The Organization of American States wrapped up a ministerial meeting focused on costly efforts to combat a rampant drug scourge that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said member states have taken an important step by producing a report covering “all stages of drug trafficking from the planting of crops to the final user… including dimensions of the problem ranging from health to public security.”
Individual countries must now weigh future actions.
One measure under consideration is legalizing marijuana, a proposal that has previously met with broad resistance but is gaining support from governments overwhelmed by years of runaway drug violence.
However, some countries, like St. Lucia, remain unconvinced.
Alva Baptiste, the Caribbean nation’s foreign minister, cautioned against legalizing marijuana, warning that “consumption has risen” in countries that softened their drug laws.
“We need a policy that is anti-crime and not pro-drug,” Baptiste told the gathering.
According to the United Nations, about 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States passes through Mexico and Central America — a region that also counts among the world’s most violent.
“The price that the transit countries is paying is unjust and intolerable,” said Mireya Aguero, foreign minister of Honduras.
Her Central American country is the most violent in the world, with about 90 homicides each year for every 100,000 residents — nearly 10 times the global median.
The OAS meeting saw the first high-level contact in years between top diplomats from the United States and Venezuela, which were bitterly at odds during the rule of late leftist leader Hugo Chavez, who died earlier this year.
Recently-named Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua met with new US Secretary of State John Kerry to explore ways to improve relations between the two countries, which have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010.
On the fight against illicit drugs, Kerry told the meeting Wednesday that Washington takes “seriously our shared responsibility for the world drug problem.”
He stressed, however, that “there are no simple answers or uniform solutions.”
Six member states called for allowing Cuba to take part in the Summit of the Americas set to take place in Panama in 2015.
The push was led by Nicaragua with backing from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela.
“A summit of the Americas, without the participation of Cuba, is not a summit,” said Denis Moncada, Managua’s OAS envoy.
The gathering allowed host Guatemala to showcase the colonial city of Antigua, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) southwest of the capital Guatemala City.
The gathering also adopted two resolutions to combat racism.
The measures aim to “prevent, punish, and eradicate racism and all forms of discrimination and intolerance,” said Guatemalan Foreign Minister Luis Fernando Carrera Castro.
Also attending the three-day meeting as observers were representatives from outside the Americas, including China, the European Union, India, Israel, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Thailand.
Many shared their own nations’ experiences regarding efforts to interdict illicit drugs.
OAS wraps up regional meeting on security, drugs
