Colombian president calls for legalisation of marijuana

[naaman fletcher]

Mr Santos added his voice to a growing list of influential figures in Latin America demanding a rethink of the policies that have been used for decades to fight the drugs trade.

He said legalising softer drugs such as marijuana worldwide could help improve international efforts to deal with harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

"The world needs to discuss new approaches ... we are basically still thinking within the same framework as we have done for the last 40 years," he said.

Asked if making marijuana legal could offer a way forward, Mr Santos said it could and that he would support it "provided everyone does it at the same time". But he emphasised that other countries needed to take the lead, saying the issue was "a matter of national security" for Colombia, whereas "in other countries this is mainly a health and crime issue".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/colombia/8850874/Colombian-president-calls-for-legalisation-of-marijuana.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. What do you think of this? Is he sincere? Is it a CIA or Obama "flag up the pole"?

Bearing in mind:

a) Obama just shoved U.S./Colombia "free trade for the rich" down the throats of the few Democratic congresspeople who still support the right of trade unionists not to be murdered. Is this (legalizing MJ) a sideways sop to progressives--something that Obama doesn't dare speak yet? (The fascists/war profiteers would really piss on him then, I mean double-down piss with arsenic?) (Do you suppose the President of the United States has a Food Taster like kings and emperors of old?) So, is this an Obama flag? If so, is he sincere? And if this was not Beltway-initiated--and Santos is out there on his own--is he sincere? Is he saying this as a political ploy vis a vis other Latin American leaders (to ingratiate fascist Colombia with the numerous leftist governments in LatAm, and as well with center/right leaders, such as the former presidents of Mexico, who have called for legalization of MJ and re-thinking of the entire "war on drugs")? Santos saying "provided everyone does it at the same time" raises a flag with me, that he means "provided that our 'free trade for the rich' partner, military cash cow and imperial protector, the United States, agrees." It is a rather large "if"--if everybody agrees, then we can do the right thing. Does he really mean "everybody" or does he mean the U.S.? Or, does Santos truly think that this is simply a good idea--socially beneficial--and is venturing to say so, against the entire U.S. war profiteer/military-prison-industrial establishment?

b) Colombia is a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. and the recipient of BILLIONS and BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayer dollars in military aid to stamp out certain plants and "free trade" in the products made from them, basically as an excuse to stamp out trade unionists, human rights workers, uppity peasants, teachers, community activists, journalists, and anybody who gets in the way of transglobal corporations and the super-rich. Perhaps the Colombian military and its death squads have rid the country of sufficient numbers of leftists to satisfy their funders, that they don't need to include MJ in their excuse any more. MJ could be taxed and regulated (a more legalistic cash flow for state power) while the trillion+ dollar illicit trade in cocaine proceeds unimpeded by our billions of our utterly wasted and corrupted tax dollars--a vast underground cash resource for U.S. banksters, the Bush Cartel, the CIA and other "needy" enterprises.

It is, to say the least, noteworthy that the leader of a U.S. client state is proposed legalizing MJ. And it is reasonable to question it, and to suspect ulterior motives, U.S. puppetry and so forth. It is difficult to believe--or to automatically believe--in Santos' sincerity.

There have been a couple of dramatic changes in Colombian government policy since Uribe was ousted by the CIA and Santos vetted and approved. (Note: I have no faith at all in Colombian elections. Real elections are not possible with so many murdered leftists. And U.S. military/corporate dominators simply do not allow real elections, here or there. So Santos was vetted and approved by Panetta--likely on his visit to Bogota, one of his first visible actions as CIA Director*--and the various militarists and criminal gangs who control the 'voting' in Colombia were in agreement or were given no choice.) Notably, there has not been much abeyance of the murders of trade unionists and others, and virtually all of these thousands of murders remain unsolved and unprosecuted. I don't know if Santos is just Uribe with a smiley face on, with regard to the murder of leftists, but, even if he opposes such murders, he is powerless to prevent or solve/prosecute them. They were state policy under Uribe, paid for and encouraged by the Bush Junta (which was even directly aiding Uribe to draw up "hit lists" with his massive domestic spying program. Among other things, an American was reporting to the U.S. ambassador direct from the spying/dirty ops agency, DAS, according to witness testimony). THAT (official crime) would be hard to prosecute, here or there. (Remember, "we need to look forward not backward" on the crimes of the rich and powerful.)

The most noticeable changes have been,

a) Santos immediately made peace with Chavez and has re-opened trade with Venezuela (Uribe had been determined, even unto his last weeks in office, to instigate a U.S./Colombia war on Venezuela);

b) Santos has made some effort (not very big or effective as yet) to restore lands to the FIVE MILLION displaced peasant farmers--lands stolen during the Uribe/Bush Junta (peasants murdered, terrorized, driven off);

c) Santos has proposed universal free medical care for Colombia (indeed, he's promised it by next year).

