What Obama Can Do About Latin America

Foreign Policy in Focus released a fascinating report last week on the state of our failed Drug War policies in Latin America and the reforms President-elect Barack Obama can enact upon taking office.

Our efforts to eradicate cocaine production in Latin America have been a costly, destructive failure. Plan Colombia, begun in the late 1990s under President Bill Clinton, has cost billions of dollars (almost $1 billion a year in recent years), done serious harm to the environment by spraying chemicals on coca and non-coca fields, and it hasn't reduced the supply of cocaine. In 2007, FPIF reports, coca production increased 27% in Colombia. Peru and Bolivia also saw increases in production in 2007, despite American efforts to eradicate the sacred crop.

And our policies in these Andean nations are not only failing, they're burning bridges, too. Coca is part of the culture in Bolivia, where President Evo Morales has begun a "Coca Yes, Cocaine No" campaign. Our brute force efforts in Colombia have strained the country's relationship with Ecuador, its southern neighbor, where Colombia's civil war has spilled for years like the toxic runoff our crop-spraying planes are pouring into the rainforest.

The FPIF article raises two main suggestions for Obama:

1. Listen to local policymakers, and work with them to try new approaches that may work. Report author Coletta Youngers writes:

In so doing, it must recognize that the one-size-fits-all approach to drug control is fundamentally flawed and that communities and countries need the flexibility to develop and experiment with policies that best fit their own realities.

2. Expand treatment programs at home and support already-developing movements in Latin America to decriminalize drug use and provide treatment options. Youngers reports on some very encouraging developments in Ecuador:

Ecuador is also taking the lead in addressing the problem of notoriously harsh drug laws that have led to massive prison overcrowding, a problem across the region but that is particularly acute in Ecuador. The weight of these laws falls disproportionately on the poor, who often engage in small-scale drug dealing for lack of employment opportunities and tend to be the target of police actions, rather than the criminal networks that run the drug trade. Presently, Ecuador has a 12-year mandatory minimum and a 25-year maximum sentence for anyone convicted of a drug-related offense. Yet the maximum sentence for murder is only 16 years. As a result, a small-time trafficker can end up with a higher sentence than a mass murderer. This should change once implementing legislation for the new constitution is enacted.

In the meantime, the Ecuadorian government has launched a program to pardon "mules," as people convicted of carrying small amounts of illicit drugs, are known. The program will benefit "mules" who meet certain conditions: They must have served 10% of their sentence, been convicted of carrying two kilos or less, and not be a repeat offender. An estimated 1,200 prisoners could ultimately benefit and this policy will ease prison overcrowding. The Ecuadorian government believes this is a more just approach: those who have committed crimes should be punished, but sanctioned reasonably. Government officials also state that as part of its new strategy, police forces will focus on dismantling drug trafficking networks rather than meeting arrest quotas to impress Washington.

The facts are clear: our efforts over the last decade to control the supply of drugs - especially cocaine - from Latin America have failed. Progressive leaders to our south are trying innovative programs to decrease demand, rather than supply, and we should join them in this new vision. The United States' relationship with Latin American nations has deteriorated over the last eight years, as it has with almost every country on Earth. It's time to reopen the dialogue and try something new.