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Ellie McGinnis

Guatemala's president: 'My country bears the scars from the war on drugs' | World news ... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...tto-molina-war-drugs-guatemala

guatemala narcotics trafficking pérez molina

shared by Ellie McGinnis on 04 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • caught in the crossfire between the nations to the south (principally Peru, Colombia and Bolivia) that produce illegal narcotics and the country to the north (America)
  • Mexico and Colombia – partially funded by the US – stepped up surveillance of aircraft and airspace. Simultaneously the US began more vigorous co-operation with Mexico to stop drugs shipments by sea.
  • the concept of the "transit" nations was born – countries in Central America through which drugs were passed en route to the world's largest drugs market,
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • he declared that the war on drugs had failed and that the international community needed to end the "taboo" of debating decriminalisation
  • Pérez Molina is unequivocal about the need to search for an alternative to the current paradigm,
  • For Colombia, drugs are a matter of national security; for other countries it is mainly a health and crime issue."
  • The cartels have grown in strength, the flow of arms towards Central America from the north has grown and the deaths in our country have grown. This has forced us to search for a more appropriate response."
  • The situation in Guatemala has become more serious as Mexican cartels – taking refuge from an attempt to militarily defeat them – have inserted themselves into Guatemala and sought to control the trafficking routes through that country
  • with the cartels come other nightmares: kidnapping, extortion, contract killers and people trafficking.
  • Pérez Molina concedes: "Drug traffickers have been able to penetrate the institutions in this country by employing the resources and money they have.
  • western countries fail to understand the reality that countries such as Guatemala and those of Central America have to live in," said Pérez Molina
  • due to a lack of understanding on the part of western countries.
  • arguing explicitly for the introduction of a regulated market for drugs. Not full legalisation, but a controlled, regulated market for the production, distribution and sale of narcotics.
  • the Guatemalans have been consulting with the Beckley Foundation, probably the leading global advocate of deploying science and empirical evidence to drive the debate about the war on drugs
  • "I believe they should reflect on this, to avoid these deaths that are occurring in transit countries. We don't produce and we don't consume, but we are countries that suffer deaths and place our institutions and our democracy at risk.
Javier E

Latin Lovers' Quarrel - By James Traub | Foreign Policy - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...latin_lovers_quarrel

latin foreign policy US drugs immigration Cuba diplomacy

shared by Javier E on 21 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • the big news out of Cartagena -- outside of the Secret Service wing of the Hotel Caribe, that is -- was the united front that Latin American countries put up against the United States on several big issues.
  • whether Cuba should be admitted to the next summit, in 2015, which the United States and Canada opposed and all 30 Latin American countries, both left-wing bastions like Ecuador and traditional U.S. allies like Colombia, favored, thus bringing the meeting to an end without a planned joint declaration
  • The idea of an "American camp" in Latin America has been an anachronism for some while, but this became glaringly clear in Cartagena. "We need them more than they need us," as Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society, puts it. The United States remains the region's largest trading partner, the source of 40 percent of its foreign investment and 90 percent of its remittances. U.S. foreign aid still props up shaky countries like Colombia and Guatemala. But trade with both China and Europe has grown sharply over the last decade. And both big economies like Brazil and Argentina, and smaller ones like Chile and Peru, have experienced solid growth at a time when the United States has faltered. "Most countries of the region view the United States as less and less relevant to their needs,"
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  • The big issues that divide the United States (and let's not forget, Canada) from its Latin American allies are Cuba, drugs, and immigration. On a trip to Latin America last year, in fact, Obama promised Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes that he would push immigration reform through Congress -- an effort he later abandoned. But for all their recent maturation, Latin American countries are affected by U.S. domestic issues in a way that no other region could be. Latin America therefore suffers from the paralysis of U.S. domestic politics as Europe or Asia does not.
  • even Washington's closest allies in the region have lost patience with U.S. politics
  • This year, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, a former general elected as a hard-liner, dramatically reversed course and spoke up in favor of drug legalization. This earned him extraordinary visits from both U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. According to Eduardo Stein, the former vice president of Guatemala, Biden said that the United States was eager to discuss drug reform, just not at the summit, while Napolitano reportedly plainly said, "Don't think of raising the issue at the summit." Pérez then went ahead and called a meeting of regional leaders, who could not agree on an alternative set of policies but decided to raise the issue in Cartagena. Pérez later said that drug policy was the only issue discussed at the summit's final closed-door session.
Javier E

Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala Is Jailed Hours After Resigning Presidency - T... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...dent-resigns-amid-scandal.html

guatemala latin america politics law

shared by Javier E on 04 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • The series of inquiries that ignited the public’s rage were the work of an uncommon alliance of local prosecutors and investigators backed by the United Nations, known as the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala or by its Spanish-language acronym, Cicig.
  • Established in 2007 to help expose the ties between criminal networks and politicians, the commission eventually emboldened the nation’s own prosecutors to hold the elite to account, and become a source of inspiration for many Guatemalans. For much of its history, Guatemalan society has been divided, its different constituencies fighting their battles alone. The nation’s indigenous population, which suffered the most under the civil war, which killed about 200,000 people, has long struggled for equal rights with little success.
  • Yet the movement that began in April forged an unprecedented alliance of different groups. Guatemala City’s middle class, long reluctant to speak out, began joining forces with peasant and indigenous groups. Eventually, the nation’s church and business leaders also took the side of the protesters to demand change.
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