This is a caudo special podcast. I'm Caleb Brown.

Joe Biden is hoping that he can keep several Central American countries from

openly defying U.S. wishes as they talk about

ending the Washington-led war on drugs.

One Carlos Adulgo policy analyst for Latin America at the Cato Institute comments.

Well, this is not the first visit of a high-ranking official from the U.S. government to Central America in the last couple of weeks.

Last week, Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano,

visited the President of El Salvador and the President of Costa Rica.

And it's pretty clear that there is concern in the

Obama administration about the proposal of president Otto Pened Molina from Guatemala

to legalize drugs which was initially well received in Central American capitals and that has led to

to Janet Napolitano's visit and now Joe Biden who is visiting Mexico and Honduras

and he will be with several Central American presidents and of course the

issue of drug legalization will be on top of his agenda in Central America. What is he going to advocate?

Well, the Obama administration has been quite clear that they oppose any discussion of drug

legalization in not on Central America or Latin America.

They I think they want to prevent this proposal from Guatemala to

become more popular in other parts of Latin America.

As I said previously, the president of Colombia has been very clear that he will support drug legalization in case that there is a

consensus worldwide.

And recently, the government of Uruguay said that they were very enthusiastic about having a debate on

decriminalizing drugs including cocaine and heroin. So obviously I think that

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