US: Mea Culpa

Never before has a resident of the White House admitted, like Barack Obama did Friday in Costa Rica, that U.S. consumers form a part of the problem that represents the rise of drug trafficking in Central America and the Caribbean. This historic mea culpa should push for the revision of the entire strategy for prevention and combat against this disaster.

Before eight heads of state from the region, Obama said, “The United States recognizes that we’ve got responsibilities, that much of the violence in the region is fueled by demand for illegal drugs, including in the United States,” at the same time that he rejected the possibility of “militarizing” the fight against drug trafficking, as has been suggested by numerous Washington hardliners.

A report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, based on results from a survey carried out in October 2012 about the use of narcotics and updated in January 2013, reveals that 22.5 million Americans older than 12 consume some sort of illicit drugs. This statistic represents 8.9 percent of the population.

Obama is right in suggesting an integral approach against drug trafficking that includes the financing of public policies that promote education and the fight against poverty as a focal point. What is applied today is a type of repression that doesn’t reach the leadership of the drug traffickers, nor the bodies that wash the assets that are generated by this crime against humanity.

The presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala attributed the growth in violence and criminality within their territories, known as “the Northern Triangle,” to the expansion of drug trafficking encouraged by the increased consumption of drugs in the U.S., a cause that doesn’t figure as a main reason in any of the manuals against drug traffickers.

Obama himself admits that the strategy to fight against drug trafficking has failed or hasn’t produced the desired effect, stating that “since I’ve been president … my administration has spent approximately $30 billion in reducing drug demand in the U.S.,” but that “progress sometimes is slower than we’d like it to be.”

The president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, said that her republic’s people “have to admit that the issue of organized crime continues to be important on the institution of stability and the integrity of our nations.” El Salvador President Mauricio Funes said that the drug trafficking problem would decrease significantly in the region if cocaine consumption in the U.S. were reduced.

Even though Barack Obama admitted that the U.S. is part of the problem that creates an increase in drug trafficking, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes is in charge of throwing a bucket of cold water on Central America and the Caribbean in order to show that “we won’t launch any new important initiatives.”* This is what they call driving in circles.

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.