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Representatives of organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean released a video in which they denounce the interference of the tobacco industry.
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The tobacco industry uses the same marketing strategies throughout the region with the aim of selling a product like cigarettes that kills more than half of its consumers. This analysis can be consulted in the Regional Tobacco Industry Interference Index.
Latin America and the Caribbean (July 23, 2024) – Today, representatives of organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean released a video in which they denounce the interference of the tobacco industry in their countries and ask their governments to protect children and youth from this industry.
In the video, representatives of organizations from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela show how the industry has interfered to stop public policies to control or regulate tobacco marketing in these countries and their strategies to attract children and adolescents to smoking or using tobacco.
Daniel Dorado, tobacco campaign director at Corporate Accountability, said, “This compelling statement from such a large number of Latin American and Caribbean communities underscores the importance of people standing together to resist the sinister marketing, political, and public health strategies Big Tobacco seeks to employ to increase profits while knowingly risking the health and lives of many, and especially of future generations. We will not be silent or allow tobacco corporations to interfere in our right to public health policy making free of corporate interference for the health of our countries, nor will we allow them to addict future generations to products that kill.”
The tobacco industry uses the same marketing strategies throughout the region with the aim of selling their products, especially cigarettes, which kills more than half of its consumers. To learn more about this, you can consult the analysis contained in the Regional Tobacco Industry Interference Index (2023), a document created by Corporate Accountability and the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), which collects information provided by civil society organizations free of conflict of interests from 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean on interference by the tobacco industry.
This report (the third in a series), shows a worsening trend of the regional situation, denoting an increase in the influence of these powerful corporations in the governments, which hinders the efforts that have been aimed at reducing tobacco consumption and holding the tobacco industry legally responsible for the damages caused. All the countries analyzed show some degree of interference, and the analysis highlights Big Tobacco’s lobbying actions, financing of scientific studies, contributions to political campaigns, recruitment of senior government officials, and promotion of “corporate or business social responsibility” initiatives such as cigarette butt cleaning campaigns.
“Governments can and must halt tobacco industry interference. The global tobacco treaty is not just a document countries can sign and put in a drawer. It’s a roadmap for saving lives, which starts with stopping the tobacco industry from manipulating people and policies. Countries have the map, they just need to follow it,” said Laura Salgado, head of campaigns and partnerships at GGTC.
For more information or to speak to a regional Interference Index spokesperson, contact [email protected]
