Daily Headlines: October 15, 2009

* Colombia: As seen in the above video, former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria reiterated comments made in part last February criticizing the U.S.-led “war on drugs” and calling for a greater emphasis on rehabilitation.

* U.S.: A group of Latino farmers alleging that they were discriminated from receiving federal loans are trying to push their case so that it receives class-action status.

* Ecuador: The mother of a California teen killed last month in Ecuador has urged officials there to do more to solve the murder.

* Latin America: The world’s first vegetarian spider has been purportedly located in a species found in southern Mexico and most of Central America.

Online Sources- UPI, CNN, the Latin Americanist, New York Times, Voice of America

Editorial by ex-presidents criticizes “war on drugs”

A trio of Latin American ex-presidents called for a revaluation of the “war on drugs” in an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal.

"The war on drugs has failed," said the opinion piece by former presidents Fernando Enrique Cardoso (Brazil), Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico) and César Gaviria (Colombia). They suggested that U.S.-led counternarcotics efforts change their focus towards a more humane and efficient approach:

(…)Cardoso, Gaviria and Zedillo defend in their article the importance of creating informative campaigns about drug use among the public in order to attack the problem at its roots, as was done with tobacco.

The ex-presidents believe that the policy of repression and criminalization of consumption practiced in recent decades has failed both in eradicating the habit and in combating the trafficking rings.

"The alarming power of the drug cartels is leading to a criminalization of politics and a politicization of crime. And the corruption of the judicial and political system is undermining the foundations of democracy in several Latin American countries," the three men wrote in the Journal.

The editorial mentioned the conclusions of a report presented earlier this month by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy on the “war on drugs”. (Cardoso, Zedillo, and Gaviria are part of that group.)

The editorial coincides with a rift between Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his attorney general over resuming penalties for the personal use of illicit drugs.

Image- javno.hr (Farmer tending to coca leaves)
Online Sources- LAHT, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist, El Espectador

Ex-presidents call for changing drug policy

A group of intellectuals and Latin American ex-presidents have called for the revaluation of counternarcotics policy.

The group called the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy emitted their report after meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Their report blasted the “war on drugs” and called for making drastic changes:

“The prohibitionist policies based on repressing production, intercepting trafficking and distribution, and criminalizing its consumption have not produced expected results…The goal of eradicating drugs has been farther than ever”…

“(Drug use) has transformed into a taboo that has prevented pubic debate…and confines drug consumers to a closed circle where they become more vulnerable to organized criminal activities.”

The commission also called for the legalization of marijuana for personal use as part of “changing (the) paradigms” of counternarcotics efforts.

Members of the group include former presidents Fernando Enrique Cardoso (Brazil), Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico) and César Gaviria (Colombia) as well as Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa and Foreign Policy magazine chief Moises Naim.

Image- telecinco.com (Ex-presidents Fernando Enrique Cardoso and César Gaviria at the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy conference)
Online Sources- Univision.com, El Tiempo, globo.com