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Ecuador: how to change the paradigm in the fight against drug trafficking?
Gaspard Estrada, executive director of the Latin America and Caribbean Political Observatory at Sciences Po Paris, believes that in the fight against drug trafficking, Latin American governments have maintained a status quo for 50 years. They do not take into account the economic model of drug traffickers nor the essential problem of public health. – (CYRIL BALTA / RADIO FRANCE)
Gaspard Estrada, executive director of the Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean at Sciences Po Paris, believes that to fight against drug trafficking and the cartels which are sowing chaos in Ecuador, the repressive response alone cannot be enough and has already shown its limits.
“For the moment, politicians are more in favor of the status quo in place for fifty years”indicates in the franceinfo Talk Wednesday January 17 Gaspard Estrada, executive director of the Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean at Sciences Po Paris, while Ecuador was plunged last week into a major security crisis linked to to drug trafficking.
>> Ecuador: cartels sow chaos, country on the brink of civil war
“Also, for around fifty years, he continues, the policy essentially aims to repress the cartels, to decapitate the mafia organizations, but without taking into account the economic logic of the cartels and without having in mind the question of public health. That is to say, how to change the paradigm in the fight against drug trafficking.”
Change gear by decriminalizing?
“It is paradoxical to see that in Latin America, concludes the political scientista certain number of personalities from the right and the left have decided to propose this paradigm shift which aims to decriminalize and provide information that is supported by data to propose a change of gear in the fight against drugs.
The ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Defense of the Andean countries will meet urgently on Sunday in Lima to discuss the problems of cross-border crime linked to drug trafficking, which last week plunged Ecuador into a major security crisis .
The announcement of the escape on January 7 from the Guayaquil complex (southwest) of the feared leader of the Choneros gang Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, provoked a wave of mutinies with hostage-taking in at least five prisons , attacks against law enforcement and other acts aimed at sowing terror. In response, more than 22,400 soldiers were deployed, with land, air and sea patrols, while a curfew was imposed.
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