. Santos one more time, from August: “Unilaterally we cannot legalize drugs because they are a problem not only for national security but also has international implications.”
Meanwhile, speaking Wednesday, OAS Sec. General José Miguel Insulza also addressed the drug issue. Beginning with the obvious, Insulza said “the war on drugs, as it has been carried out, has failed to bring about desired results.” Insulza cited the inability to eliminate the massive profits garnered by cartels as a principal reason for this failure, reports EFE. But when asked about Prop. 19, Insulza’s position seems a bit muddled (at least as EFE has it reported). My reading, however, is that Insulza too suggests the debate over legalization would be better handled regionally, rather than unilaterally.
Moving on:
· A quick recap of other drug-related stories today. EFE reports on the arrest of top La Familia capo, Ignacio “Nacho” Lopez Medina, along with three other cartel members. According to EFE, the men are some of La Familia’s top “money managers.” Reuters looks at the drug wars ever increasing impact on Mexico’s industrial capital of Monterrey, calling rising violence there “arguably the most dramatic development in Mexico's four-year campaign against powerful drug cartels.” Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy offers an alternative reading of RAND’s new study which downplays the impact that legalization would have on violence in Mexico. According to Keating, hidden in the findings is perhaps less a case against legalization in California and more an argument for “extending it nationwide.” Also from EFE, a report on new demands from El Diario de Juarez which once again called on President Calderon’s government to investigate both the 2008 killing of Armando Rodriguez and the murder of Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco in September. The demands came as Felipe Calderon visited Juarez on Tuesday. Calderon’s visit there followed a similar trip to Tijuana last week where the president had nothing but words of praise for the city’s anti-drug efforts. Al-Jazeera modifies the optimism today, however, writing that
“Thirteen people have been killed in two days in the northern Mexican border…a surge in possible drug-related violence that comes just a week after President Felipe Calderon visited the town to praise what he called an improved security situation.”
· From Colombia, John Otis at Global Post has an interesting report on rising gang violence in Medellin where schoolchildren are dropping out “in droves” because it has simply become too dangerous to walk to school. Otis:
“About 1,000 primary and secondary students in Medellin have quit school this year because of gang-related conflicts, according to Jairo Herran, the city's top human rights official. Hardest hit is the Estela Velez public school in Comuna 13, where nearly half of the 650 students who started the academic year have quit, said teacher Diana Tengono.”
At the same time, however, AFP writes on the gang issue in Medellin, reporting that some 1000 young gang members, encouraged by musician Juanes, have said they are willing to turn in their weapons should they be granted legal guarantees and government aid.
· Kristin Bricker at NACLA has an excellent recap of the situation in Ecuador, with particularly good information about the position of social movements after the crisis, among them indigenous groups and labor. On the former, Bricker quotes from a recent statement by four of Ecuador’s largest indigenous groups, which maintains:
“The social crisis that was let loose…was also provoked by the authoritarian character and the unwillingness to dialogue in the lawmaking process. We have seen how laws that were negotiated [with social sectors] were vetoed by the President of the Republic. . . . This scenario nurtures the conservative sectors.”
The AP today says disciplinary action has begun against 13 police officers accused of participating in the uprising-turned-coup attempt against President Correa. And Adam Isacson, at Just the Facts, examines the position of the Ecuadorean military in the crisis.
· On Brazilian elections, Mark Weisbrot of CEPR has commentary on international implications. And IPS suggests the Green Party’s better than expected result in round one may have had less do with environmentalism than some previously thought.
· From In These Times, a report on continuing violence and repression against anti-coup activists in Honduras. In the last month, rights activists maintain that “a social security unionist and a member of the campesino group MUCA were killed; 22 university union employees were illegally ordered arrested; and an opposition journalist survived an attempted murder.” Human rights leader Berta Oliva says, in total, 83 members of the resistance have been killed since Pepe Lobo took office last January. The report comes as the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC honored the Honduras Human Rights Platform with its annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award last night (video here). [Also honored with an award, the Guatemalan Police Archives].
· And finally, from Chile, the last of the 33 trapped miners was brought up from below yesterday evening. IPS’s Daniela Estrada has a piece putting the story in perspective. She writes that “in the media frenzy…no one has bothered to mention that there were more than 191,000 workplace accidents in this South American country of 17 million people in 2009, including 443 deaths, and 155 deaths in the first quarter of this year alone.” The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger, on the other hand, chalks the Chilean rescue up to good old fashioned “free market capitalism.” Follow the logic. Free market capitalism = innovation = the Center rock drill bit = hole in ground = escape capsule = rescue. Or something similar.
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