SirSmokesAlot

This is a real tragedy. "The land of the free" bullying other countries into lockstep, making them carry out the American War On Drugs, OR ELSE. Or else what? Well, if they dont "fully coooperate" with US Drug War efforts, they cannot receive U.S. Aid, and can be subject to economic penalties. It's sad that the worlds largest "democracy" would go around making countries change their beliefs.

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WASHINGTON -- The United States on Thursday "certified" Mexico and Colombia as helping Washington stem the flow of illegal drugs, despite substantial trafficking activity in the Latin American nations.

At the same time, Afghanistan and Myanmar were not placed on the certification list, the White House said, because their governments failed to cooperate with U.S. counternarcotics efforts. Those nations will be barred from any U.S. aid.

The announcement was made by the White House as part of a U.S. report evaluating the drug-fighting performance of 24 nations. The decisions were announced in congressional testimony Thursday by Rand Beers, the State Department's top counternarcotics official.

All but four nations were "certified" as fully cooperating with U.S. counternarcotics efforts.

Countries that are decertified can be subject to economic penalties. Cambodia and Haiti were decertified but were not subjected to sanctions because of national security reasons. Their status remained unchanged from 2000.

In the cases of Afghanistan and Myanmar, the question of economic penalties does not apply because they are under U.S. sanctions for other reasons.

Mexico: Process a 'sham'
The U.S. report said there are "unprecedented opportunities" for U.S.-Mexican counterdrug cooperation but that success depends on Mexico's ability to combat institutional corruption.

"Corruption of the law enforcement sector by drug trafficking organizations remains a serious institutional problem," it said.

On the plus side, the report said an aggressive eradication program coupled with drought in the principal drug cultivation areas of Mexico resulted in record low levels of opium poppy production.

Mexican President Vincente Fox has been an outspoken critic of the annual U.S. drug certification process.

"Certification is more than an affront to Mexico and to other countries. It is a sham that should be denounced and canceled," Fox said last year.

Fox has said he wants an alternative process that would end the U.S. "unilateral approach" and substitute a cooperative process involving producers and consumers, the largest of which is the United States.

But Beers disagreed with that view.

"While some governments resent what they describe as a unilateral, subjective assessment of their performance," Beers said, "we believe that the process encourages openness and reveals those areas where we can improve our collective effort."

A White House representative praised Mexico's efforts fighting illicit drug production.

"Mexico has done some record-setting ... opium and marijuana production eradication," said Robert Brown of the White House Drug Control Policy Office. Brown said eradication efforts in Mexico exceeded "levels seen anywhere else in the world today." Brown also said anti-drug efforts had been strengthened by political events in both Mexico and the United States. Both Bush and Fox are newly elected presidents of their nations.

President Bush has given Fox his blessing for Mexico's counterdrug policy. He said during a visit to Mexico on February 16 that he planned to tell U.S. lawmakers that Fox "will do everything in his power to root out the drug lords and to halt drug trafficking as best as he possibly can."

Bush, hoping to please Fox, endorsed a move in Congress to set aside the certification process, but the lawmakers failed to act ahead of Thursday's deadline. Proponents hope to take action before the March 2002 deadline.

stavia hippie

our government is dumb, to put it bluntly. we are fortunate for the things we have, but yet we deprive others of the joys they dont have, but could.

oh well, i cant wait...one day we will all get what we want, now is the time for change, we must act soon. bush is a weak, military man, he can be persueded...with women and beer with a side of easy mac and cheese.

peace,

Hemperor

You guys should check out the "World Drug Report", a book put out by the U.N. What a joke!
Other than being published by Oxford Univeristy Press, it's U.S. policy through and through! Obviously we wrote the propaganda and then stamped U.N on it to give the image of an "unbiased" report of some kind.