Home |
Site Index |
FAQs |
Contact |
RSS
|
Podcast
home > by publication type > podcasts > How to Improve U.S. Counternarcotics Policy in Latin America
Email
| Interviewee: | Markus Schultze-Kraft |
|---|---|
| Interviewer: | Stephanie Hanson |
April 28, 2008
Billions have been spent to fight cocaine production and trafficking in Latin America. Yet both set new records in 2007. Markus Schultze-Kraft, Latin America program director at the International Crisis Group, discusses policies that the United States, Europe, and Latin American countries should adopt to combat drug trafficking in the region. “Increasingly sophisticated” transnational drug trafficking organizations are expanding across Latin America and into West Africa, he says. Such organizations have infiltrated many state institutions in Latin America, including the police and the judiciary. Schultze-Kraft says it is important to strengthen the police at the federal level, and then look at improving cooperation between federal, state, and municipal police forces.
Regarding current U.S. and EU counternarcotics policies, Schultze-Kraft says “None of them are producing the results that are desired.” As a result, U.S. and EU policymakers should seek advice from one another in the areas that each has expertise. The United States can learn from Europe’s harm reduction programs, he suggests, and the Europeans can learn from the U.S. experience with alternative development in Colombia. Schultze-Kraft stresses that demand reduction is “the most important issue at hand right now.”
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
I understand that I may access this podcast solely for my personal use. Any other use of the file and its content, including display, distribution, reproduction, or alteration in any form for any purpose, whether commercial, noncommercial, educational, or promotional, is expressly prohibited without the written permission of the copyright owner, the Council on Foreign Relations. For more information, write webmaster@cfr.org.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
Walter Russell Mead recounts the story of the centuries-long rivalry between the English- speaking peoples and their enemies in God and Gold.
Complete list of CFR Books.
In this POP, Adjunct Fellow Michelle D. Gavin suggests steps the Bush administration could take to promote political and ethnic reconciliation and to restore the viability of Kenya’s governing institutions.
In this paper, Senior Fellow Daniel Markey poses a set of recommendations for the United States to consider in response to Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
