Quito, Ecuador
If Ecuador’s war on drugs could be won by sheer good looks, it would already be over.
President Daniel Noboa and Vice-President Verónica Abad Rojas, taking office in 2023.
Noboa and Abad ran their Presidential campaign on a promise to crack down on drug cartels operating in Ecuador. Soon after winning the 2023 election, they kept that promise. The Ecuadorian government is one month into a military action directed at curtailing drug operations. They have already made significant progress; truckloads of illegal drugs and weapons have been confiscated, and prisons are being filled with gang members and their leaders.
Unfortunately, Daniel and Verónica have leaned their ladders against the wrong building. The fire they are trying to put out is happening elsewhere.
If a war is to be won, the enemy must be identified before it can be defeated.
The people who produce and distribute drugs are not responsible for the treachery of drug abuse, any more than oil producers and pipeline companies cause carbon-induced climate change. People with needles in their veins (or nozzles in their tanks) are also not the adversary.
Addiction to any substance is the true enemy.
Drug dependence must be eradicated if the war is to be won.
If this wasn’t happening in Philadelphia,
this wouldn’t be happening in Ecuador.
Until there is no need for their products, drug cartels (and oil companies) will find a way to fill the demand. So, how do we redirect battle lines from the producer/distributor to the ethereal enemy of addiction?
I don’t know. I am just a tourist in a beautiful country that produces bananas, cocoa, and narcotics.
The financial resources of this small country will be exhausted long before drug cartels run out of money. Every needle in every arm worldwide, produces cash to finance the army of the addicts.
Daniel and Verónica are doing their best, and looking good doing it, but their war isn’t directed at…
…The Root of the Problem.
We arrived in Quito at 2:30 am, in a tropical downpour. The only thing I have seen in South America so far is rain, and the back of my eyelids. We did catch hazy glimpses of magnificent UNESCO World Heritage buildings in the Old Town area as we passed through, so I should have more to report on tomorrow.
Safe but bedraggled in Quito.
GG
A fine piece, but perhaps it isn’t quite as simple as this. Chickens and eggs come to mind. Good fodder for further coffee debate upon your return, unless, of course, we shouldn’t be imbibing coffee. Where’s the line?