SOCHUM – The Drug Trade
Introduction:
American President Richard Nixon (In office from 1969-74) declared the following
statement, “America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to
fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.” Nixon’s famous
words on the “war on drugs” helped frame the intensity of the problem and brought attention to
the issue. After Nixon’s speech, the international community, along with the United States,
intensified efforts to crack down on the drug-intensified business that was taking place in Latin
America. However, these efforts did little to nothing coming from individual countries; there was
need for involvement from the United Nations. In 1997, with a goal of preventing illicit drugs
and international crime throughout the world, the UN created the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The committee was formed through a merge between the United
Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, and
operates as an international basis through a range of field outposts in various different nations.
The committee hopes to control drug trafficking, and corruption as well as implementing drug
prevention, such as treatment and care.
Beginning in the late-nineteenth century until current day, the Latin American drug
industry has boomed and has a global reach, selling substances from U.S. soil all the way into
Chinese territory. The main issue that the international community faces with restricting this
unethical business is containing its spread. Regardless of if you cut off shipment from one region
of Latin America, trade seems to start up yet again in another section of the area. In more recent
history, at the annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York (2013), numerous Latin
American presidents, such as those of Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico, have
called on developing more effective responses to drug trafficking based on the promotion of
public health, regard for human rights, and the reduction of harm. These nations have called on
for a response from the international community, and are awaiting UNGASS (United Nations
General Assembly Special Session) 2016 due to the exhaustion of the drug-wars in their nations.
In this conference, these political leaders and citizens are hoping to push across a contemporary
solution to the drug issue in Latin America, and are hoping to review the drug control plan as
well. With this conference in March, UNODC hopes to review the topics listed above, and create
resolutions that combat these specific issues. This collected information will then be presented to
UNGASS 2016 and will be debated further as to whether or not the world should adopt this plan
to end the debilitating issue of drugs affecting our global community.
History/Background:
This topic looks at areas in Southern North America, and Northern parts of South
America, specifically looking at the areas of Latin America, including Central America.
Countries this should include but are not limited to are Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto
Rico,Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and
the Guyanas. The population of Latin America is roughly 588 million people. A wide variety of
ethnic groups reside in Latin America with Spanish being the main language with over 60
percent of the population speaking it; the next largest language being Portuguese with 38 percent
of Latin America speaking it as their primary language. The rest of these speakers primarily have
indigenous languages including Quechua, Mayan languages, Guaraní, Aymara, and Nahuat. The
large majority of Latin Americans are Christian, primarily being Catholic, but also with a large
Protestant population.
Years of violence and bloodshed have occurred throughout the past decades relating to
the Latin American drug trade with many believing free trade has allowed drugs to prosper.
Numerous attempts of communist revolutions (some successful) have contributed to the drug
trade in many of these areas such as the Nicaraguan Revolution, Salvadoran Civil War, and
Bolivarian Revolution. In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon’s brought the war on drugs to the
forefront of American politics with his speech entitled Special Message to the Congress on Drug
Abuse Prevention and Control. Since then, the world has been in a war against both the domestic
and international drug trade. During this time period, a war on Pablo Escobar and Colombian
drug trading was started by U.S. and Colombian governments to take down the 25 Billion dollar
(Forbes Net Worth) drug trafficker. Between Nixon’s presidency and the present, dozens of drug
cartels have sprung up in dozens of Latin American countries and need to be addressed.
Bloc Positions:
Countries around the world all want to end the drug trade. The only difference is their
interest and the degree to which they seek.
To Latin American countries, cartels and the violence produced by drug trafficking
threatens all nations in the region. Latin American governments, especially in Colombia and
Mexico, fiercely committed to battling drug trafficking with both their federal police forces and
international legislation backed by the United Nations.
The United States, as a primary market for drugs produced in Latin America is also a
major player. The US government has waged a war on drugs to combat drug use in the United
States as well as drug production and transportation throughout Central and Latin America. The
US government also prefers that the constant flow of drugs that pass through its Mexican border
stops. Moreover, ending the Latin American drug trade would save the US government a great
amount of time and effort.
A number of other nations from different regions hold lesser, but oftentimes still
pressing, interests in stopping Latin American drug production and exportation. European and
African nations receive the majority of their illicit hard drugs and the entirety of their cocaine
from South America. An end to illicit drug production or exportation would see the rate of drug
usage throughout the world to decrease.
Committee Mission:
While attempting to solve the Latin American drug problem, the UNODC must
remember ethics is involved with this trade. The UNODC must identify where to focus drug
prevention efforts, an effective plan to treat drug abusers in Latin America or in places heavily
affected by the Latin American drug trade, and ways to combat and put into place measures to
constrict drug trafficking. Committee members should assume that all governments are not
affiliated with drug corporations, and must refrain from interfering with national sovereignty.
Specific goals of the committee could include creating ways to monitor and control drug
trafficking in the nations affected. Other goals could be potential action plans in case a new drug
cartel shows up in Latin America and ways to combat it. The committee should also act not to
anger any particular group of sovereign nation to cause conflict in the Latin American regions.
The committee must keep in mind that all rules set into place by resolutions must be under the
power of the UNODC.
Current Cartel Situation:
The leading Cartel in Latin America called the Sinaloa Cartel is led by Joaquin "Chapo"
Guzman, based primarily in Culiacán, Sinaloa. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera
Organization and the Pacific Cartel, the latter due to the coast of Mexico from which it
originated. The cartel has also been called the Federation and the Blood Alliance. It is rumored
to have been started around 1989 and is still very active today. In fact the Sinaloa Cartel is
considered “the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world”. It is believed that the
Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for the import of approximately 200 tons of cocaine and heroin into
the United States between 1990 and 2008.
Questions to Consider:
1. What are your nation’s ties to any drug-related issues in Latin America? If there are any,
how do they affect your country as a whole?
2. Does the success of the drug industry in Latin America have any relation to the politics in
the region? If true, how so?
3. Geographically speaking, how is your nation located in relevance to Latin America? Are
you concerned on the influence of drugs spreading into your nation?
4. How does your nation plan to combat this substance issue currently terrorizing Latin
America?
Sources for Further Research:
 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
 Washington Office on Latin America
 http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/what-ungass-2016
 http://origins.osu.edu/article/shifting-terrain-latin-american-drug-trafficking