Latin American “Unitedstatesification”

Journalism usually introduces a new adjective when it needs to create a quick, comprehensible image of a complex idea. Hence, Mexico’s situation is classified as “Columbianization” in order to explain the tragedy in which the country lives; the roots of which are violence and influence of the drug trade within all its structures.

Although the term sounds pejorative, the image of Mexico today mirrors Columbia, when it was dominated by the Medellín Cartel and its captain, Pablo Escobar, who dynamited, assassinated and infiltrated the Columbian political structures, and lived like a king under the protection of friendly and fearful judges.

“Columbianization” is a synonym for organized crime that does not rest, and also for the scenario described by Mexican President Felipe Calderón of the current situation in his country. He warned of the interference of drug trafficking in the finance of municipal electoral campaigns, the purpose of which is to buy politicians in order to obtain new territories and expand small-time drug smuggling, drug consumption and related crimes.

But the disparaging comparisons between countries are not easy to make. The invigorated and disputed drug business exposes the root differences between producing, consuming and transit nations. The Mexican cartels broke up the monopoly of Columbian activity keeping the juiciest part for themselves: distribution and small scale smuggling. As a consequence, there are smaller, more diverse actors dedicated to trafficking and the consumption of drugs has soared throughout the world, helped along by more relaxed social and political tolerance for narcotics. The decriminalization of consumption in countries like Argentina, Columbia, Chile, Mexico and even Brazil promises to replicate policies adopted in Italy, Holland, Luxembourg and Portugal; some states in the U.S. are also part of the equation.

Consumption levels are alarming in Latin America, a region that until recently was characterized only as a producer and trafficker of narcotics. Marijuana use has shot up, with 7 percent of smokers in Chile aged 15 to 60, while Peru, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic have, in their respective regions, the highest percentages of ecstasy. It would not be wrong then, as the process in Mexico is called “Columbianization”, to use “Unitedstatesification” for Latin America, inferring the dangers posed by increasingly higher consumption rates.

Latin American countries, already consumers, have not stopped cultivating, producing or fabricating drugs. Paraguay is underscored as the South American power for the cultivation of marijuana; Columbia, Peru and Bolivia for the processing of cocaine. Meanwhile, the fabrication of amphetamines is concentrated in Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru.

Governments struggle to find adequate responses to this multinational business that is constantly expanding and that supports other illicit activities like terrorism, political corruption, money laundering, piracy, and trafficking of arms and people. It uses extreme violence as the best weapon for diverting the attention and resources of the states.

Aside from the use of public pressure to repress crime, perhaps the strategy that emerged in November (from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission) between the Organization of American States and the United States, of combating the supply but also reducing demand by means of prevention and rehabilitation programs, offers the best hope and demonstrates that the fight against drugs is not yet a total loss.

The highest quality marijuana and ecstasy are not cultivated or fabricated in Columbia, Peru or Bolivia, but in the United States and Canada, two of the largest consumers in the world.