Balikesir Model United Nations 2019April 12-14, 2019

STUDY GUIDE

Agenda Item: Latin American Drug Trafficking

Prepared By: İrem Ersoy & Ece Koç

I. Letter from the Committee Directors,

We are utterly pleased to welcome you all to the Balikesir Model United Nations 2019. We are İrem Ersoy, a sophomore studying at Antalya Doga Schools, and Ece Koç, a junior studying at Muharrem Hasbi Anatolian High School, and we are extremely honored to announce that we have been accoladed with being the Committee Directors responsible for UNODC.

This year, we have ‘Latin American drug trafficking’ as the agenda item to draw attention to the everlasting tensions between Latin American countries and the rest of the world about drug smuggling and we are emphasizing the fact that we need to mainstream the overall drug cartels and businesses.

The Secretariat of BALMUN 2019 has been working relentlessly for the past months to reach the level of academic excellence to satisfy you, the participants.

We highly suggest the delegates of the UNODC to read this study guide thoroughly and do further research of the agenda item to have a better understanding of the topic and details of these issues.

You may contact us via iremersoy07@gmail.com and ecekoc579@icloud.com for your inquiries concerning the study guide and the conference in general.

Kindest regards,

The Committee Directors responsible for United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

II. Introduction to the Committee

It was established in 1997 through a co-operation between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention. And then in 2002, the name of the organization changed to UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). UNODC is a global leader in the fight against illicit drugs and international crime. It operates in all regions of the world through an extensive network of field offices. UNODC relies on voluntary contributions, mainly from governments, for %90 of its budget.

UNODC is mandated to assist Member States to decrease their struggle in order to fight against illicit drugs, crime and terrorism. In the Millennium Declaration, Member States also resolved to intensify efforts to fight transnational crime in all its dimensions, to redouble the efforts to implement the commitment to counter the world drug problem and to take adequate action against international terrorism.

It’s mandate considers and works on ‘three pillars’;

1) ‘Research and analytical work to increase knowledge and understanding of drugs and crime issues and expand the evidence base for policy and operational decisions,’

2) ‘Field-based technical cooperation projects to enhance the capacity of Member States to counteract illicit drugs, crime and terrorism,’

3) ‘Normative work to assist States in the ratification and implementation of the relevant international treaties, the development of domestic legislation on drugs, crime and terrorism, and the provision of secretariat and substantive services to the treaty-based and governing bodies’

III. Introduction to the Committee Agenda

A. Background

Latin American drug trafficking has been persistent in the global economy and history. Illicit drug trades of the American territories in the early 21st century are worth, in rough estimates, about $150 billion. They have inspired sharp conflict and violence (70,000 deaths in Mexico alone), corruption, human rights violations, new forms of popular “narco”

culture, and powerful criminal organizations known as “cartels.” A long US-led “drug war” also marks the region, from the Andes to Mexico, though some Latin American nations are leading new reform efforts against the harms of both the drug business and drug prohibition. Such costs aside, drug trades of cocaine, marijuana, opiates are paradoxically among the most “successful” and home-grown export industries in all of Latin American history. Illicit drug trades are also quite recent in origins, having taking off during the 1970s. The topic, however, lacks major research by historians. Invisible trades are hard to trace in sources and sensationalism about drugs holds off archival work.

Thus, the drug trades in Latin America usually taps other fields, including political science, anthropology, and criminology, or draws on journalistic or policy-oriented writings. Key definitional problems also complicate “drugs.” Drugs are medicinal (the America’s botanical history) or they can include legal regulated drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, also prominent in the region. The drugs can also include “soft” intoxicants, such as coffee and cacao and the many indigenous hallucinogens such as peyote and ayahuasca.

In the wider drug trades, Latin America has been a leader for centuries. Nonetheless, for this article, citations are limited to the major illicit drugs of the late 20th century, namely cocaine, cannabis, and opiates, drugs in conventional terms. After 1900, a small group of world power began the movement to prohibit specific drugs, and, by 1961, a global treaty regime reigned that included the countries of Latin America. By the 1970s, modern drug trafficking bonanzas had begun—from Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, and the Caribbean—that were influenced by local drug cultures and regional smuggling traditions.

