By: Mickey McCarter
President Barack Obama will focus on shared
security concerns and disaster response during the upcoming Summit of
the Americas in Colombia this weekend, White House officials said in a
teleconference Wednesday.
Meeting with the leaders of other nations in North
America, Central America and South America, Obama will stress priorities
such as combating drug trafficking and cartel violence, Dan Restrepo,
White House senior director for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters.
With regard to security issues, Restrepo emphasized
that Obama will seek to build on Colombia's success in fighting the
illegal drug trade in that nation. The United States continues to focus
on confronting the demand for illegal drugs within the country while
also investing in security partnerships abroad.
"The United States has to confront transnational
organized crime in the Americas, largely fueled by the drug trade,"
Restrepo stated. "The president has sought and secured $30 billion worth
of investment in drug prevention treatment here, domestically in the
United States, in his first three budgets; the request for another $10
billion in the current budget request."
"It's why we've taken unprecedented steps to cut
illicit flows southbound from the United States into the region," he
continued. "It's also why we've been very focused on building an
unprecedented security partnership with Mexico, increasing annual
funding for Central American security efforts from approximately $60
million per year when the president took office to more than $100
million per year right now."
The Central American Citizen Security Partnership,
launched last year in El Salvador, brings financial institutions like
the International Financial Institution, the Inter-American Development
Bank and others, together with other countries like Canada, to provide
resources to boost citizen security efforts in Central American nations,
Restrepo said.
At the last Summit of the Americas in 2009, Obama
signed off on the Caribbean Basin and Security Initiative, which formed a
partnership with Caribbean countries to fight transnational crime in
and around their nations. The United States has invested more than $200
million in that security partnership since 2009, Restrepo said.
The upcoming summit also will assess support for
disaster response and relief, Restrepo added. The United States engaged
financial support for Haiti from the Ninth General Capital Increase
Bank, for example, after the Haitian earthquake in January 2010. Obama
will seek to build on those efforts to assess military capabilities for
disaster response this year.
"Military support to civilian response for disaster
relief in the Americas is something that we've been very much working
on, and we'll continue through this summit and into the next defense
ministerial in the region later this year in Uruguay," Restrepo said.
Restrepo acknowledged that Latin American leaders
likely will raise the issue of decriminalizing illicit drugs in the
United States as a means of cutting demand and building the capacity to
control the drug trade. Latin leaders raised such concerns to Vice
President Joe Biden when he toured Latin America last month.
As Biden told Latin American nations then, Obama
remains committed to stiff criminal penalties for the use of illicit
drugs in the United States, Restrepo said. Discussions over legalization
and decriminalization of drug use will afford the United States with
opportunities to make its views known and "demystify" American response
to those issues, he added. Obama is prepared to reiterate the US
position during the summit in Cartagena, Colombia, this weekend.
"US policy on this is very clear. The president
doesn't support decriminalization. He does think this is a legitimate
debate, and it's a debate that we welcome having because it helps
demystify this as an option," Restrepo said.
He continued, "I think that Cartagena provides a
real opportunity to build on the conversation that Vice President Biden
started in Honduras for the countries of Central America last month,
where how is it that we can work collectively in the Americas more
effectively to address the real challenges of crime and violence that
too many societies are facing right now? There is no magic bullet in
that debate as the consumption of drugs spreads through the Americas.
The response and the responsibility to address this challenge also needs
to spread. And we need to ensure that we're doing everything we can to
build the kinds of rule-of-law institutions necessary to defeat these
transnational criminal organizations."
Restrepo cited progress in working with Brazil and
Bolivia recently to strike a trilateral agreement on surplus coca
cultivation in Bolivia. The United States and Brazil, as the largest
consumers of cocaine in the world, were interested in establishing a
partnership with Bolivia to cut down on cocaine availability. This
shared understanding of tackling the problem enabled the United States
to foster understanding of its efforts to halt drug shipments.
White House spokesman Ben Rhodes added that Obama
would have opportunities to engage in talks with Colombian President
Juan Manuel Santos on the progress his country has made against the
illegal cocaine trade in his country and its fight against the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In addition to security and disaster response, the
summit will also address physical integration, information technology
and poverty, officials noted.
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