Latin America: Public Sees Drug Trafficking Widespread, On the Rise, Regional Polling Finds

In an analysis of 2009 polling it conducted across Latin America, Gallup has found data suggesting that illegal drug trafficking is common in communities throughout much of the region, including relatively wealthy, non-drug producing countries such as Chile and Costa Rica. In major countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, as well as smaller ones such as Costa Rica, Chile, Panama, and Uruguay, more than half of residents surveyed said drug trafficking or illicit drug sales were taking place in their neighborhoods.

While Mexico's bloody prohibition-related violence garners headlines, that country ranked right in the middle, with 43% saying trafficking or sales were going on. Brazil garnered the dubious honor of having the highest percentage of people agreeing that trafficking or sales were occurring, with 70% saying so, followed by Chile, with 60%.

The countries where the fewest respondents reported local drug activity were El Salvador (15%), Bolivia (19%), and Honduras (23%). In all three cases, however, the number of respondents who said they didn't know or refused to answer exceeded 50%, as it also did in Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Peru. Do they not know or are they just not saying?

Oddly, the three-year (2007-2009) trend for the neighborhood drug activity question was flatter in Mexico than elsewhere. Some 38% of Mexicans said yes in 2007, 43% in 2008, and that figure was unchanged last year. In Brazil, by contrast, yes responses jumped from 52% in 2007 to 70% last year, while Argentina went from 49% to 55% and Chile went from 42% to 51%.

When asked if drug sales were increasing in their neighborhoods, Brazil again led the way, with 74% saying yes, followed by Costa Rica (53%), Panama (47%), and Uruguay and Argentina (46%). Again, oddly, Mexico was well down the list, with only 33%. Again, Central American countries were on the low end, and again, the usefulness of the data is obscured by high numbers of people who said they didn't know or refused to answer.

"The attention drawn by Mexico's drug violence should not overshadow the reality that illicit drug trafficking is common in much of Latin America," Gallup concluded.