May 28, 2001
Narco News 2001
Legalization
Proposed
in Mexican
Congress!
Rep.
Gregorio Urías (PRD-Sinaloa) Calls for
Latin
American Nations to Unite
Against
"U.S.-Imposed Drug Policy"
and
to "Break the Spinal Column" of the Narco
A Narco News Global Alert
Translated by The Narco
News Bulletin
from the Notimex news
agency, May 28, 2001
Congressman Gregorio Urias
German of the Democratic
Revolution Party (PRD) says it is necessary to advance toward
the legalization of some drugs so that they stop being the object
of exorbitant enrichment that, in Mexico alone, he confirmed,
creates proficts of nearly $30 billion dollars (U.S.) a year.
In a report, the PRD legislator
said that Mexico and all of Latin America must advance strategies
to "break the spinal column of drug trafficking, since the
policies imposed by the United States have shown to be a rotund
failure."
In the text, titled, "An
Informed Vision to Confront Drug Trafficking," Urias said
that the United States anti-drug policy has been converted into
an instrument of espionage, subordination and interference that
harms the sovereignty of nations.
The problem of drug trafficking
in Latin America, he stressed, affects the stability and integrity
of institutions, and that's why alternative visions must be discussed
in a scientific manner to end the myths, taboos and dark postures
surrounding this social phenomenon.
The federal congress member
specified that the decriminalization of some drugs is necessary
to fully deactivate the black market in drugs, the exorbitant
profits of this traffic and te network of complicity between
police, narco-traffickers and officials.
As an example, he said
that a kilogram of cocaine made in Colombia costs $1,500 dollars,
but that transported to any United States city its price raises
to nearly $30,000 dollars, and if it is brought to Europe or
Asia this price can triple.
The legislator from the
state of Sinaloa indicated that these kinds of alternatives must
be put forward to end the violence in Mexican and Latin American
communities where the drugs are produced, because those towns
and cities are destroyed by violence and vengance.
He said that the management
of the theme by some governments and media outlets is hypocritical.
What is required is to demythologize the life of the narco-trafficker,
stop apologizing for the crime, and evolve beyond yellow journalism
stories about police, a strategy used by the United States to
discredit, blackmail, pressure and make other governments and
countries submit.
In his report, elaborated
at the end of April of 2001, the PRD congressman said that the
Mexican people face imminent risk that this situation drifts
into a status known as a Narco-State due to the application of
conflicted strategies interested in strengthening organized crime
and political and economic groups.
Urías Germán
underlined that drug trafficking has penetrated institutions
of the State and citd as examples the cases of General Jose de
Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the alleged connections of the Salinas
de Gortari family with drug trafficking and the case of the ex-governor
of Quintana Roo, Mario Villanueva.
He said that the political
democratic transition of the country is at risk if the current
strategies to combat drug trafficking together with Latin America
are not changed.
Breaking
the Spinal Column of Censorship