War on Drugs

Throughout the 1990s, the American government undertook a "war on drugs" 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 "enemy" 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, a

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er to support its agricultural shift efforts. The U.S. Congress tripled anti-drug aid for Peru in 2002, increasing the overall aid package to $156 million, including $30 million to upgrade Peruvian police helicopters and $80 million for alternative economic development (Spectres stir in Peru, 2002). The Case of Colombia Over the past decade, the nature of the drug war in Colombia has changed. This is due to changes in the drug trade itself. Once a few cartels dominated the Colombian drug trade, but aggressive law enforcement led to the death of several key actors, including Pablo Escobar, and to the dismantling of the Cali and Medellin drug cartels. The triangular drug trade that imported cocoa paste from Bolivia and Peru, produced cocaine I Colombia, and then exported the product to the U.S. market has been damaged significantly by air surveillance, including force-downs and shoot-downs (America's shadow drug war, 2001). In Colombia, more than $1.3 billion has been spent on this particular effort. Colombian rebels finance their operations with drug trafficking, acquiring the ability to purchase sophisticated weapons. To counter this threat, the United States has become actively involved in training the Colombian military

Category: Government - W