Guatemala president to consider legalising illicit drugs

Guatemala's leader says America's inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves his country with no option but to consider legalising their use and transport.

President Otto Perez Molina's comments are a remarkable turnaround for an ex-general elected on a platform of crushing organised crime with an iron fist.

Mr Molina said he would try to win regional support for drug legalisation at an upcoming summit of Central American leaders next month.

He received his first public support yesterday at a security meeting with El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes, who said he too was willing to consider legalisation.

"We're bringing the issue up for debate. Today's meeting is intended to strengthen our methods of fighting organised crime," Mr Molina said with Mr Funes. "But if drug consumption isn't reduced, the problem will continue."

In just a month in office, Mr Molina has transformed himself from one of Latin America's toughest advocates of military action against drug cartels to one of the region's strongest voices for drug legalisation.

His stance provoked strong criticism from the United States over the weekend, and intense discussion inside the country, where Guatemalans argued for and against his proposal in the streets and on radio talk shows.

One analyst said Mr Molina's about-face could be designed to pressure the US into providing military aid, currently banned by the US Congress because of past human rights abuses.

"This is kind of like a shot across the bow, saying if you don't help us, this is what we can do," said Anita Isaacs, a Guatemala expert and professor of political sc44ience at Haverford College.

But Mr Molina's backers said the change grew out of the realisation that if demand continues in the US, the small country, which has become a major drug transit point, will never have the resources to fight the flow of illegal drugs from producers in South America to the world's largest consumer market in the US

"Are we going to be responsible to put up a war against the cartels if we don't produce the drugs or consume the drugs? We're just a corridor of illegality," Eduardo Stein, a former Guatemalan vice president who headed Mr Molina's transition team.

"The issue of drug trafficking and consumption is not on the North American political agenda. The issue of drugs in the US is very marginalised, while for Guatemala and the rest of Central America it's very central," he added.

US president Barack Obama would cut funds to fight drug trafficking in Latin America in 2013, according to his budget proposal released yesterday.

While the Obama administration has promised to shift anti-drug resources from law enforcement and military intervention to treatment and prevention, funding would be restored to slightly higher than 2011 levels in the proposal after suffering a cut in 2012.

A growing number of former Latin American leaders have come out in favour of legalisation, saying the US efforts to fight drug trafficking in Latin America have only caused more violence and sucked up resources.

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos has said he would be open to legalisation if the world agreed.

"It's a theme that must be addressed," Colombia's foreign minister Maria Holguin said yesterday. "The war on drugs definitely hasn't been the success it should be and it's something the countries should discuss."

Honduras, another major transit country that with Guatemala and El Salvador suffers one of the highest murder rates in the world, has never formally considered legalisation. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has said it would not make sense to legalise drugs in the region as long as they remain illegal in the US.

Mr Molina, 61, was elected in November and took office last month on a platform of cracking down on the country's rampant crime, a product of gang and cartel violence, along with the legacy of a bloody 1960-1996 civil war.

Army, police and paramilitary are blamed for killing the vast majority of 200,000 victims, most of whom were Mayan.

More than half of Guatemalans live in poverty in a nation of 14 million overrun by organised crime and Mexican drug cartels. Mr Molina's predecessor, former President Alvaro Colom, sent troops to retake some provinces from the Zetas drug gang.

Mr Molina, the first former general to be elected president since peace accords were signed in 1996, also took office with the mission of ending a long-standing US ban on military aid imposed during the civil war because of concerns over human rights abuses.