Now, all of this could be a false front to fool opposition to U.S./Colombia "free trade for the rich" here. Lying slimebaggism--for which there is plenty of precedent in the Democratic Party leadership. It is truly hard to tell at this point. But other possibilities include,

a) that certain people, maybe including Obama, want to do certain things HERE (such as legalizing MJ or universal free medical care or less militarism), and are prompting Santos to run these "flags up the pole" (or "release these weather balloons"--however it's put--test them from a "safe," distant venue);

b) that Bush/Uribe horrific scandals are boiling in Colombia and could erupt here with REALLY BAD revelations (such as direct help to Uribe for spying/murder, U.S. military participation in some of the slaughters, etc.), so a U.S.-vetted leader who looks and feels different from Uribe was needed (to counter these revelations in LatAm, where they are already current, and to continue fooling people here about U.S. activity in LatAm);

c) Bush Junta thuggish policy in LatAm was a colossal failure, overall, and Bush Sr/Panetta/Obama are trying something different--perhaps giving Santos and the few other U.S. "friends" in the region more latitude in dealing with/subverting the huge leftist trend in South America that now "threatens" Central America as well (Santos proposing the legalization of MJ would fit such a strategy--i.e., it's not about to happen (U.S. war profiteers won't permit it) but it sounds good ('Wow, what a progressive they have there in Colombia!' Har-har.))

There are other possibilities and there are mixed possibilities (several things going on at once--perhaps some good intentions mixed into a Master Plan for U.S. reconquest of LatAm). The least likely possibility is that Santos really wants to legalize MJ. Another least likely possibility is that it will happen in the U.S. or any U.S. client state. There is just too much U.S. taxpayer and illicit money being made in its illegal status--from incarcerating vast numbers of the poor in private U.S. prisons/dungeons here to the lucrative, bloody, U.S.-instigated mayhem in southern Mexico, to the pharmaceutical and chemical corporations' profits from pain/nausea drugs and toxic spraying of crops, to the USAF's new toy, spying/murdering drones, to the trillions of illicit dollars that have been directed to the U.S. banksters and other beneficiaries, and so on. What's best for society ISN'T POSSIBLE here any more, nor likely in any outpost of the Corporate Imperium.

One of the "mixed possibilities" is that, to improve LatAm relations after the Bush Junta outrages, the powers-that-be actually intend to permit legalization of MJ there--never here, though, in my opinion. What, would Obama have to then grant "amnesty" to half the U.S. prison population and restore all the property stolen from MJ growers, retailers and possessors? Our corporate/war profiteer rulers may want to cut some of the billions in MJ enforcement in LatAm, to keep other military/war profiteer operations going, but banning MJ here has given them so much fascist power over our population and so many rewards, they will never give it up as a tool of oppression here and as a means of looting the public coffers. LatAm leaders are fairly united on legalizing MJ (left, right and center--from what I can tell in the 'news') and the many leftist leaders are appalled at the U.S. "war on drugs" and know perfectly well what it is really all about. So this gesture--Colombia legalizing MJ, in concert with the many other LatAm countries that likely want to do so--might help Colombia change its image as a U.S. puppet. And this could serve other U.S. purposes such as economic warfare against the Left via U.S. "free trade for the rich."

I have NO illusions about U.S. government purposes in LatAm. Zero. Zilch. All gone. But I do think there can be more evil and less evil strategies to achieve those purposes. The "more evil" strategies have been ineffective and counter-productive, and perhaps we are seeing "less evil" strategies as a consequence of some heavy-duty analysis behind the scenes--rather like the high profile pull-out of U.S. troops in Iraq and concentration on other, more incisive imperial activities (drone-murders in Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and other places, including Mexico; drone spying; other spying and control; boosting allies with Libya's oil; prepping for other oil wars, as needed; insuring U.S. control of the "Arab Spring"; preventing rebellion here, etc., etc. I've sensed a smoother hand at work--which I think of as "old CIA" (Bush Sr, Panetta). This announcement by Santos has that kind of smoothness to it. But I would say that it's very, very hard to see what's really going on. We, the serfs of the Imperium, are reduced to guessing.

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*(Panetta is a Bush Sr. crony and "old CIA" in my opinion. He was a member of the critically important "Iraq Study Group" that Bush Sr formed to get rid of Rumseld and quiet the military brass/CIA rebellion against Bush/Cheney (probably mainly over nuking Iran). I think that Obama was simply told who would be CIA Director and he obediently appointed him. It's quite interesting that Panetta has now been moved to the Pentagon, probably to further quell the CIA vs Pentagon war and get everybody back "on the same page.")

[naaman fletcher]

2. I understand your point,

but I think that in the end you have to go with cheering good behavior and jeering bad. Sure, one can be suspect of Santos, particularly I think as it relates to internal Colombian affairs. But, it's hard to imagine why the CIA would have wanted peace with Venezuela, or this announcement. I think we both agree that the drug war is the noose that the US holds around Latin America's neck.

You might very well be right that Santos is faking his good positions, but in the end I think all one is left to do, and all one should do is cheer the good and jeer the bad.