Politics Outside US

With still two weeks left in 2010, Ciudad Juárez is setting a new record in the number of drug prohibition war killings.

"Criminalisation of drug possession does not help to decrease illicit drug consumption. Instead, it distracts the attention and energy of the police from the real originators of the problem: mass producers and major and minor drug dealers" – write the signatories of a letter of support for liberalizing drug policy in Poland. Among them are former President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski and a world-famous sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman. Other signatories include writers, artists and respected public figures.

In a sign that Mexico's prohibitionist war on drugs continues to fail and spread havoc in the region: About 150 miles north of Guatemala City, deep in the jungle, is a military base where Guatemalan Special Forces are being trained secretly by U.S. Green Berets. The U.S. officers say the Guatemalan troops are committed to the task of defeating the Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Guatemala’s murder rate is now twice that of Mexico where more than 11,000 people have been killed just this year.

Farmers growing marijuana in remote Mexican mountains are adopting techniques pioneered in the United States to produce more potent pot and boost profits. Even as hundreds of troops fan out across Sinaloa ripping up marijuana fields by hand, drug trafficking organizations are one step ahead of the government’s efforts, helping to stifle President Felipe Calderon’s army-led prohibitionist battle against the drug traffickers.

Warning about the worsening drug prohibition situation in Kyrgyzstan and an actual war between drug trafficking organizations in Tajikistan, Russia’s Federal Anti-Drug Service's Viktor Ivanov has called for a special meeting of the UN Security Council on Afghan drug trafficking.

U.S. diplomats accused Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government of taking bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for freeing suspects, in cables released by Wikileaks. The Nicaraguan Consulate in Washington declined to comment, deferring to the Foreign Ministry, which didn’t respond to a request for comment. Government representatives in Managua couldn’t be reached. The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the cable.

A peace march called by the government of the Mexican town of Apatzingan was the scene of a deadly gun battle between federal forces and the local drug trafficking organization ended up as a rally in support of a slain drug lord. Photographs show people who took part in the march carrying posters expressing support for La Familia. Mayor Genaro Guizar seemed to lay the blame for the violence on the federal government, not La Familia.

The European Union will not block any initiative of EU Member States to start the legal regulation of cannabis and other currently illegal drugs. This was repeatedly stated by Dana Spinant, the new Coordinator of the European Commissions Anti-Drugs Unit, at a Public Hearing on Drug Policies in the European Parliament. The hearing was organised by Member of European Parliament Michael Tremopoulos (Greens, Greece) and ENCOD, a coalition of citizens for drug policy reform. It brought together the expertise of representatives of civil society - among others leading Spanish activist for legal cannabis Martin Barriuso, spokesman of the Union of Dutch Coffeeshops Marc Josemans, and Richard Cowan, former director of NORML, USA’s largest reform organization. Members of European Parliament Rui Tavares (GUE, Portugal) and Dennis de Jong (GUE, Netherlands) also spoke at the event.

An eight-month-old infant was fatally wounded after being caught in the crossfire during a gun battle between police and drug traffickers, authorities and police said. The baby was shot during a gunfight in the town of Apatzingan in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.