Guatemala City. This is already the second time that Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina in less then a month since he took office, is proposing to legalize drugs. An upcoming meeting with the region's leaders will be the opportunity to discuss the issue with his colleagues. Perez Molina stated that it would include decriminalizing the transportation of drugs through the area.
Otto Perez explained that: “the war on drugs, and all the money and technology received from the U.S., has not diminished drug trafficking in the area.” He also reiterated that drug cartels are to blame for the high rates of violence in Guatemala. The first time Otto Perez stated his intention to push for a regional strategy to legalize drugs was within the first 15 days of taking office. The US embassy in Guatemala released a statement on Sunday opposing the legalization. The US is trying to maintain its status quo position in favor of a war that has not been exactly successful.
Many other voices of ex- Latin American Presidents and leaders around the world have expressed the same position: it is time to change the failed strategy of the war on drugs, other alternatives have to be put on the table.
We have been writing about the drug war unsuccessful strategies and atrocious damages to our region and our country since we stared “The Guatemala Times” in 2008. Our position has been clear since then: Guatemala is a casualty of the failed war on drugs waged by the US and caused by the consumers of drugs in the US. The money issue, the massive power of the narco- dollar through money laundering that benefits the US and European Economies has been a taboo for the international mainstream media, it is not politically correct to write abut the dark powers of the narco –dollar within the “legal” economies of the developed world.
There have been only two voices in the desert of the deafening silence of the international mainstream media about this perfect example of the hypocrisy of the developed world regarding the situation of third world countries, were people are getting killed to provide the rich countries with their needs, be they legal or illegal. There is no difference.
The Guardian published an article 13, December, 2009. “Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor” Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions. Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result………………
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
The Guardian. 3 April, 2001. “How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs”. As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored. …
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
Bloomberg. Jun 28, 2010: “Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal. By Michael Smith. Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet. They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else. ……”
People are no longer buying the war on drugs, after 30 years it is time to tell the truth and take actions that will benefit all people, not just a few privileged one. Salud!
Picture: Wikipedia, President Otto Perez, Guatemala
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It seems that Otto Perez, your new President in Guatemala hand his advisors have been reading The Guatemala Times. He seems to know what he is up against.
You wrote about the threat and then the consequences when no newspaper in Guatemala was even mentioning the issue. And nobody listened, now things might change.
Smart thinking.
Congrats and keep going! STAY POLITICALLY INCORRECT.
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