Unlike the US and europe, these countries have had people enslaved and their wealth looted for cartels and drug manufacturers to pump cheap drugs to the US. It’s no different than any other neoliberal policy. They’re “nerds” about it because their entire histories have been subjugation, and now they’re expected by some western communists and liberals in their ivory towers to legalize everything or else they’re bad(tm) people.

Why is it that almost every country outside the west is socially conservative? It’s almost as if having your resources plundered to all hell and your people seen as subhuman on the world stage stunts your development and views of the world.

Also, in the case of the Zapatistas, they’re basically surrounded by the cartels on one side and the government on the other (who are often in cahoots with the cartels) so it makes sense why they don’t want to attract cartel violence seeking to eliminate the competition, or the government’s forces looking for an excuse to end their movement. They’re also don’t have too many resources so prohibiting drugs is one of the only methods they have for prevention