US insists war on drugs is not a failure

US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the US would continue to give assistance to Latin American countries combating the producers and traffickers of narcotics.

Napolitano, who is touring Mexico and Central America to strengthen security cooperation, said the United States would continue assisting efforts by Latin Americans to go after producers and traffickers in the region despite relentless drug-related violence.

Napolitano's comments came before a visit to Guatemala where recently elected President Otto Perez has called for a regional debate on drug policy, including questions about removing criminal penalties for drug consumption and production.

Perez, a retired army general, won election last year promising a hard line on crime.

But shortly after taking office, he began talking about alternative approaches to fighting the drug war.

Perez said he would raise the decriminalization issue at a regional summit of Latin American leaders in April in Colombia.

El Salvador's president, Mauricio Funes, also said he was open to hearing new approaches to the drug fight, which has helped make Central America one of world's most murderous regions.

Drug violence has surged in Mexico and Central America as cartels fight over tens of billions dollars annually from selling cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine to U.S. users.

Mexico has experienced more than 47,000 drug-related killings in the past five years, while Honduras has the highest homicide rate in the world.

Several former Latin American presidents, including Mexico's Vicente Fox, have also called for a debate on the legalization of drugs.

Napolitano said the US would persevere in the search for Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, Mexico's most wanted drug dealer.

She compared that search to the eventually successful 10-year hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

At a joint news conference with Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire, Napolitano was asked why Guzman, the leader of one of the most powerful Mexican drug cartels, was still at large.

"It took us 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden and we found him," she answered.

Guzman's Sinaloa cartel, which is often described as the most powerful drug trafficking organisation in the Western Hemisphere, ships huge quantities of cocaine, methamphetamines and marijuana to the United States.

He was arrested and sent to prison in 1993, but escaped in 2001.

The US has offered a $5m reward for information leading to his capture.

Napolitano denied the drug war of the US and Mexico was a failure but rather "a continuing effort to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs".