US More Open to Discuss Drug Legalization Issue, Guatemalan President Says Alejandro Varela - Latin American Herald Tribune
go to original August 29, 2014

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina (Bloomberg)

PANAMA CITY – Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina reaffirmed his stance on legalizing drugs in an interview with Efe, and said that the U.S. is now open to discuss this possibility as its position on the matter has become more flexible.

“From totally rejecting and avoiding the topic (of drug legalization), the U.S. has moved on to say that they are ready to discuss the issue even though they may not agree with it, which is a significant change,” the Guatemalan president said on Wednesday at the end of a 24-hour official visit to Panama.

“I am convinced that we have to do things differently from how they have been done over the last 50 years,” Perez Molina said, adding that “prohibition has not worked for us” in the battle against drug trafficking.

Guatemala’s stance, according to the president, is to seek “regulation, as some drugs have to be legalized, others have to be regulated and some have to be banned, while keeping in mind issues of public health and people’s rights.”

He argued “this can be a much more positive (step) from what we have been doing which has not worked.”

According to Perez Molina, “fortunately, the idea – that we have to be more creative and see what things we have to do differently – has been gaining more ground.”

The president lamented that so far the repressive fight against drugs “has made us lose human resources, which is most valuable, and has undermined the institutional structure of our countries.”

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