B. Illicit Drug Trade in Latin America

The illegal drug trade in Latin America concerns primarily the production and sale of cocaine and cannabis, including the export of these banned substances to the United States of America (USA) and Europe. The Coca cultivation is concentrated in the Andes of South America, particularly in Per, Colombia and Bolivia; this is the world's only source region for coca.

Drug consumption in Latin America remains relatively low, but cocaine in particular has increased in recent years in countries along the major smuggling routes. As of 2008, the primary pathway for drugs into the United States is through Mexico and Central America, though crackdowns on drug trafficking by the Mexican government has forced many cartels to operate routes through Guatemala and Honduras instead. This is a shift from the 1980s and early 90s, when the main smuggling route was via the Caribbean into Florida. The United States is the primary destination, but around 25 to 30% of global cocaine production travels from Latin America to Europe, typically via West Africa. The major drug trafficking organizations such as cartels are Mexican and Colombian, and said to generate a total of $18 to $39bn in wholesale drug proceeds per year. Mexican cartels are currently considered the "greatest organized crime threat" to the United States.

C. The Growing Latin American Businesses

While the shipment of coca from Colombia to the United States increases, other South American countries become more involved in this business. According to a report by Revista Semana; Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia have been the nations that most cultivate and export narcotics to Europe, United States, and Asia. Despite the campaigns of their respective governments, crops have increased in the last decade. Mainly, in Colombia, there has been an increase in these crops. For this reason, both government officials spoke of mutual support to destroy criminal organizations, adding the fact that drug trafficking is a challenge for both nations.

Along with production, the number of drug cartels has also grown. After the persecution of the Colombian capos, and contrary to what is thought about their extinction, they have expanded. Those who were small drug traffickers quickly became the drug dealers most wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Latin America.

The global distribution business is currently managed mainly between Mexico and Colombia, with the difference that Mexican bosses want a large part of the crops, routes, distribution, and sales to be handled without the need of intermediaries. In a report of the Revista Semana, an anti-narcotics police officer stated that "... Cartels such as Sinaloa, the Gulf, the Pacific, or Jalisco New Generation send their people to Colombia and today they negotiate directly with anyone and impose their conditions". The tensions between cartels is now unleashed inside the Mexican Republic and not with its Colombian partners. In Mexico, especially, the cartel of Jalisco New Generation, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas operate. Zetas do business with the Oficina de Envigado in Antioquia with the objective of monopolizing the market for laboratories, transportation, and distribution abroad.

D. Other Countries That Are Involved In Drug Trafficking

Both Cuba and Venezuela have entered into drug trafficking through the use of so-called "mules", taking advantage of their high levels of poverty and economic need. In Cuba, kilos of coca are given to Cubans as part of payment to get to Miami. Likewise, Venezuelans are used to take the drug from Colombia to the other countries of Central and South America. The drug cartels have also managed to penetrate the most intimate orbs of local governments. The strategy of drug trafficking has degenerated from buying high government officials, going through its military forces, and reaching the poorest neighborhoods. These areas are the origin of the distribution, becoming a business difficult to end.

In Brazil, according to the federal police, the favelas are known to be inhabited by a population of limited resources and crime. The bands like "Comando da Capital" has expanded to Paraguay with its business and wave of terror. "Comando Vermelho" and "Familia do Norte" also become the largest distributors of drugs, making the country a point of local distribution.

In Central America, gangs like the "Mara Salvatrucha" continue to dominate the criminal business. The band has become a fearful cartel in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.Furthermore, Argentina and Chile are now the preferred routes to facilitate the laundering of assets by Brazilian cartels such as the "Comando Vermelho". During 2017, this band was seized fifteen tons of cocaine estimated at more than 150 million dollars.

In Colombia, the "Clan del Golfo" is the most powerful drug trafficking cartel in South America, allying itself with the "Sinaloa Cartel". This alliance, according to the DEA, is the one that exports the majority of narcotics to the United States.

