Latin America

News7 January 2026

Venezuela: No to the 'war on drugs' as a pretext for U.S. intervention

Civil society groups from around the world reject the 'war on drugs' narrative being used to justify pressure, interference, and intervention in Venezuela—warning of militarisation, human rights violations, and dangerous regional precedents.

News5 January 2026

Venezuela, democracy and oil

The US raid on Venezuela lays bare how anti-drugs discourse is shaking the foundations of the international legal order.

News11 December 2025

WHO rejects request from Bolivia and Colombia to remove the coca leaf from list of most-persecuted substances

By recommending that coca remain in the most restrictive category, the WHO has reinforced a decades-old, colonial classification that undermines scientific research and Indigenous rights.

News8 December 2025

A critical failure of a system still mired in the past - IDPC joint statement at the CND Reconvened 68th Session

By ignoring Indigenous knowledge and human rights impacts, the coca leaf review reveals a system unable —or unwilling— to shed colonial bias.

News3 December 2025

U.S. lethal strikes in Caribbean expose the failures of punitive drug war

A wave of lethal U.S. airstrikes in Latin America and the Caribbean has sparked international outrage over their legality, human cost, and troubling escalation of punitive drug control.

Press Releases2 December 2025

WHO upholds coca leaf ban, defying evidence and ignoring Indigenous rights

Despite clear evidence and contravening Indigenous rights, WHO recommends the harshest scheduling for the coca leaf, upholding racist and colonial underpinnings of its ban.

News28 November 2025

Mexico's President Sheinbaum dismisses Trump’s threat of sending troops to Mexico

As the US escalates its violent interference in Latin America, Sheinbaum condemns possible military strikes against Mexican drug cartels.

Events

The ‘narcoterrorism’ threat: Exploring avenues to uphold human rights amidst a new 'war on drugs'

Online

9 December 2025

As the 'narcoterrorism' rhetoric is weaponised to intensify the 'war on drugs', this event explores its human rights consequences and the mechanisms needed to ensure accountability and protect international law.

Publications12 November 2025

From forest to dust: Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the prohibition of the coca and cocaine production chain in the Amazon Basin and Brazil

Intersecção discusses how drug prohibition fuels deforestation, violence, and inequality across the region, linking the 'war on drugs' to the global climate crisis and calling for ecological harm reduction and rights-based regulation.

Events

Rethinking coca: Indigenous knowledge, science, and international drug policy

Vienna, Austria

3 December 2025

Join researchers, policymakers and Andean community voices at CEU Vienna to explore coca’s cultural, scientific and political dimensions — and what the WHO’s review means for global drug governance.

News11 November 2025

Unprovoked lethal strikes by the United States against vessels at sea may amount to international crimes: UN experts

Leading international human rights experts urged an end to the attacks and an independent probe to ensure accountability.

News5 November 2025

Brazil: Civil society releases a “Manifesto for Citizen Public Security in Rio” in response to police massacre

Fiocruz and allied organisations denounce the lethal police operation in Rio, condemn militarised security and necropolitics, and demand citizen-centred policies that protect rights and life.

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