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More Holes Than
Swiss Cheese in Last Monday’s White House Recertification of Guatemala |
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 William
B. McIntire
Research Associate
COHA (1)
18 September 2003 |
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Veritable collusion between Washington and Guatemala City projects an invented
sense of improvement in that country’s anti-drug performance, where virtually
none exists.
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To
appease U.S. trade interests, deceptive White House fabrication attempts to
justify its recommendation that the country be recertified.
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Bush
administration sacrifices legitimacy of its war on drugs and the integrity of
anti-narcotics policy in order to facilitate passage of the Central American
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
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Certification process once again proves to be a sham.
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For the
Bush administration, clearly trade trumps drugs.
 On
Monday, September 15, the White House, using doctored information and skimpy
statistics, recommended to Congress the recertification of Guatemala, reversing
a Bush administration decision made last January in response to the dramatic
evidence of Guatemala’s failure to meaningfully cooperate with Washington’s
anti-drug efforts. Recertification would normally qualify the newly reaccredited
country to receive U.S. financial aid. However, for Guatemala, it remains a
largely symbolic action, since Washington waived all sanctions against the
country, maintaining the flow of bilateral aid in the interest of preserving
what meager anti-narcotics operations remain. Shortly after the original
decertification, 21 members of the U.S. Congress asserted that, until Guatemala
was recertified as the result of a dramatically improved drug interdiction
record, they would not vote to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement
(CAFTA).
In
his Monday memorandum to the State Department President Bush, using
self-obfuscating language, touted Guatemala’s “willingness to better its
counternarcotics practices,” but shied away from coming forth with any evidence
to support it. Instead, the country was merely omitted from a section of the
memorandum listing nations that had “failed demonstrably…to adhere to their
obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.” Whereas Guatemala,
Haiti and Myanmar had been blacklisted in January, only the latter two remained
in the September 15 statement. The Bush administration, understandably sheepish
to recertify Guatemala only months after decertifying it, and with no tangible
evidence to justify doing so, camouflaged the announcement in the memorandum,
hoping not to draw too much attention to its actions. The underhanded nature of
this decision represents a massive downgrading of the authenticity of both
Washington’s and Guatemala’s supposed anti-drug efforts. Guatemala would
certainly not qualify for certification if actually put to even a minimally
objective test. In making its determination, Washington proved once again that
its certification process was little better than a total sham.
White House Deception
Since
the White House decertified Guatemala last January, the DEA observed that the
country had become the “preferred Central American location for storage and
consolidation of drug loads,” and boats and light aircraft regularly bring drugs
into the country. The official White House report had to acknowledge that
Guatemala’s alleged improvements were only the “initial steps” that had to be
taken and the “permanence of these improvements had yet to be determined.” In
other words, no significant steps have been made to curtail the flow of
narcotics through Guatemala. Meanwhile, the White House is concerned mainly with
fulfilling its free trade aspirations in Central America and realizes that they
would not likely be achieved if Guatemala remains uncertified. Thus ignoring the
true deficiency of Guatemala’s efforts the Bush administration is trying to
slyly sweep its anti-drug campaign under the rug, caricaturing the entire
certification process just as the Clinton administration did with Mexico in
1997. As with the present Bush administration, free trade logistics,
specifically the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), rather than a
faithful evaluation of that country’s anti-drug performance, were the order of
the day.
President Bush expects “Guatemala to continue its efforts and to demonstrate
further progress in the coming year,” apparently hoping that recertification
will self-prophetically lead to increased cooperation with his war on drugs, a
trend he claims erroneously in the memorandum has already been manifest in the
recent attitude of Guatemalan authorities. Interestingly, only hours before the
White House announcement, Guatemalan officials announced that they had just
seized record quantities of drugs, perhaps hoping to gull some into believing
that interdictions had reacquired past levels. Suspiciously, no arrests had been
made, nor statistics cited, to reinforce this claim. Some allege that previously
seized drugs had been recycled and “seized” again to create the false pretense
of successful interdiction.
By
spinning the facts of Guatemala’s performance (pointing to the country’s
supposedly renewed dedication to counternarcotics efforts) and continuing to use
the certification process as a political weapon, the White House risks further
disenchanting its remaining hemispheric allies in its fading war against drug
traffickers.
1. The
Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit,
non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been
described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected
bodies of scholars and policy makers.”
Revista INTER-FORUM is affiliated with
(ICCAP) Any reproduction in part or whole is strictly forbidden without the authors written authorization
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October 12, 2003
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