Throughout the 1990s, the American government undertook a ôwar on drugsö that targeted the countries of Peru and Colombia (among others) and which attempted to assist other countries and their governments in stopping the flow of various illicit substances into the United States. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, the War on Drugs took a back seat to the new War on Terror (Sharpe & Spencer, 2001).
The difficulty of any war on drugs was described by Sharpe and Spencer (2001) as centering on the fact that the ôenemyö in such a war is not any particular cartel, drug lord, or drug farmer. It is in fact the market system that supports drug use and sales and makes illicit drugs a highly profitable business. Drug prohibition policies in the context of stubborn demand create a black market that ensures extraordinarily high profits for drug traffickers.
Be that as it may, the United States has undertaken a massive effort to eradicate drug trafficking throughout the world. This report will examine the War on Drugs, focusing on Colombia and Peru. The success or failure of American efforts in both countries will be assessed.
Lazare (1997) believes that in the case of Peru, the neoliberal economic policies promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assisted in perpetuating the drug trade. In the name of zero tolerance, the U.S. government imposed trade sanctions, terminated air programs, and used its economic muscle to force the major Latin American cocoa producers û Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru û to eradicate thousands of acres of cocoa fields and force farmers to produce legitimate crops. Nevertheless, Lazare (1997) maintains that the expansion of cocoa production in Peru continued throughout the 1990s.
President Bill Clinton (1996) told the American public that Peru had taken steps to achieve full compliance with the goals and objectives of the 1988 United Nat...