Former Reagan secretary of state says U.S. should work to end violence driving migrants to U.S.

[DonViejo]

BY JOHN BOWDEN - 11/24/18 07:48 PM EST

Former President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state George Shultz says the Trump administration should take action to relieve the conditions in Central America driving migrants to the U.S. rather than demonizing the migrants themselves.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Shultz, along with former Mexican Treasury Secretary Pedro Aspe, wrote that policy actions such as decriminalizing drug use in the United States would reduce drug cartel-related violence in countries such as Honduras and El Salvador, where many are forced to leave their homelands for the U.S. every year.

"The United States would do well to study the example of Portugal, which has found success by taking a demand-oriented approach to drug control," Shultz writes, referring to Portugal's 2001 decriminalization of drug use.

"If the United States were to adopt this approach, people would increasingly go to free, well-vetted drug treatment centers, and the illegal drug market in this country would gradually disappear, as would profits going south to the drug lords," he continues.

Drug-related violence, Shultz goes on to say, is the main factor driving Central American migration to the U.S., and should be confronted by stripping cartel lords of their finances and markets in the U.S.

more
https://thehill.com/policy/international/418096-former-reagan-secretary-of-state-says-us-should-work-to-end-violence

[dflprincess]

1. Schultz didn't happen to mention that a major cause of the violence

was U.S. foreign policy during the Reagan Administration, did he?

[Roland99]

2. Pfffft. And toss himself under the bus?

[former9thward]

7. Has no President in the last 30 years had the power to end the violence in 2018?

[Kaleva]

14. US policy towards Cental America for the past 100 years is the cause

" Since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 declared the U.S.’s right to exercise an “international police power” in Latin America, the U.S. has cut deep wounds throughout the region, leaving scars that will last for generations to come. This history of intervention is inextricable from the contemporary Central American crisis of internal and international displacement and migration."

https://medium.com/s/story/timeline-us-intervention-central-america-a9bea9ebc148

[Roland99]

3. Irony just died of a heart attack

[elleng]

4. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

'The book heavily criticizes U.S. foreign policy and the widely accepted idea that "all economic growth benefits humankind, and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits.",[3] suggesting that in many cases only a small portion of the population benefits at the expense of the rest, with the example including increasing income inequality where large U.S. companies exploit cheap labor and oil companies destroy local environment.[3] Perkins describes what he calls a system of corporatocracy and greed as the driving force behind establishing the USA as a global empire, in which he took a role as an "economic hit man" to expand its influence.'

More on the subject.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

[mr_lebowski]

5. Those criticizing Shultz on this ... have not been paying attention ...

He's been saying exactly this ... literally for decades.

Just sayin' ...

[eleny]

6. He's sure got a failing memory

[mr_lebowski]

10. Believe it or not, Shultz has been pro-drug-legalization since shortly after Reagan's term ended

He's actually publicly been on this drug-legalization tip since probably 1990 ... before any major Dem embraced the idea, put it like that.

[eleny]

13. It did no good to be for it after Reagan left office

That's chasing the parade trying to get in front of it. He needed to lead the charge publicly during the administration.

[tirebiter]

8. He speaks of another norm tossed by Trump

The Monroe Doctrine.

Given who and what we are I find wisdom in it.

[MarvinGardens]

9. He's still alive?

He was old when I was a kid. Dude must be 100 now.

Not to discount what he said. Good for him for saying it.

[Delarage]

11. Trump would rather shoot drug dealers

Like his friend Duterte, rather than actually deal with the cause of the problem.

[blueinredohio]

12. That's my thought no one wants to leave their country

If other countries tried to do something(I don't know what) to give these people relief they could and would stay in their own country.