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STORY: GA / DRUGS LATIN AMERICA WRAP
TRT: 03:10
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 APRIL 2016, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
21 APRIL 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. Wide shot, President Ollanta Humala of Peru at the podium
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ollanta Humala, President, Peru:
“When we came to the government we had about 63,000 hectares of coca leaf plantations dedicated to illicit drug trafficking. We are reducing this and nowadays we have brought it down to approximately 33,000 or 34,000 hectares. Thereby this is a model that is working. Another aspect of this is the respect that we have for the millenary traditional use of the coca leaf as it has been historically used in countries like Peru and Bolivia, and we respect this.”
5. Wide shot, Humala at the podium
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ollanta Humala, President, Peru:
“Peru is doing its job. We need strategic partnerships with the United States, with Europe, with the countries that today are generating the demand, so that the relationship is not based on collaboration or cooperation, but that they understand that if we do not partner-up we will not be able to defeat on of the great scourges affecting the planet.”
7. Wide shot, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia at the podium
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Juan Manuel Santos, President, Colombia:
“It is still pending to remember that human rights, human rights and the conventions that recognize them and protect them cannot be secondary to drug conventions. Many states around the world, including Colombia, do not contemplate the death penalty under any circumstance, and we must agree at least that until consensus is reached, to instrument a moratorium in its application to drug related offenses.”
9. Med shot, journalists
10. Wide shot, President Evo Morales of Bolivia at the podium
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Evo Morales, President of Bolivia:
“The drug consumption index in the United States is of 1.6 percent, while in the world average is 0.4 percent. Under what moral pretext can the United States certify or decertify countries if we all know that they don’t do anything to reduce demand while the largest number of cocaine users of are in this country?”
12. Med shot, delegates applauding
13. Med shot, Morales at press conference dais
14. Med shot, reporters
15. I understand that some countries are considering the legalization of drugs. We are not part of the culture of legalizing cocaine or other drugs. This is the coca leaf, green, but unfortunately the UN convention makes it believe that this is the same as the white stuff, that this is cocaine, and confusedly the UN decided to eradicate the cultivation of coca leaf in 25 years.”
16. Zoom out, end of presser
The presidents of Peru, Colombia and Bolivia, three countries associated with the cultivation of coca leaf, today (21 Apr) addressed the High Level General Assembly Special Session of the World Drug Problem and explained their national policies with regard to drugs.
President Ollanta Humala of Peru told the GA that when he was elected President, Peru produced “about 63,000 hectares of coca leaf” and through his government policies this has been reduced to “approximately 33,000 or 34,000 hectares.”
Nevertheless, he added, his government respects “the millenary traditional use of the coca leaf as it has been historically used in countries like Peru and Bolivia.”
Humala said “Peru is doing its job” and called for “strategic partnerships with the United States, with Europe, with the countries that today are generating the demand” in order to “defeat on of the great scourges affecting the planet.”
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in his address to the GA, noted that “many states around the world, including Colombia, do not contemplate the death penalty under any circumstance” and said that , until consensus is reached “a moratorium in its application to drug related offenses” must be instrumented.
For his part President Evo Morales of Bolivia pointed out that the “drug consumption index in the United States is of 1.6 percent, while in the world average is 0.4 percent.”
He asked “under what moral pretext can the United States certify or decertify countries if we all know that they don’t do anything to reduce demand while the largest number of cocaine users of are in this country?”
At a later press conference Morales said that Bolivia is “not part of the culture of legalizing cocaine or other drugs” but, shoung a coca leaf to reporters said “this is the coca leaf, green, but unfortunately the UN convention makes it believe that this is the same as the white stuff, that this is cocaine, and confusedly the UN decided to eradicate the cultivation of coca leaf in 25 years.”
