Uruguay

Uruguay is in southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay is a transit country for drugs, particularly cocaine bound for Europe. It is vulnerable to drug transit because of its inability to control the Brazilian border. Law enforcement corruption and money-laundering operations are also problematic. Marijuana is by far the most widely used illegal drug in Uruguay, with approximately 6 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 64 using marijuana annually.

Recently, cocaine consumption, and the consumption of cocaine base, has increased, and the United Nations (UN) estimates that approximately 1.3 percent of the population use cocaine. Synthetic drug use has also increased recently.

Policy Development

Uruguay has never criminalized personal use of drugs, and a 1974 law allows judges to define whether a possession is for personal use or for dealing depending on the specifics of the case. In 1988, after raids on a cocaine lab and seizures of LSD, marijuana, and cocaine, the government of Uruguay formed the National Council for the Prevention and Repression of Illicit Traffic and Improper Use of Drugs, which began a national antidrug campaign. The next year, the press discovered that gold merchants were laundering drug money, and the police began investigating ties to international traffickers. A 1998 anti-drug law criminalized money laundering and increased penalties for trafficking.

In 2003 Uruguay aided Brazil in apprehending a Brazilian trafficker, and Uruguay has cooperated with other regional efforts. Seizures in 2003 [Page 820]included 1,100 kilograms of marijuana, 12 kilograms of heroin, 41 kilograms of cocaine, and some ecstasy, and arrests involved 1,690 people, including 188 minors. Of these, 269 were convicted. In 2004, when emerging from a five-year recession, the strategically located nation seemed vulnerable for increased trafficking. Internal consumption was rising, container and border controls were inadequate, radar was unavailable, and free-trade zones were potential sites for smuggling.

A bank facade in Uruguay in 1998. Money laundering controls were improved after the banking scandals of 2002.

President Jorge Batlle was the first sitting head of state to call for legalization of drugs, presumably as a means of countering U.S. efforts to impose a military solution in Colombia under the 2000 Plan Colombia. Although Batlle periodically called for legalization of drugs, government policy continued to be to fight narcotics trafficking. Batlle increased the use of the military and used his influence to pass anti-laundering laws, but his administration fell in 2005.