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Gustavo Petro yesterday. PA

Colombia’s first leftist president says ‘the war on drugs has failed’

Gustavo Petro was sworn into office yesterday.

COLOMBIA’S FIRST LEFTIST president declared “the war on drugs has failed” as he was sworn into office yesterday. 

Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, promised to fight inequality and bring peace to a country long-haunted by bloody feuds between the government, drug traffickers and rebels.

Petro won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties that offered moderate changes to the market-friendly economy, but failed to connect with voters frustrated by rising poverty and violence against human rights leaders and environmental groups in rural areas.

Yesterday, he said Colombia was getting a “second chance” to tackle violence and poverty and promised that his government would implement economic policies that seek to end longstanding inequalities and ensure “solidarity” with the nation’s most vulnerable.

The incoming president said he was willing to start peace talks with armed groups across the country, calling on the United States and other developed nations to change drug policies that have focused on the prohibition of substances like cocaine and fed violent conflicts across Colombia and other Latin American nations.

“It’s time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed,” he said.

“Of course peace is possible. But it depends on current drug policies being substituted with strong measures that prevent consumption in developed societies.”

Petro is part of a growing group of leftist politicians and political outsiders who since the pandemic began have been winning elections in Latin America and and hurting incumbents who struggled with its economic aftershocks.

The ex-rebel’s victory was also exceptional for Colombia, where voters had been historically reluctant to back leftist politicians who were often accused of being soft on crime or allied with guerrillas.

A 2016 peace deal between Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia turned the focus of voters away from the violent conflicts playing out in rural areas and gave prominence to problems like poverty and corruption, fuelling the popularity of leftist parties in national elections.

However, smaller rebel groups like the National Liberation Army and the Gulf Clan continue to fight over drug trafficking routes, illegal gold mines and other resources abandoned by the FARC.

Petro (62) has described US-led anti-narcotics policies as a failure but has also said he would like to work with Washington “as equals”, building schemes to combat climate change or bring infrastructure to rural areas where many farmers say coca leaves are the only viable crop.

He also formed alliances with environmentalists during his presidential campaign and has promised to turn Colombia into a “global powerhouse for life” by slowing deforestation and reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

He has said Colombia will stop granting new licenses for oil exploration and will ban fracking projects, even though the oil industry makes up almost 50% of the nation’s legal exports.

He plans to finance social spending with a €9.8-billion-a-year tax reform that would boost taxes on the rich and do away with corporate tax breaks.

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    Mute Wez Moore
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    Aug 8th 2022, 8:17 AM

    “It’s time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed,”

    He’s bang on the money, I hope it works out. It’s madness to continue with this abject failure.

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    Mute Alan
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    Aug 8th 2022, 8:06 AM

    He’s right. But not sure if other countries will buy into the alternative.

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    Mute James Gorman
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    Aug 8th 2022, 9:47 AM

    @Alan: let’s see how he gets on first

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    Mute antisocialbarber
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    Aug 8th 2022, 10:29 AM

    @James Gorman: would be great if it would sway fresh thinking in Brazil, and remove Bolsonaro from the top Job. This man isn’t capable of managing the Amazon rainforest amongst other things

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    Mute Irish ColdCases
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    Aug 8th 2022, 8:28 AM

    To say the least. Fair play to him for actually telling it like it is though. Time for other governments to admit the same

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Aug 8th 2022, 9:37 AM

    He’s 100% correct. It’s time to stop waging an un winnable war based on moralistic and racist agendas from over 70 years ago. These policies have consistently hurt the poorest and most vulnerable in our societies and it’s well past time we start rewriting evidence based laws so that we can actually make a difference in peoples lives. Irish politicians are very much stuck back in that outdated, ignorant and moralistic mindset of the 60’s but we’re going to have to play catch up eventually as the world is quickly moving on without us.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    Aug 8th 2022, 10:26 AM

    @Declan Doherty: it’s not so much that the politicians don’t understand the war on drugs is futile, but that politicians think they will lose votes if they are seen to be soft on drugs. We need brave politicians willing to change policy. Perhaps this Colombian bloke will show that you can win with anti war on drugs policy

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    Mute antisocialbarber
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    Aug 8th 2022, 10:31 AM

    @Declan Doherty: sad to say it’ll be a long way off if ever, if we keep these nonces In perpetual government

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Aug 8th 2022, 10:51 AM

    @Dave Harris: I agree with you to a point but look at our own drugs minister as an example. His views are entirely based on ignorance and an inability to see beyond decades of his own propaganda. My own parents who are in their 80’s are streets ahead of him on this issue. A backward parish pump politician who has no business being anywhere near drug policy in a supposedly modern nation and yet here we are. It has to change because he and his ilk are doing untold damage to some of the most vulnerable citizens of this nation. His backward and archaic views are quite literally costing lives.

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    Mute Billy McNamara
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    Aug 8th 2022, 8:35 PM

    @Declan Doherty: Who picks up the people puking on the streets stoned out of their minds when coke etc can be bought like bread?

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Aug 8th 2022, 8:40 PM

    @Billy McNamara: I don’t know Billy. Who does it now ? Coke can already be bought like bread. It’s widely available in every town and vIllage the length and breadth of the country.

