“For a long time, we have been worrying about the harms produced by psychoactive substances, but not enough about the illicit drug market. My proposal is that we need to fight to decriminalize all psychoactive substances because the consequences of the drug war have been entirely negative. Drugs should really be treated as public health issue.“
Spoken not by a drug policy reformer or a human rights defender, but by a 73-year-old bishop who is a unique combination of the two, Martin Barahona’s words are powerful evidence of the leading role faith organizations are playing in Central America’s resistance to the war on drugs.
Barahona, who currently serves as Bishop Emeritus of the Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador, has openly spoken out against the drug war in light of his first-hand accounts witnessing the failure of the global prohibitionist regime. Human rights violations are nothing new to the bishop, who was forced to leave El Salvador in 1978 due to political instability and later acted as an international observer during South Africa’s historic 1994 elections. When it comes to the drug war, though, he explains how violence has been institutionalized on an unprecedented scale through U.S.-led militarization strategies supposedly targeting gangs, but in reality criminalizing the most vulnerable sectors of the population, especially youths and women.
With around 20 to 30 people murdered every day, national security policies in El Salvador have targeted intra-gang operations while dismissing sensible drug policies that could start to address the devastating impact the illicit drug trade has had in the Northern Triangle. The lack of political will to invest resources in science-based drug education and human rights has also had an effect on how the drug war is perceived by civil society.
“In El Salvador we are hoping to shine a light on this issue since it has not really been discussed on a regular basis and people do not engage with it out of a combination of fear, apathy and ignorance,“ says Alberto Velázquez from Communities of Faith Organized for Action (COFOA). “We are looking for a way to engage in a critical assessment of national laws, which are actually harsher for drug users than for drug traffickers. The criminalization of drug use and possession in our country has only led to a system of mass incarceration and a serious illicit arms trade in which high-ranking military officers have been found to be involved.“
Both Barahona and Velázquez are currently aboard the Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice, which started in Honduras on March 28 and has traveled through El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico with the goal of reaching New York City on April 18, a day before the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs begins. They are two of many faith leaders openly speaking out against the failed drug war. Also traveling with the Caravan is Secretary General of the Ecumenical Christian Council of Guatemala Vitalino Similox who is planning to join U.S. multi-faith leaders, International Families Against the Drug War and VOCAL-NY for a community-based event sponsored by the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.
Made up of families of victims of the drug war, civil society organizations and social movements from seven countries, the Caravan aims to highlight the failure of global prohibitionist drug policies by strengthening relationships among communities most affected by the drug war and compiling testimonies that add different perspectives to the international drug policy debate.
For more information on the Caravan and how to participate, please email caravana2016 [at] gmail [dot] com and stay updated on its journey through Facebook and Twitter.
Laura Krasovitzky is the Drug Policy Alliance representative for the caravan.
Author: Laura Krasovitzky
Date Published: April 12, 2016
Published by Drug Policy Alliance