Hi,
On Saturday February 11th, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina
declared that, following discussions with Colombian President Santos, he
will present a proposal for drug legalization in Central America at the
April 14-15 Summit of the Americas. Guatemalan Vice-President Roxana
Baldetti will begin a tour of Central America to discuss the proposal
with regional leaders and garner support for it, starting with Panama,
Costa Rica and Salvador on February 29th. Unsurprisingly, the move was
greeted by a quick rebuke from the US government.
President Molina’s initiative is unprecedented and marks the first
time since the launching of the War on Drugs by Richard Nixon in 1971
that a foreign head of state actively challenges the US-led policies of
drug prohibition and try to build a coalition against it. A former
general of the Guatemalan army, President Molina has impeccable
credentials to launch such a move: he was elected in November 2011 on a
law-and-order platform, pledgi
ng to restore security to the country. Guatemala is on the major transit
route from Colombia to the US and drug violence has exploded there over
the past few years, turning this already impoverished and unstable
country into one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
We all need to show our support to President Molina and his
potential Latin American allies. We also need to put pressure on the
Obama administration to ensure that it doesn’t stall Molina’s proposal,
and that it allows a truthful debate to take place at the April 14-15
Summit of the Americas and beyond.
That's why I signed a petition to Otto Perez Molina, President of
Guatemala, Roxana Baldetti, Vice-President, Guatemala, Felipe Calderón
Hinojosa, President, Mexico, Juan Manuel Santos, President, Colombia,
Ricardo Martinelli, President, Panama, Porfirio Lobo, President,
Honduras, Mauricio Funes, President, El Salvador, Laura Chinchilla,
President, Costa Rica, Daniel Ortega, President, Nicaragua, and
President Barack Obama, which says:
"President Molina, we applaud and support your proposal for drug legalization in Central America and beyond.
Vice-President Roxana Baldetti, we support your efforts to promote this proposal to the Central-American leaders.
We fully support Guatemalan request to open a debate on drug
legalization at the Sixth Summit of the Americas on April 14-15, 2012.
President Obama, we urge you to not stall the courageous process
initiated by Guatemala, and to allow a truthful debate to take place. We
urge you to show the courage and vision to add your positive
contribution to the debate.
President Calderon and President Santos, we urge you to throw the
full support of Mexico and Colombia behind the Guatemalan proposal.
Presidents Martinelli of Panama, Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica,
Funes of El Salvador, Lobo of Honduras, and Ortega of Nicaragua, we urge
to add the support of your countries to the Proposal advanced by the
Guatemalan Government.
Despite the enormous
resources wasted on it, the War on Drugs has failed, bringing
destruction and chaos all over the world, affecting particularly the
Central American region, thanks to its position on the major transit
route to the US. Prohibition is the worst possible form of control as it
leaves control in the hands of powerful criminal organizations. The
time has come to seek more realistic and pragmatic approaches, asking
the simple but fundamental question: “Are organized societies capable
and willing to manage and control psychoactive substances, instead of
leaving it to organized crime?”
Global re-legalization under a multi-tiers “legalize, tax, control,
prevent, treat and educate” regime with practical and efficient
mechanisms to manage and minimize societal costs is the only realistic
long-term solution to the issue of illegal drugs. Far from giving up and
far from an endorsement, controlled legalization would be finally
growing up; being realistic instead of being in denial; being in control
instead of leaving control to the underworld. It would abolish the
current regime of socialization of costs and privatization of profits to
criminal enterprises, depriving them of their main source of income and
making our world a safer place.
"
Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:
Legalization of Psychoactives in Guatamala
Thanks!
