A genuine test in war against drugs

The U.S. Department of State on March 4 issued the "2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)", which is the U.S. government's country-by-country, two-volume report that describes the efforts to attack all aspects of the international drug trade in Calendar Year 2009.

In the report, the United States highly commends efforts of its close allies like Mexico and Colombia to fight against drugs and the outcome they attained in 2009 and criticizes Venezuela, Bolivia and a few other Latin American nations, which have indicated an anti-U.S. tendency in their bid to address or cope with the drug issue ineffectively. The INCSR has, since its release, drawn dissatisfaction and even protests from some Latin American countries.

The drug problem has been a major issue in U.S.-Latin American relations. The Anti-drug endeavor is a major aspect of the U.S.' Latin America policy as well as an important means to maintain its strategic interests in Latin America. Back in the eighties of the 20th century, the U.S. government implemented the so-called "three d- strategy" with the main content to promote democracy, human rights and the anti-drug endeavor, and the successive American governments have since added to the weight of its anti drug policy in their whole U.S. policy toward Latin America.

In recent years, the United States has, under the pretext of strengthening its relations with Colombia, worked to maintain and go on enhancing its military presence in Latin American and maximally maintain and expand its political, economic and military influences in the region.

On the issue of battling drug production and trading, the U.S. and Latin American countries share a common interest demand with numerous fields of cooperation. As the world's largest drug-consuming nation, the United States is suffering from a grave drug abuse problem, which evolves a couple of vital social problems. And Latin America is the global leading drug producing region, where drug production and smuggling are very rampant. Crime of violence is frequent, posing a serious menace to the national security and sustainable development in Latin American countries.

In the course of the fight against drugs, the United States has provided much assistance to Latin American nations in the judicial, economic, military and manpower training realms, and scored some successes in controlling drug planting and cultivation areas, blocking drug transport, combating money laundering and cultivating drug alternatives, etc. In order to encourage the Andean nations with a highest concentration of drug cultivation to implement anti-drug policies, the U.S. has particularly offered especial tariff concessions to Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Nevertheless, there are still quite a few differences and contradictions between the U.S. and Latin America on the drug issue. For a long time, both sides have differed widely on recognition of responsibility for the spread of drugs, the specific ways of fighting against drugs and especially on the issues relating to national sovereignty. The United States has all along shifted the drug abuse-related blame onto Latin America, while countries regard the U.S. as a major drug-consuming nation, which has unshirkable responsibilities for the spread of drugs, so that it should be the first to take measures for the restriction or reduction of its domestic drug demand.

Moreover, Latin America countries insist that their anti-drug cooperation with the U.S. should be based on the respect for their state sovereignty; they have voiced a great dissatisfaction with the U.S. anti-drug operation in Latin America, which is in violation of their national sovereignty and meddles in their internal affairs. Latin American nations have explicitly voiced their opposition to the unilateral U.S. anti-drug evaluation and an anti-drug approach by linking the U.S. economic assistance with the result-based assessment.

The cooperation and disparity between the U.S. and Latin America on the drug issue epitomize two basic salient features of the long-standing U.S.-Latin American relations of cooperation. On the external relations, their ties with the U.S., the global No. 1 power, occupy a special position, and most of these countries are ready to sign bilateral free trade accords with the U.S., accept the trade preference it grants to them, and carry out a wide-ranging cooperation on such issues in the fields of anti-drug, anti-terrorism, immigration and the fight against organized crime. A lot of U.S. polices have, however, incurred much dissatisfaction and resistance from Latin American countries simply due to the lack of "equality color".

By People's Daily Online and contributed PD desk editor Yuan Dongzhen