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| 'Legalize is to Pacify' - 'A bad business' |
Below the title, 'Legalize is to Pacify,' a camoflauged man in a hammock gripping an automatic rifle shakes his fist at the sky and declares 'It's a bad business.'
The man might be a guerrilla, paramilitary fighter or a plain old narco, all of whom make money off of the illegal drug trade. But, whoever he is, legalizing drugs would certainly hurt his business by shifting the drug industry to legal, tax-paying companies which don't buy automatic rifles.
In fact, a recent study by Mexican academics concluded that legalized marijuana in one or more U.S. states - as Colorado and Washington voted to do last week - would take billions of dollars away from Mexican cartels.
If this cartoon expresses El Espectador's editorial view, it shows that legalization (or decriminalization) of drugs has become the establishment position here in Colombia. The El Tiempo newspaper also backs drug decriminalization. President Santos has also said that drug legalization should be considered, and several ex-presidents support the idea.
By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours
Drugs were criminalized in the United States for the express purpose of causing chaos throughout large swathes of Latin America, thereby giving the United States a justification for maintaining a large-scale covert and military presence in the region.
ReplyDeleteBecause if there were peace, how would the CIA maintain their grip on Colombia?
For this reason Washington will never permit Colombia to decriminalize cocaine. The only option is tell Uncle Sam to go fuck himself, and unilaterally turn Colombia into the world's first narco-state.
J.M. Porup
(author, Lonely Planet Colombia, 5th ed.)
www.JMPorup.com