23536
Bluelight Crew
Never- ending drug war moves to Central America
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
[email protected]
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- While Mexico’s bloody war against the drug cartels is making headlines worldwide, there is a little-known fact that is sounding alarm bells among U.S. and Latin American officials: Central America’s drug-related violence is far worse than Mexico’s.
Even Costa Rica, a country known as “the Switzerland of Latin America” for being an island of peace and prosperity in its region, is feeling anxious about the rising tide of drug-related murders.
The average homicide rate of the five Central American countries is 43 people per 100,000 inhabitants a year, more than twice that of Mexico. Honduras and El Salvador have the highest murder rates in the world, according to a new United Nations Global Study on Homicide.
Last year, the homicide rate in Honduras was of 82 people per 100,000 inhabitants, in El Salvador 66, in Guatemala 41, and in Costa Rica 11. By comparison, the homicide rate in Mexico was of 18, and five in the United States, the U.N. study said.
...
My opinion: Despite Washington’s claims to the contrary, the drug cartels’ move from Mexico to Central America is evidence that despite some successes, the decades-old U.S. anti-drug strategy is not working.
First, after the U.S.-backed plan Colombia, the drug cartels fled to Mexico. Now, after the U.S.-backed Plan Merida, they are moving into Central America. Next, if there is a serious offensive against them in Central America, they will move into the Caribbean, or somewhere else.
It’s time to start a serious discussion on whether to legalize marijuana, and use the proceeds for education and drug prevention in the United States, Europe, Brazil and other big drug consuming nations, as well as to help drug producing and transit countries fight their most violent cartels.
Otherwise, we’ll be continuing to spend billions of dollars and engaging in bloody wars, only to keep pushing the drug cartels from one place to the next.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/12/2498119/never-ending-drug-war-moves-to.html#ixzz1ddgjbCLj
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
[email protected]
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- While Mexico’s bloody war against the drug cartels is making headlines worldwide, there is a little-known fact that is sounding alarm bells among U.S. and Latin American officials: Central America’s drug-related violence is far worse than Mexico’s.
Even Costa Rica, a country known as “the Switzerland of Latin America” for being an island of peace and prosperity in its region, is feeling anxious about the rising tide of drug-related murders.
The average homicide rate of the five Central American countries is 43 people per 100,000 inhabitants a year, more than twice that of Mexico. Honduras and El Salvador have the highest murder rates in the world, according to a new United Nations Global Study on Homicide.
Last year, the homicide rate in Honduras was of 82 people per 100,000 inhabitants, in El Salvador 66, in Guatemala 41, and in Costa Rica 11. By comparison, the homicide rate in Mexico was of 18, and five in the United States, the U.N. study said.
...
My opinion: Despite Washington’s claims to the contrary, the drug cartels’ move from Mexico to Central America is evidence that despite some successes, the decades-old U.S. anti-drug strategy is not working.
First, after the U.S.-backed plan Colombia, the drug cartels fled to Mexico. Now, after the U.S.-backed Plan Merida, they are moving into Central America. Next, if there is a serious offensive against them in Central America, they will move into the Caribbean, or somewhere else.
It’s time to start a serious discussion on whether to legalize marijuana, and use the proceeds for education and drug prevention in the United States, Europe, Brazil and other big drug consuming nations, as well as to help drug producing and transit countries fight their most violent cartels.
Otherwise, we’ll be continuing to spend billions of dollars and engaging in bloody wars, only to keep pushing the drug cartels from one place to the next.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/12/2498119/never-ending-drug-war-moves-to.html#ixzz1ddgjbCLj
