Uruguay surrenders to win

By Johann Hari

José Mujica has attempted to change the premises and conditions of the drugs wars through the legalisation of marijuana. Although even the people of Uruguay don’t really back their president’s initial reform, at least it’s a start.

When I travelled across Mexico, pictures of the missing were everywhere in the streets, like dystopian corporate advertising. Human Rights Watch says that more than 60,000 people have died in the drug war launched in 2006 by former president Felipe Calderón; the US pours money and arms into Mexico to suppress the drug trade, while rival drug gangs battle for control of supply routes. As Charles Bowden wrote, there is a war on drugs, and there is a war for drugs. Both are deadly.

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