The Failure of U.S. policies in Latin America: From The War on Drugs to The War on Terror = El fracaso de las políticas de los Estados Unidos en América Latina:de la guerra contra las drogas a la guerra contra el terrorismo
Since the 70s when cocaine consumption first took off in the US, this country has been fighting in Latin America the supply-side ‘war on drugs’ which was placed mainly in Colombia since the 90s, the only country in the region that has an additional component to the drugs problem, guerrillas and paramilitaries, both who use the drug trade to fuel a protracted conflict.
The US fashioned under Clinton’s administration the controversial anti-drug strategy known as 'Plan Colombia' a policy that made Colombia the 3rd largest recipient of military aid in the world after Israel and Egypt until the Afghanistan and Iraq era; however after 9/11 the strategy took a different course from a war against drugs to a war against terrorism, significantly increasing the military counter-insurgency component of Plan Colombia, deepening the US dependence in the country and isolating it from the rest of Latin America.
The results after 40 decades of US investment and intervention are questionable since the policies have proven to be a failure as they have not reached the expected results and have worsened the problems they tried to tackle. In a nutshell, the US anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has been a failure since after 40 decades and billions of dollars invested, it has not helped to curb production, trafficking and demand; but it has undermined the democracy and triggered conflict in countries where drugs are produced; the case of Colombia exemplifies this ‘war system’ where the ‘war on drugs’ shifted to ‘war on terrorism’ under the framework of the US strategy.
Fuente:
Biblioteca Virtual Banco de la República
Formatos de contenido:
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