From Honduras to the UN, Caravan Demands a Stop to the Killings from the War on Drugs
From Honduras to the UN, Caravan Demands a Stop to the Killings from the War on Drugs
31st March, 2016 - Posted by Ashley Cline
From Honduras to the UN, Caravan demands to stop the killings from the war on drugs
A caravan that aims to raise awareness on the negative effects of prohibitionist drug policies worldwide has begun in Honduras as it plans to make its way through five countries towards the United Nations headquarters in New York in time for the General Assembly Special Session on drugs on April 19.
Civic organizations have criticized the role the United States has played when it comes to drugs and drug trafficking. Ted Lewis, Human Rights Director of U.S.-based Global Exchange, detailed how these anti-drugs policies have served to reprimand human rights defenders.
“The United States government has played a key role in promoting these prohibitionist policies all over the world, especially Latin America. Here we have a new series of laws that are being implemented with racist biases in criminal justice reform and in Latin America this has manifested in the way of interventions and violence against its own people,” said the Director.
Through a teleconference that brought together representatives from Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador and Uruguay, caravan supporters pointed out that they aim to open up a debate on prohibitionist drug policies that have had an enormous human cost.
In the case of Mexico, a report made public by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the Senate with data from the Attorney General’s Office, revealed that during Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s term in office there were 120 thousand deaths tied to drug trafficking.
More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/blogs/peopletopeople/2016/03/31/from-honduras-to-the-un-caravan-demands-a-stop-to-the-killings-from-the-war-on-drugs/
