I et interview med The Finansiel Times den 13. februar svarer Colombias præsident Santos direkte adspurgt om hans holdning til legalisering af illegale rusmidler, at;
On that issue I’m not a fundamentalist. If the world considers that legislation is a solution I would gladly go along with that. I can understand the benefits, and I can understand the arguments.
But this has to be a multilateral approach. For us, fighting drug trafficking is a matter of national security. It’s the source of all the ills we have security-wise in this nation. So my policy is to fight drug trafficking in all the links in the chain – from the production and consumption of drugs to the assets of the drug traffickers. We have been very successful in many parts of that fight. Less successful in others. But we have no alternative than to keep on fighting and to stimulate the whole world to fight this war with us. No one single country can win this war. And you in the UK must be very worried because consumption is going up. And the consumption in Europe is going up. And the power of the cartels in the Caribbean is going up and the power of the cartels in central American countries is going up. And in east Africa it’s going up. This is a problem for the world, for a multilateral approach.
Adspurgt efterfølgende, om det er en agenda han ønsker at promovere, svarer han;
If I find the key and leading countries to be in that mood, I would gladly participate in that discussion.
Med andre ord ligger nøglen til en legalisering hos Europa og ikke mindst USA, der vurderet på markedsværdi er langt de vigtigste markeder for illegale rusmidler.
Det bemærkelsesværdige ved Santos udtalelser er, at det er første gang en siddende Latinamerikansk præsident i så direkte vendinger vendinger lægger op til en legalisering, omend han dog viger fra at gå enegang, formentlig af hensyn til USA.
Dette sker samtidig med at den colombianske regering erkender, at paramilitære grupper med forbindelse til narkotikahandlen, ifølge “Colombia Reports” har øget deres indflydelse i Colombia, og truer lokalvalgene til efteråret.
