Sierra on the Candidates

Jorge Luis Sierra says that despite Obama's lack of history or apparent interest in the region, his foreign policy would spell better news for Latin America than John McCain's. 

The electoral platform of McCain lacks a foreign policy proposal, doesn't allude to Latin America, and doesn't even mention that drug trafficking is a relevant national security issue.

Obama's does contain a foreign policy portion, dedicates space to Latin America, and mentions the necessity for a new hemispheric security initiative.

I'm not exactly sure what Sierra means by the electoral platform, to be honest. Maybe the white papers on the web site? I know Obama has one on Latin America (available here in pdf format). In any event, I think the sentiment, that McCain knows more and has shown more interest in Latin America, but his overarching foreign policy instincts are less attractive than Obama, is one I've been hearing more and more often here in Mexico. Sierra also laments the utter absence of drug policy throughout the campaign:

Until now, neither of the two candidates have talked about the dimension of drug trafficking in their country nor the efforts to reduce consumption of drugs, alter its distribution, and combat the penetration by drug traffickers in their police. In the US there doesn't exist an evaluation of how many people dedicate themselves to drugs in that country, and if it does exist it is unknown. The most recent stufy was realized by the RAND Corporation in 1991 and estimates that close to 1.8 million Americans were connected with the distribution and sale of drugs. The relative stability of marijuana, cocaine, and heroine consumption, plus the expansion of amphetamines, could mean that the number of people dedicated to drug dealing hasn't changed or maybe has increased.

Whatever the case, if to that figure we had the 500,000 Mexicans involved in the illegal drug trade that the Secretary of Defense offered, then drug trafficking could reach a criminal force combined in both countries of more than 2 million people. That's the dimension of the problem that neither of the two candidates seem to be understanding.