A Problem with Foreign Roots

Many of the evils that are battering our countries originate in remnants from our ancestors that are not only difficult to overcome, but that have their principal bulwark in successive governments that were incapable of formulating congruent, visionary and credible policies. Because of this, the most reluctant sectors contribute to consolidating a path toward progress which not only should have begun many decades ago, but was the principal reason for our occupying the last places of development indexes.

As if our hardships were not enough, in recent decades we have added one more that has become increasingly threatening, that affects large social sectors and that is a huge challenge for democracies across continents; this is the advancement of drug trafficking, which affects not only citizens, but also many politicians and unscrupulous officials that put the solvency of the country at risk in exchange for a few coins that no one guarantees them.

But what is certain is that this is one of the most recent scars that does not have its roots in our soil. Guatemala has simply been one of the links through which millions of doses in high demand, particularly in the U.S., pass. That is the principal origin of a drama that worries millions of people. In this situation, some governors see a source of problems that could be even greater and, at the same time, uncontrollable.

This reflection is very timely, as the most recent report conducted by the United States Administration of Mental Services and Substance Abuse reveals that the consumption of illegal narcotics increased in 2009 in the U.S. to 8.7 percent, the highest level in almost a decade, according to a survey on drug use and health based on interviews with 67,500 people. This is the highest level since the survey began in 2002, and since 2006; in both years, the percentage was 8.3 percent.

The most alarming aspect of this overwhelming demand is that the day after they released this data, the White House emitted another report that denounced Guatemala, along with 13 other countries in Latin America, as producers or bridges for drug trafficking, an accusation the U.S. makes every year to assess the nations that in one way or another participate in the production or trafficking of narcotics. However, nothing is said of the big consumers, the ones primarily responsible for the blossoming of this market.

There are few governments that dare to repost these reports, and far fewer have justification to make similar accusations. For this reason, it is appropriate to remember something an expert recently said: It would be much more comfortable for us and for other Latin Americans to form a cooperative fund to help the United States formulate a Merida plan to contribute to sensibly reducing the consumption of drugs, ending a problem that not only was foreign to us, but that now requires multinational efforts to combat.