Author: Laura Carlsen

Obama Must Rewrite His Foreign Policy Legacy

November 13, 2012

With a more than comfortable margin of 332 to 206 electoral votes, President Barack Obama held onto office last Tuesday. Now the big question for foreign policy is whether Legacy Obama will be a bolder advocate for peace than the disappointing Campaign Obama. The president will need to recast a foreign policy that has been weak or downright contradictory in standing up for the principles he himself has espoused. To do that, there are several key moves ahead.

La seguridad pública, otra víctima de la guerra contra las drogas

October 24, 2012

Debemos poner fin a la guerra contra las drogas ya. Debemos reformar la política de drogas que convierte en delito su consumo y ofrece a los delincuentes un lucrativo negocio. Tenemos que mantener a los cárteles fuera del mercado multimillonario. Si detenemos el flujo de dinero acabando con la prohibición se quedarán sin sustento.

La guerra contra las drogas: Hablando del dolor

October 21, 2012

Margarita López comienza el testimonio de los horribles acontecimientos que marcaron el fin de la vida de su hija en voz baja y uniforme. En una lujosa sala de juntas en Washington, D.C., unas 40 mujeres la escuchan en silencio, las lágrimas ruedan por sus mejillas. López narra cómo su hija de 19 años de edad, Jahaira Guadalupe Vaena López, fue “levantada” en Tlacolula, Oaxaca.

It’s Time to Abandon Nixon’s War on Drugs

October 17, 2012

It potentially affects half the U.S. population, men and women whose lives could be disrupted forever from one day to the next. It costs billions of dollars, at a time when schools are closing down and essential public services disappearing. It deepens the nation’s racial divide and tears families apart. It kills tens of thousands of people, in the U.S. and abroad.

Heart-to-Heart on the Drug War

October 12, 2012

Margarita López begins to speak about the horrible events that marked the end of her daughter’s life in a low, even tone. Some 40 […]

Public Security–Casualty of the Drug War

September 10, 2012

In Baltimore and in Mexico, it’s clear that the drug war—trying to block supply in production and transit countries like Mexico and stop consumption by criminalizing drugs in the U.S.– is not working. Anywhere.

Mexico’s Movement for Real Democracy

August 2, 2012

Mexico is seeing the birth of a movement for real democracy. It is led by a generation that wants to break through the cynicism of a nation accustomed to corruption and authoritarian rule. Its members challenge not just the election results, but the very definition of democracy.