This cartoon is from El Diario, Nov 23, 2011. While it is commendable any effort to combat narco-trafficking in this hemisphere, UNASUR’s intentions and will are perceived as been like this cartoon portrays.

The fight against drugs cannot be just a political discourse. The intent of UNASUR to fight this billionaire business needs to align with the international organizations and to work in conjunction with other players like the DEA and/or Interpol. This fight requires to face white collar – influential people inside our countries; be more stringent with money laundering; fight inside police and government officials’ corruption; and been able to relegate sovereignty and political alignment on behalf of this fight.

One important and easy to adopt practice would be to monitor, seize and punish severely the smuggling of precursors. In the case of Bolivia, for example we know cocaine could not be produced without those precursor. Instead, what we see is that the exporting or transit countries do nothing to prevent the sale of those products.