A COASTAL COALITION AGAINST DRUGS.

• Author: Rauch, Heidi

The geographical routes of drug trafficking are changing throughout the Hemisphere, as traffickers are increasingly transporting illicit drugs by sea. Approximately 50 percent of the cocaine produced in South America is transshipped along the Atlantic Coast of Central America. The routes used by drug traffickers shift as more effective enforcement in one area of the Caribbean pushes smugglers into another. As reported in the Washington Post, "the nature of the business has changed. Outfitted with high-tech equipment--including powerful speedboats rigged with satellite telephones, faxes, and satellite navigation systems--savvy traffickers have learned to switch routes on a moment's notice to exploit weaknesses in the hemisphere's anti-drug dragnet."

As drug transshipments increase, the "pipeline spillage" along this coast has become a reality. Jettisoned packages of drugs are washing up on the beaches of towns throughout the area, such as Blue fields, Nicaragua, and the Bay Islands of Honduras, putting these areas at high risk for drug abuse and trafficking. In addition, the levels of poverty and unemployment in these communities make drug trafficking an attractive economic alternative. Frequently, drug traffickers pay "in kind," which further contributes to the quantity of available drugs in these coastal towns.

In the past, anti-drug monies have been directed principally to drug-producing countries in South America and to education programs in the United States. Minimal assistance has been given to the countries of the Caribbean and Central America, whose coastal communities are the least populated areas of the region. The majority of the inhabitants are indigenous peoples and/or are of Afro-Caribbean descent and speak Creole English, Garifuna, Miskito, or other indigenous dialects. The national-level drug-abuse prevention programs in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Panama have been conducted in Spanish and geared to Latin American cultural patterns. Now what is needed are special programs to serve this special but diverse population along the Atlantic Coast.

The multiethnicity of the region is linked in part to the strong British presence in the area for more than a century and the trade that justified British interest. As the Spanish colonies and, later, the nations of Central America, focused development on the Pacific, the Atlantic Coast became even more closely connected with the Caribbean. Thousands of Jamaicans were...