Leonel Fernandez interview

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Leonel Fernandez agrees the war on drugs is a failure

At least Leonel admits that the war on drugs is a failure.

One of the biggest problems for Latin America is the war on drugs. You have qualified that war as a failure. Why?
I think it was [U.S. president Richard] Nixon that called for a war on drugs. But there’s always been a distinction in the role each country plays.
Colombia, for example, was a producer of coca leaves that were transformed into cocaine. The U.S. and Europe were mainly consumers of the drug. A country like the Dominican Republic was neither a producer nor a consumer, just a place for transshipments.
But over the years these roles have overlapped. A country can be a producer, a springboard and a consumer. Many countries in Latin America, for instance, have increased their consumption. So it’s more complex to deal with drug trafficking and all the illegal activities connected to it. Arms is another issue. They are bought relatively easily in the U.S., and if they stay there, that’s fine. But if they’re transported to our countries, that creates a lot of difficulties for us.
So I think there needs to be a new approach to dealing with these problems. We have failed in the last 30 years in dealing with drug trafficking.

from:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...z-the-oracle-of-santo-domingo/article4560874/
 
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