The most wanted drug traffickers by the United States Department of Drugs, DEA, are:• Ismael Zambada García, alias "El Mayo" or "El del Sombrero", who is the current leader

of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.• Rafael Caro Quintero, founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, alias "Narco de narcos".• Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho", is the leader of the Jalisco New Generation

Cartel.María Teresa Osorio de Serna, with several aliases: "María Teresa Correa", "Iris Conde", "Teyer Washington" and "Gloria Bedoya", from the disseminated Cali Cartel.

In addition to all of that, a fully operational submarine built for the primary purpose of transporting multi-ton quantities of cocaine located near a tributary close to the Ecuador/Colombia border that was seized by the Ecuador Anti-Narcotics Police Forces and Ecuador Military authorities with the assistance of the DEA.

a) United States and Latin American Countries on Drugs

Since 2008, the USA has supported the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) with approximately $800 million to "fund programs for narcotics interdiction, strengthening law enforcement and justice institutions and violence prevention through work with at-risk youth". The CARSI offers equipment (vehicles and communication equipment), technical support and guidance to counter drug trade. The program also supports special units that cooperate with the U.S. DEA in Guatemala and Honduras to investigate drug cartels, share intelligence, and promote regional collaboration.

Colombia: For more than ten years, the U.S. has been funding Plan Colombia, which aims to combat illegal drugs production in the country, especially the growing of coca, the plant from which cocaine is produced. Former President Obama’s top drug policy adviser, R. Gil Kerlikowske, announced a drug plan in May 2010 emphasizing prevention and treatment in the United States.

Peru: The administration has left financing for eradication projects in the Andes largely unchanged, despite debate over whether such efforts can sharply restrict the supply of cocaine or significantly increase the price in the United States in the long run. American anti-narcotics aid for Peru stands at $71.7 million this year, slightly higher than last year’s $70.7 million. American anti-narcotics officials operate from a newly expanded Peruvian police base in Tingo María, overseeing Peruvian teams that fan out to nearby valleys to cut down coca bushes by hand.

Guatemala: The U.S. has worked with Guatemalan authorities to clamp down on South American cocaine routes, many of which use Guatemala as a landing zone. In October 2013, the US supplied six twin-engine ‘’Super Huey’’ helicopters to Guatemala in an effort to halt illegal air traffic.

Mexico: Mexico is estimated to be the world’s third largest producer of opium with poppy cultivation. It also is a major supplier of heroin and the largest foreign supplier of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine to the U.S. market. These drugs are supplied by Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs). The U.S. government estimates that Mexican DTOs gain tens of billions of dollars each year from drug sales in the U.S. only. DTOs are continually battling for control of territory in Mexico used for the cultivation, importation and transportation of illicit drugs. The U.S. government considers groups affiliated with DTOs a significant threat to the safety within the U.S. The DEA enforces 'the controlled substances laws and regulations of the US and pursues organizations and members involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the U.S. In Mexico, the DEA combats operations of DTOs by conducting bilateral investigations with foreign counterparts, providing investigative assistance and leads to DEA domestic offices and other agencies, providing training and technical equipment to 'host nation participants to initiate and carry out complex criminal investigations, providing assistance in developing drug control laws and regulations, and providing training and material support to foreign law enforcement counterparts.

b. Latin America - COPOLAD - Cooperation Programme on Drugs Policies with European Union (EU) COPOLAD (Cooperation Programme on Drugs Policies) is a partnership cooperation programme between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean countries aiming at improving the coherence, balance and impact of drugs policies, through the exchange of mutual experiences, bi-regional coordination and the promotion of multisectoral, comprehensive and coordinated responses.

The EU follows and promotes a comprehensive, balanced and evidence-based approach on drugs policies, as set out and reconfirmed in the EU Drugs Strategies 2005-2012 and 2013-2020, and their respective Action Plans.

The programme aims at strengthening capacities and encouraging the different stages of the drugs policies development process in Latin American countries. It consists of four components:

Consolidation of the National Observatories (creation of an integrated system of collecting comparable drugs indicators on production, consumption, trafficking, associated crime, and policies, in order to reduce supply and demand).

Capacity-building in the reduction of demand (prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and harm reduction related to drug consumption.

