Monday 04 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
Nicaragua Asks US
to Create "Financial Basket" for War on
Drugs
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to Enter ALBA
Europe, Australia
Investigate FARC's
International Network
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Argentina-Chile Pass
Strands 2,000 Trucks
Chavez: 21st Century,
Socialism in Venezuela
|
Nicaragua Asks US to
Create "Financial
Basket" for War on Drugs
CARTAGENA - The
government of Nicaragua
asked the United States
to create a "financial
basket" of some us$1
billion dollars to fund
anti-drug programs in
the Central American
countries.
Nicaraguan Minister of
Government Ana Isabel
Morales told Notimex -
state-run Mexican news
agency - that her
country's proposal "is a
financial basket that
they (United States)
would fund with 1bn
dollars for the area in
order to fight drug
trafficking and its
related effects."
The Nicaraguan official,
who is visiting the
Colombian resort area of
Cartagena, to
attend the Expanded
Regional Summit
Conference on Drugs,
Security, and
Cooperation of the
Caribbean, Central
America, Colombia,
Mexico, and Venezuela,
also called for an
effort to face the
challenge of
rehabilitating drug
addicts.
In Morales's opinion,
the government in
Washington must assume
responsibility for this
problem due to the fact
that "the drugs moving
through Central America
are headed for the
United States," viewed
as the main market for
hallucinogenic drugs.
"We are demanding that
the United States share
responsibility with the
Central American
nations. This is a
matter that we have
discussed with Mexico.
That country [US] must
fund our countries," the
Nicaraguan minister of
government proclaimed.
Morales deems it
"unjust" that
governments in the
region should have to
allocate part of their
resources to fund the
anti-drug struggle at
the expense of other
social needs that must
be resolved.
According to Morales,
the resources provided
by the United States via
the anti-drug Merida
Plan are "minimal, and
we are forced to divert
the scant resources that
we should be earmarking
for the education and
health of our people to
the war on drugs."
Morales believes that
problem of narcotics
trafficking through
Central America is
"serious because it is
the principal transit
zone used by the drug
cartels that export
cocaine from Colombia to
the United States."
"Drugs are a problem
throughout Central
America. We are indeed
transit countries, but
it is our poor people
who are mainly affected
and who are the most
vulnerable. Poverty is a
breeding ground that
narcotraffickers use to
establish their bases,"
she said.
Morales therefore argued
that "these are actions
that must be coordinated
on a Central American
level, and in that
sense, the anti- drug
action plan being
discussed at this summit
meeting must embrace our
national plans as well
as decisions made by the
United Nations."
The delegates from the
25 countries attending
the Cartagena anti- drug
summit that will draw to
a close on Friday [ 1
August] are designing a
plan of action that they
will submit for the
consideration of the
chiefs of state of
Colombia, Mexico,
Guatemala, Panama, El
Salvador, and the
Dominican Republic. |
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