I. Summary

Uruguay is not a major narcotics producing or transit country. However, free trade zones afford relative anonymity for the movement of cargo, including illicit substances. The country’s strategic position and its porous land border with Brazil further highlight its vulnerability to drug-trafficking. Another area of concern is increasing local consumption of the highly addictive, cheap cocaine-based product known as “pasta base”. Efforts to upgrade port security and customs services advanced slowly in 2007, limiting inspection of containers at maritime ports and cargo shipments at the international airport. Uruguay is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.

II. Status of Country

Uruguay is not a major narcotics producing or transit country, but it continues to be attractive to drug traffickers from Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico as a transit point. Limited inspection of airport and port cargo makes Uruguay an attractive transit point for contraband, including chemical precursors to Paraguay and elsewhere. Although precursor chemical controls exist, they are difficult to monitor and enforce. This is due to the lack of Uruguayan Customs’ ability to effectively monitor and inspect cargo traffic through border crossings and its tendency to focus more on contraband than precursor chemical shipments. Relatively weak controls at the port of Montevideo contrast with the enhanced container security initiatives at other ports in the region such as Santos, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina. According to the Government of Uruguay (GOU), shipping containers transiting to or from other MERCOSUR countries are rarely inspected in Uruguay. Colombian and Bolivian traffickers have smuggled cocaine into Uruguay by flying directly into remote regions from Bolivia, using make-shift airstrips located on foreign-owned residential farms.

Uruguayan counternarcotics police units continue to target clandestine facilities used for processing, refining, and shipping Bolivian coca as well as distribution centers for local “pasta base.” The local demand for inexpensive “pasta base,” increased again in 2007, as did the incidents of crime related to this drug, according to the Uruguayan National Police’s Counternarcotics Division (DGRTID). Additionally, in Uruguay, individual drug use is not viewed as a criminal offense. Rather, users are sent for rehabilitation in ever-increasing numbers, which has created an overcrowding problem in Uruguay’s rehabilitation centers that the GOU is not yet equipped to deal with.

III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2007

Policy Initiatives. In 2007, the GOU continued to make counternarcotics a policy priority. The National Drug Secretariat enhanced drug rehabilitation and treatment programs and continued demand reduction public awareness campaigns focused on minors and young adults through print media campaigns and telephone hotline advertisements warning against the use of drugs. Uruguay is an active member of the Southern Cone Working Group of the International Conference for Drug Control, and other international organizations fighting narcotics, corruption and crime.

Accomplishments. In 2007, the GOU seized 657 kilograms (kg) of cocaine in both national and international counternarcotics operations—an increase over the 418 kg seized in 2006. The GOU also seized 84 kg of “pasta base” in 2007, down slightly from 93 kg in 2006. There were no heroin seizures reported or cocaine labs destroyed in 2007. Additionally, the GOU made 1,923 drug-related arrests, which lead to 486 convictions and resulted in 13 imprisonments.

Law Enforcement Efforts. Of the GOU agencies with charters for narcotics-related law enforcement, DGRTID continued to be the most effective. Internal coordination between GOU agencies remained difficult because they report to different ministries, but coordination between DGRTID and their regional counterparts continued to result in successful counternarcotics operations.

Corruption. As a matter of policy, no senior GOU official or the GOU, encourages or facilitates the illicit production or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. Transparency International rates Uruguay as one of the least corrupt countries in Latin America. The GOU Transparency Law of 1998 criminalizes various abuses of power by government authorities and requires high-ranking officials to comply with financial disclosure regulations. Public officials who do not act on knowledge of a drug-related crime may be charged with a “crime of omission” under the Citizen Security Law.

Agreements and Treaties. Uruguay is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances; the 1961 UN Single Convention, as amended by the 1972 Protocol; the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption; the Inter-American Against Terrorism; the Inter-American Convention Against Trafficking in illegal Firearms; the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols on Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling; and the UN Convention against Corruption. It is also a member of the OAS Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD). The USG and Uruguay are parties to an extradition treaty that entered into force in 1984, a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty that entered into force in 1994, and annual Letters of Agreement through which the USG funds counternarcotics and law enforcement programs. Uruguay has also signed drug-related bilateral agreements with Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Venezuela and Romania. Uruguay is a member of the regional financial action task force Grupo de Accion Financiera de Sudamerica (GAFISUD).

Cultivation/Production. Although small marijuana plots have been discovered in previous years, none were found in 2007. No other illegal drugs are produced in Uruguay.

Drug Flow/Transit. According to DEA, Uruguay is used as a drug-transit country. Narcotics are generally transported to Brazil for domestic consumption and onwards to the U.S. and Europe. Limited law enforcement presence along the Brazilian border and increased U.S. pressure on traffickers in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru is shifting some smuggling routes south, and drugs are moving through Uruguay by private vehicle, bus, and small airplanes. For example, during a large-scale DGRTID operation in 2007, they intercepted a large half-ton shipment of cocaine was intercepted, coming from Bolivia, via a small plane landing on an improvised airstrip in the province of Salto.

Demand Reduction. Uruguay’s demand reduction efforts focus on developing prevention programs, rehabilitation and treatment. These programs are based on a strategy developed cooperatively in 2001 between the National Drug Secretariat, public education authorities, various government ministries, municipalities and NGOs. In 2007, the National Drug Rehabilitation Center continued to train health care professionals, and sponsored teacher training, public outreach, and programs in community centers and clubs. The program, known locally as the “Portal Amarillo,” a drug rehabilitation clinic and hotline, continued services for both in-patient and out-patient drug users in northern Montevideo, targeting specifically “pasta base” addicts. Staffed by recent graduates of Uruguay’s largest nursing school, it services about 200 patients a week and has 21 beds. Uruguay continues to develop methods to track trends in drug use in youth populations, including secondary schools and prisons.

IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs

Bilateral Cooperation. U.S. strategy has been to prevent Uruguay from becoming a major narcotics transit or processing country. USG assistance to the GOU included support to demand reduction programs, narcotics interdiction operations and police training. The availability of International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds in FY 2007 permitted the USG to provide maritime law enforcement leadership and port security training to the Uruguayan Navy and Coast Guard.

The Road Ahead. Uruguayan law enforcement authorities continue to work well with their regional DEA counterparts based in Buenos Aires. In light of Uruguay’s increasing consumption problem, and the evolving drug trafficking threat, the GOU should continue its narcotics interdiction operations, and maintain an effective demand reduction program that includes efforts to decrease the use of “pasta base.”

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