Q COSTA RICA — From Spain, Costa Rican President Laura Fernández has called on European countries to reduce drug consumption, arguing that lower demand could weaken the criminal networks that produce and move narcotics across the Americas and into Europe.
Asked in an interview with Spanish newspaper ABC what she would ask of Europe, Fernández replied: “I hope it consumes fewer drugs.” She said reduced demand could curb illegal production in the Americas, as well as the distribution, street-level sale and shipment of drugs to European markets.
Her remarks came in Madrid ahead of the XXX Ibero-American Summit, held November 4–5, 2026. Fernández also urged Europe to invest more in efforts against what she described as narcoterrorism and in global security. She said she wanted the summit to strengthen multilateral cooperation, with “fewer meetings and more concrete results,” and identified national security as her priority.
A route connecting Central America and Europe
The president’s appeal comes as Costa Rican authorities report large cocaine seizures. In August, officials seized 50 kilos of cocaine from two containers leaving the Port of Moín, in Limón. The containers were bound for Germany and Belgium.
Costa Rica also seized more than 12 tonnes of cocaine in the first quarter of 2026—over four times the amount recorded in the same period a year earlier. Authorities reported increases in seizures of crack and marijuana as well. The figures suggest both the scale of trafficking through the country and the intensification of domestic enforcement and international cooperation, according to Infobae.
Analysis: demand is part of the equation, not the whole answer
Fernández’s message puts European consumption into a broader discussion of responsibility for the drug trade. Her argument is straightforward: when demand remains strong, criminal groups have an incentive to produce, transport and sell drugs. The Moín seizures illustrate the transnational nature of that trade, with shipments leaving Costa Rica for European destinations.
But reducing consumption is only one part of a difficult policy problem.
Fernández’s own call for greater European investment in security efforts points to the other pieces: disrupting trafficking routes, strengthening cooperation between authorities and addressing the networks that distribute drugs within countries. The seizure figures show enforcement activity, but they do not by themselves establish whether criminal organizations or the overall flow of narcotics have been durably weakened.
The summit gives Fernández a platform to press European governments to treat the issue as shared rather than solely regional.
Her appeal makes the political point clearly: if drugs move across borders and markets are connected, the response cannot rest on Latin American governments alone.