Capacity-building in the reduction of supply (coordination in the areas of law enforcement and alternative development with existing initiatives of LAC countries, other donors and related European Commission cooperation programmes).

Policy support and consolidation of the EU-CELAC Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism on Drugs (the EU-CELAC Mechanism of Cooperation and Coordination on Drugs is a platform for EU and LAC national drug coordination bodies, with the aim of exchanging experiences, good practices and information.

E. Drug Laws and Drug Enforcement in Latin America

Drug laws vary widely from country to country. Some nations embrace various elements of a harm reduction approach, in which drug laws are set and evaluated with the goal of reducing the harm of drugs and drug policies.

In Latin America, which has been brutalized for decades by the US-led drug war, momentum is currently building to explore less punitive measures that would reduce the economic, social and human costs of the war on drugs. Uruguay became the first country to legalize marijuana in December 2013.

Latin America is a crucial geographic zone for drug production and trafficking. The Andean countries of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are the world’s main cocaine producers, while Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean have become the principal corridors for transporting drugs into the United States and Europe.

As a result, the countries of the region have suffered various consequences of drug trafficking and US-led eradication and interdiction efforts. In production countries, these include environmental and community damage from forced eradication of coca crops such as aerial spraying and the funding of guerrilla insurgent groups through illicit crop cultivation and sale, most notably, FARC in Colombia and the Shining Path in Peru.

Throughout the entire region, in both drug production and trafficking areas, there has been an upsurge of violence, corruption, impunity, erosion of rule of law, and human rights violations caused by the emergence of powerful organized crime groups and drug cartels.

Mexico’s drug war has turned incredibly violent in recent years, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Law enforcement attempts to put cartels out of business by arresting key figures have led not to the demise of the drug trade, but to bloody struggles for control. With prohibition propping up drug prices, it is inevitable that the drug trade will continue, no matter how risky or violent it gets.

Central America is now home to some of the world’s most dangerous cities, with the highest global homicide rate found in Honduras, at 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. The region has become unsafe for human rights defenders and journalists that expose the violence; for politicians and security officials that refuse to be corrupted by drug trafficking groups; and, most of all, for its citizens that get caught in crossfire between rivaling gangs.

Increasingly, Latin American policymakers are speaking out against prohibition and are highlighting its devastating effects on the hemisphere. Uruguay became the first country to legalize marijuana in 2013. DPA is working to keep Latin American leaders, officials and civil society informed on drug policy issues, with the aim of ensuring that the dialogue on alternatives to the war on drugs continues.

F. Global Efforts

Nowadays strategies have been simple, if not straightforward: enable transnational cooperation in tracing, tracking and blocking the flow of illicitdrugs.

The United States and the United Nations, both of which have a great deal of influence on international drug laws, maintain a criminal justice rather than health-oriented approach. They also continue to promote ineffective eradication and interdiction policies in countries where drugs are produced. This sets the overall tone for global drug policy, so that the international community is locked into a model that promotes lucrative illicit markets dominated by organized crime.

As the international community grapples with these issues, solutions such as marijuana legalization to reduce the violence of Mexico's drug war, legal export of Afghan opium crops for medical use, and models that follow Portugal's drug laws become increasingly credible.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy was established in 2011 and is comprised of political leaders, cultural figures, Nobel Prize laureates, and former Presidents and Prime Ministers of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, East Timor, Greece, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, and Switzerland. Their latest report – Regulation: The Responsible Control of Drugs – examines how governments can take control of currently illegal drug markets through responsible regulation, and calls for reform of the prohibition-based international drug control system. 

IV. Further Reading

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/single-convention.html

http://www.wfad.se/

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-prevention-and-treatment/index.html

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/drug-production-and-trafficking.html

https://vngoc.org

V. Further Requests

At the very first session of BALMUN’19, The Committee, shall begin the session with opening speeches last forty-five seconds. For any inquiries: iremersoy07@gmail.com

VI. Bibliography

http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766581/obo-9780199766581-0176.xml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drug_trade_in_Latin_America

http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/international-drug-war

https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/regions/latin-america/copolad-cooperation-programme-between-latin-america-and-european-union-drugs_en

http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-laws-and-drug-enforcement-around-worlD