Digital Town Hall of the Americas

by Mr. Alan Fernandez in the Dominican Republic.

Given the consistent presence of organized crime and drug trafficking in many of the countries present at the summit, ¿what is the role that United States will play in combating these scourges in the region?


SECRETARY CLINTON: This is such an important problem, and I thank you for raising it. We spent a lot of our time in my meeting with President Fernandez and ministers of his government talking about this.
Well, first of all, we all are making it a priority. We're going to talk about it at the Summit of the Americas, and we're going to begin a process of coming up with specific plans that will enable us to address it.
Secondly, the United States has acknowledged we share responsibility for what is happening in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. I said when I was in Mexico that the demand for drugs in my country fuels the lawlessness that President Calderon and the people of Mexico are fighting, and the movement of guns and the money laundering from my country south enables the drug traffickers to pose such terrible threats to so many. So we have acknowledged that we have a responsibility and we have to act in concert with you to try to address this.
There are many aspects of fighting the drug gangs and the narcotraffickers that we have to address. On the supply side, we have to do a better job in the United States. But countries like the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and others, you must get on top of this supply issue very soon. Because what drug traffickers will do is try to get people in your country addicted to drugs, so that if times are tough or they want to make extra money, they don't just have to think about the American - the United States market. They can think about the market nearer to home, safer. So there must be a public outcry against the drug traffickers trying to addict young people in all of the countries of the region.
We are looking at better ways to deter and divert and treat and prevent drug addiction and continuing drug use in our country. We need to share those ideas.
We have to do a better job training and equipping and preparing police. We have to root out corruption in police forces, in the military,government. It is very tempting - I know that, I had a long conversation with President Calderon - very tempting when these drug traffickers offer people money. But the problem is, once you take money from a drug trafficker, they own you. They own you and they own your family. You can never escape their reach.
And part of what we have to do is prevent people in our institutions from falling into that temptation. That means rule of law, tough judicial systems, good policing, corrections systems that work.
So we're going to have a summit on security in this area in May. The Dominican Republic, President Fernandez, are leaders of this effort. We're going to come up with plans - very specific. The United States will do what we can to support the plans that individual countries come up with. But we have to work together. It doesn't do us any good to drive the drug traffickers out of Colombia if they find a safe haven somewhere else. President Uribe and the people of Colombia have been incredibly courageous in battling the drug cartels, so now the drug cartels are not doing as much business out of Colombia, but they have found other places. So we must work together on this. We have come too far, too much progress has been made, to see it corrupted and undermined, and to create conditions of lawlessness and insecurity for honest, hardworking people. I know because I remember what it was like when the drug trade was out of control in New York. And some of you who have gone back and forth to New York, and some of you who have family in New York, you remember that. People were afraid to go out of their homes. They had 20 locks on their doors. Thankfully, we have beaten that back in the United States, but we can't ever, ever take a break from battling these ruthless criminals. We will do the very best we can, working with you.