Source: CC Guide

28 February 2012

On Saturday February 11th, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina
declared that, following discussions with Colombian President Santos,
he will present a proposal for drug legalization in Central America at
the April 14-15 Summit of the Americas. Guatemalan Vice-President
Roxana Baldetti will begin a tour of Central America to discuss the
proposal with regional leaders and garner support for it, starting
with Panama, Costa Rica and Salvador on February 29th.

Unsurprisingly,
the move was greeted by a quick rebuke from the US government.

President Molina’s initiative is unprecedented and marks the first
time since the launching of the War on Drugs by Richard Nixon in 1971
that a foreign head of state actively challenges the US-led policies
of drug prohibition and try to build a coalition against it. A former
general of the Guatemalan army, President Molina has impeccable
credentials to launch such a move: he was elected in November 2011 on
a law-and-order platform, pledging to restore security to the country.
Guatemala is on the major transit route from Colombia to the US and
drug violence has exploded there over the past few years, turning this
already impoverished and unstable country into one of the most
dangerous countries in the world.

We all need to show our support to President Molina and his potential
Latin American allies. We also need to put pressure on the Obama
administration to ensure that it doesn’t stall Molina’s proposal,
and that it allows a truthful debate to take place at the April 14-15
Summit of the Americas and beyond.

That’s why I signed a petition to Otto Perez Molina, President of
Guatemala, Roxana Baldetti, Vice-President, Guatemala, and 8 others.

Will you sign this petition? Click here!

Thanks!

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