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    Mute Ivan Connolly
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    Aug 8th 2022, 9:46 AM

    Like all wars, the war on drugs is not about achieving a specific outcome but rather creating an illusive, an often imaginary, enemy that provides cover for the generation of immense profits through arms sales to local armies as well as police forces and militias. New laws as well as repressive police forces also help with the diminution of civil rights and let’s not forget that it the US, who historically and contemporaneously have been the driving force behind the “war”, most police forces are heavily of not entirely funded by drug associated seizures of property and wealth. There is so much to be lost by ending the war on drugs that the ending of it will be fought tooth and nail. It’s never been about consumption of drugs, it’s always about money and power.

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    Mute Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri
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    Aug 8th 2022, 2:08 PM

    @Ivan Connolly: Did your history book stop in the 1970′s? Judging by your post, you know nothing about the war on drugs and it didn’t start with Nixon in ’71. There is a pining on the far-left to blame everything on the US and to forget about the facts. The US has a more liberal drug policy than Ireland where you will be brought to court for having €2 worth of cannabis.

    Ending the war on drugs solves absolutely nothing and the reality of the situation is that unless ordinary people change their attitude, drugs will still flood every country where there is demand. The war on drugs has been a massive failure, but the alternative doesn’t actually solve anything. Drug gangs themselves are more about power and money than the drugs themselves and are armed to the teeth in South and Central America thanks to the US and Vietnam.

    Saying we aren’t going to do anything doesn’t stop the violence or drug deaths.

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    Mute Ivan Connolly
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    Aug 8th 2022, 6:10 PM

    @Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri: you poor thing. You must have been so excited to reply to my comment that you didn’t actually get a chance to read it. I know the real “ war on drugs” didn’t start with Nixon in the 70’s. That’s why I didn’t say that but some of the foam spewing from your mouth must have gotten in your eye as you seemed to read it. The first real attempts to make narcotics as we know them illegal was spearheaded by a man called Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the early part of the 20th century. Of course his motivation was nothing to do with potential harm to people who consumed narcotics but rather by racism. I’m not going to walk you through it all, you have to do a little leg work yourself to really understand an issue rather than just shout.

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Aug 8th 2022, 11:53 PM

    @Ivan Connolly: it always blows my mind that in an era where politicians trip over themselves trying to be PC and undo the wrongs of the past (like for example removing the statues from the front of the Shelbourne), the same politicians have no problem maintaining laws deeply rooted in racism such as the demonisation and subsequent criminalisation of cannabis. Either they’re completely ignorant of the origins of those laws or they’re hypocrites about it. I’m not sure which is worse but neither is a good look

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    Mute Lee King Buckett
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    Aug 8th 2022, 11:53 AM

    Fair comment really – if the developed world wants to prohibit drugs then they should do so by dealing with the source which is customer demand.

    If their citizens didn’t want drugs, there would be no illicit trade.

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    Mute Mónica Pascoal
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    Aug 8th 2022, 12:25 PM

    A leftist president in South America? He won’t last long if the US has any concerns about him. And let’s be honest, seeing as the US cannot seem to be able to make a distinction between communism and socialism (which most leftist parties subscribe to), I’d say his term will be short-lived!

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    Mute Freddie Rincon
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    Aug 9th 2022, 9:17 AM

    @Mónica Pascoal: most of the governments are in the left. The problem is the previous admin has blown up the economy and sold off the reserves leaving the likes of Petro with huge problems to deal with . Inflation is one thing but the currency has also lost 50% of it’s value in recent years. Previous right wing presidents were , ironically , up to their necks in the drugs trade but were allies of the US and did what they were told

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    Mute Aidy McBride
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    Aug 8th 2022, 10:44 AM

    I agree with the war on drugs

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Aug 8th 2022, 11:07 AM

    @Aidy McBride: The war on drugs is 50 years old and was lost almost immediately. But it was a good campaign slogan.
    When drug crops are the only ones that pay subsistence farmers you can understand the problem.
    Except avocados, the Mexican
    cartels have gotten into that as it is as lucrative.

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    Mute sean o'dhubhghaill
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    Aug 8th 2022, 10:36 AM

    He is right, but that doesn’t mean we surrender totally. We just need totally new tactics. For a start, how about a legal government supply for registered addicts?

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    Mute JustBEERbarry
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    Aug 8th 2022, 7:17 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: ‘registered addicts’.
    What about people who want to exercise their free will/choice to indulge or not to indulge?

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    Mute Nicholas McMurry
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    Aug 8th 2022, 1:27 PM

    This has been clear for decades, but then again I suppose it took the parties in the North decades to realise they were in an unwinnable war. Such a huge unnecessary loss of life though.

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    Mute Gerry Gleeson
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    Aug 8th 2022, 1:24 PM

    Is this a first . Does every one that comments here agree?

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    Mute Alan Byrne
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    Aug 8th 2022, 1:27 PM

    @Gerry Gleeson: Except for Aidy McBride above

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    Mute Daithi
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    Aug 8th 2022, 9:56 AM

    Can he deliver though? Time will tell I suppose.

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    Mute Alan Byrne
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    Aug 8th 2022, 1:26 PM

    @Daithi: Yes he can, but An Post and Bailey the sniffer dog keep intercepting his deliveries

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    Mute Michael McDarby
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    Aug 8th 2022, 2:04 PM

    If there is a war on drugs then who is the enemy?

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    Mute OConnelj
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    Aug 8th 2022, 3:54 PM

    He is also the Minster for Stating the Obvious.

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Aug 9th 2022, 2:28 PM

    I loved the first two albums but the last one wasn’t great.

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