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With the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the Presidency of Colombia, the socialism of the 21st century has reinstated the campaign to “end the war on drugs” already promoted in the past by narco-states, leaders singled out for links to drug trafficking and/or drug suspects. be financed from that source. In the Latin America of the 21st century, drug trafficking has penetrated into politics and from the power obtained it intends to end the criminal nature of its activity. The real problem is the penetration of drug trafficking into politics and power, not the fight against drugs.
The nature of drug trafficking is crime, defined as “the large-scale trade in toxic drugs” which, according to the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, includes “the production, demand and illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, which represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of human beings and undermine the economic, cultural and political foundations of society.”
An action or omission is configured as a crime when it aggravates the rights of others and is defined as such to protect the safety of human beings and society. In the case of the crimes that make up drug trafficking, the main asset protected is the health and well-being of people as private security, and the economy, culture and political foundations of society (democracy) as public security.
Drug trafficking covers a long list of crimes that range from illegal crops destined for drug production, to money laundering and any type of benefit with the resources from this criminal activity. The “fight against drugs” is the generic name for actions against these crimes and “the war on drugs” is the name given in 1971 by the President of the United States at the beginning of his policy against drug trafficking.
One of the central strategies of drug trafficking is the control of political power to decriminalize drug trafficking and was enacted and executed by Pablo Escobar, who together with his partner, the Bolivian Roberto Suárez and the dictator Fidel Castro, made Cuba the first drug state in the region to beginning of the decade of 1980. Escobar tried it personally arriving at a seat in the Congress of Colombia.
The financing of politicians, candidates and electoral campaigns with resources from drug trafficking is widely denounced and documented in the region. Important Latin American leaders and even presidents have lost their entry visas to the United States for “drug ties” and others are accused and prosecuted.
XXI century socialism or Castrochavism has taken the doctrine of the Cuban dictatorship of using drug trafficking as an anti-imperialist weapon with proclamations from Castro, Guevara, Chavez, Morales, Maduro, Ortega and more. They have concretized their position by establishing Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua as current narco-states, with influence in the governments of López Obrador in Mexico, Fernández/Kirchner in Argentina, and now Petro in Colombia.
From the narco-states, the money from drug trafficking is used today for the permanent conspiracy against democracy, to bring to power politicians subject to their influence, to assassinate the reputation of the defenders of democracy and to keep in impunity the violation of human rights that perpetrates with state terrorism in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Political parties, leaders, candidates and even governments that are not financed or penetrated by drug trafficking have great difficulty in opposing the action of unlimited resources that have disfigured the nature of politics and that are a real threat to the stability of governments.
The fight against drug trafficking has not failed as the spokesmen of Castrochavism argue, the proof that it works is that they ask to end it. They are seeking protection for their crimes so as not to follow the path of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, or the course of Nicolas Maduro, already required with 15 million dollars for his capture, Evo Morales, head of the narco-state in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega and the members of the Cuban dictatorship. This is the only way to understand Petro’s question at the United Nations: “What is more poisonous for humanity, cocaine, coal or oil?” !
The fight against drug trafficking needs to be supported, updated and reinforced. Democracies must strengthen the fight against drugs by identifying and separating from power those who hold it in order to promote the defense of drug trafficking, as is currently the case in the drug states of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
This article is part of an agreement between El American and the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.
Carlos Sánchez Berzain es abogado, politólogo, máster en ciencia política y sociología. Catedrático. Estadista perseguido y exiliado político. Director del Interamerican Institute for Democracy // Carlos Sánchez Berzain is a lawyer, political scientist, with a master's degree in political science and sociology. Professor. Persecuted statesman and political exile. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.