Over 12 years of dedicated work in peacebuilding, drug policy, migration, security, health, and human rights across various sectors. Known for creative and efficient leadership with a strong focus on human rights-based approaches and vulnerable populations, empowerment in crisis and conflict setting.

Harm reduction has evolved globally as a compassionate alternative to punitive drug policies, prioritizing health outcomes and individual well-being. In Latin America, however, adopting these Global North models has often reinforced systems of social control that overlook local socio-cultural realities. This paper advocates for a LATAM model rooted in community empowerment, social justice, and feminist ethics.
Harm reduction as an ethic in this context repositions the concept as a commitment to equity and social justice, addressing the inequalities that underlie drug-related vulnerabilities. Unlike imported health-centric models, a Latin American approach places emphasis on community mobilization and organizing through community-led programs. This structure allows local voices and knowledge to shape interventions, fostering resilience and challenging exclusionary drug policy narratives.
A feminist approach to harm reduction enriches this framework, addressing the gendered impacts of drug policies on women and marginalized groups. It highlights the need for harm reduction that respects agency and safety across diverse identities, creating inclusive spaces that acknowledge intersecting forms of discrimination and exclusion.
The concept of epistemic injustice also emerges as vital, as it critiques the dismissal of experiential knowledge held by communities affected by drug policies. Addressing this injustice means empowering these communities to lead harm reduction policy design, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of interventions, while cautioning against opportunistic actors without community ties, engaging in extractivist practices, claiming to be “community-based” to access resources.
Finally, the paper advocates for social innovation and prototype creation—adaptive, community-driven models that prioritize community cohesion and violence reduction over purely health-centered metrics. Through expanded evaluation tools and a focus on community well-being, Latin America can influence the global harm reduction discourse, advancing a model that is ethically grounded, culturally relevant, and community-centered