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P 131730Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
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UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000322 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KJUS PGOV PREL AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA DISCUSSES SHIFT IN POLICY TOWARD ILLICIT 
DRUG USE 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Minister of Justice Anibal Fernandez 

announced this week that the GoA intends to redirect its 

counternarcotics efforts away from the pursuit of drug users 

in order to make more resources available for investigating 

and prosecuting drug traffickers.  He argues that Argentina's 

courts and prisons are overwhelmed and overflowing with drug 

users.  Although Fernandez's thinking on the initiative 

appears well advanced, sources in his Ministry note that this 

is still a work in progress and that such a shift, likely 

implying legislative changes, will not happen immediately. 

Some press reports indicate that not all elements of the 

Government support the proposal.  The Minister, in clarifying 

remarks to the local press following his speech in Vienna, 

has stressed he is not proposing the legalization of drugs 

and that his proposed policy shift is intended to improve, 

not weaken, GOA counter-narcotics efforts.  End Summary. 

 

TREATMENT NOT PRISON FOR ADDICTS 

 

¶2. (SBU) GOA Minister of Justice, Security, and Human Rights 

Anibal Fernandez announced in Vienna at the 51st session of 

the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) that the GoA is 

contemplating a shift in emphasis in its treatment of illicit 

drug users.  Fernandez contends that current policies are 

overwhelming Argentina's courts and flooding its prisons, at 

great cost to the GOA.  He notes that between 70 to 80 

percent of cases in the courts are related to drug use, and 

that only 2.8 percent result in convictions.  The 

criminalization of drug use in Argentina, he states, inhibits 

users from getting the treatment they need and has been a 

drain on counternarcotics resources that could be put to 

better use in pursuing traffickers.  Fernandez made similar 

remarks during a working lunch in Buenos Aires on March 6 

with visiting FBI official Thomas Fuentes and the Ambassador. 

 In that conversation, and from the information reported from 

other Ministry sources, it is clear that the emphasis of this 

policy shift is  on giving lower priority to arresting and 

convicting individual users and putting more emphasis on 

breaking up trafficking rings and on creating a health and 

social services network to treat addicts and other illicit 

drug users.  Fernandez and sources in the Ministry claim that 

this proposed shift in the treatment of illicit drug users 

would bring Argentina into line with countries like Brazil 

and Uruguay in the region and Spain, Switzerland, and the 

Netherlands in Europe. 

 

MISUSE OF RESOURCES 

 

¶3. (SBU) In his discussion with the Ambassador and Tom 

Fuentes on March 6, Fernandez relayed how expensive it was to 

incarcerate users -- US$ 1,500 per month -- and that only 2-3 

percent are ever convicted.  He noted the costs and the large 

backlogs caused by the thousands of cases in the federal 

court system.  (Most Argentine provincial legislatures have 

not authorized provincial jurisdiction/prosecution in drug 

cases, leaving them to be prosecuted in federal court.)  He 

argued that it would be more effective to concentrate on 

dealers and trafficking networks and getting convictions for 

these traffickers.  Fernandez explained that federal law 

enforcement had seized more marijuana last year than the year 

before, most of it coming from Paraguay.  He also said that 

Peru is the largest source of cocaine coming to and through 

Argentina, followed by Bolivia.  He explained that much of 

his forces' current efforts are focused on going after the 

big Peruvian networks and that he feels he has more support 

for his counternarcotics efforts from President Fernandez de 

Kirchner than he had previously. 

 

RECOGNIZING WHAT ALREADY EXISTS 

 

¶4. (SBU) Daily newspaper La Nacion, often critical of 

Kirchner administration policies, reported in a front page 

article March 12 that not everyone in the Government supports 

decriminalization.  Most prominently, the paper cited 

opposition from the head of the Argentine drug policy agency 

SEDRONAR, Jose Granero, and claimed that the President 

herself has a ""more conservative position"" on the matter. 

However, Minister Fernandez, in his public statements and in 

comments to the Ambassador, noted that he has the President's 

(general) support on counternarcotics issues.  Granero, who 

was in Vienna at the CND, was reportedly surprised by 

Fernandez's announcement of the proposed policy change.  A 

number of political opposition figures and the Catholic 

Church have spoken out against the proposed shift as well. 

The article also quotes several judges who assert that de 

facto decriminalization is already the case.  According to 

the article, most federal judges oppose prosecuting drug 

users for possession of small quantities.  Emboff heard a 

similar comment from an Argentine police officer. 

 

CORRECTING FAILED POLICIES 

 

¶5. (SBU) Fernandez offered his personal assessment that 

Argentina's counternarcotics efforts have been a failure. 

During the March 6 encounter, he said that ""in my country, 

since the (1989) drug law was sanctioned until last year, 

there hadn't been a single conviction for money laundering 

and that in 2006 only two drug cases were brought to oral 

trial.""  A large part of the problem of prison overcrowding 

with drug users and small-time dealers and the relative 

ineffectiveness of the police reflects shortcomings in the 

current penal code.  Under the Argentine judicial system, 

judges are responsible for and direct investigations. 

Prosecutors and judges are unable to decide which cases to 

pursue -- they must, by law, investigate and prosecute all 

cases that come before them.  Prosecutors are unable to offer 

plea bargains.  Testimony of paid informants is not allowed. 

Undercover agents are allowed in drug investigations but 

rarely used.  Most of these shortcomings are addressed in 

ongoing efforts to modify the criminal procedural code, but 

until that occurs, decriminalizing drug use will not 

necessarily result in more effective use of law enforcement 

agencies or the courts. 

 

¶6. (SBU) Fernandez formed a scientific advisory committee 

last year to help inform his policy decision.  While the 

press reports that the committee generally supports the 

decriminalization of drug usage, its work continues.  It is 

analyzing an extensive survey on illicit drug usage 

commissioned by the committee involving some 50,000 

households.  The Minister's thinking on this policy is 

evidently well advanced, but many of the particulars of the 

proposed policy shift remain to be worked out, and could 

include legislative changes and budget reallocations.  An 

unattributed federal government source is cited by La Nacion 

as saying that decriminalization is an issue to be debated 

and reviewed, that the Government has ""nothing concrete,"" and 

that much remains before sending anything to Congress.  As 

noted earlier, Minister Fernandez has now claimed that he is 

not proposing decriminalization. 

 

¶7. (SBU) Comment:  Polls consistently report that Argentines' 

number one concern is public security.  The public links its 

high feelings of insecurity with reports of growing drug use 

in the impoverished shanty towns surrounding Buenos Aires and 

other major urban centers.  The new government seems more 

focused on the issue than the previous regime did -- 

something that Fernandez himself has told us.  He seems to 

sincerely believe that lowering the law enforcement priority 

(and perhaps penalties) given to possession for personal use 

will help make the GOA anti-crime effort more effective, 

freeing law enforcement and court resources to go after 

traffickers.  He believes that the current approach catches 

lots of little fish, but allows the big ones to slip away. 

 

¶8.  (SBU) But there are risks in the new approach. 

Experience shows that to get to the big fish you often need 

to start with the little ones.  Moreover, a government policy 

that could be interpreted as overly lenient on illicit drug 

use could engender some public pushback given the 

narcotics-street crime link.  We have an excellent and 

long-standing relationship with Fernandez and his advisers. 

As he moves forward with his policy, the Embassy will work 

with him to try and limit unintended, negative impacts on our 

bilateral and regional counternarcotics efforts.  The main 

impediments to more effective counternarcotics remain 

Argentina's outdated penal code -- limiting the judicial 

tools available to law enforcement and prosecutors -- and the 

inefficient courts. 

WAYNE 


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