A different tack in Latin American war on drugs

"Latin Americans ... are challenging Washington's aggressive war on drugs in the world's top cocaine-producing region. These governments are shaking off U.S. influence in the region and building defense and trade alliances that exclude the United States. Some now say they can better fight drugs without U.S. help and are rejecting policies they do not like.... For Correa and other leaders, the plight of people like Vivas, coupled with stubbornly high smuggling rates, is proof of the failure of a drugs war focused on prison sentences and eradication of the coca crop, the raw material for making cocaine. They resent prescriptions handed down from Washington that they say cram courts and prisons with the poor without slowing demand for cocaine in U.S. cities."
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