Exporting the Drug War

Perhaps, seen from Washington, it looked like Grenada: U.S. troops, armed with weapons and persuasion, swooping down in helicopters on the Bolivian jungle. The cocaine trade had to be stopped. The peasants were to be steered toward substitute crops, and the narcotics agents of Bolivia taught the techniques of controlling the means of production, from the modest coca plant itself to the clandestine transport planes. The producers, the middlemen, the traffickers, the suppliers, the big profiteers— all were to be cut down to size.

Months (and tons of destroyed coca powder) later, the U.S. expeditionary units withdrew (with a few agents staying behind), leaving the coca fields and cocaine factories to local law enforcers. One assumes that a report— “mission accomplished”—was duly dispatched to the proper authorities in Washington. The streets of New York, Los Angeles, and every large city in between would be relieved of the burden of drug-induced crime and of the sick wretches who buy the stuff.

TM

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Thomas Molnar

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Perhaps, seen from Washington, it looked like Grenada: U.S. troops, armed with weapons and persuasion, swooping down in helicopters on the Bolivian jungle. The cocaine trade had to be stopped. The peasants were to be steered toward substitute crops, and the narcotics agents of Bolivia taught the techniques of controlling the means of production, from the modest coca plant itself to the clandestine transport planes. The producers, the middlemen, the traffickers, the suppliers, the big profiteers— all were to be cut down to size.

Months (and tons of destroyed coca powder) later, the U.S. expeditionary units withdrew (with a few agents staying behind), leaving the coca fields and cocaine factories to local law enforcers. One assumes that a report— “mission accomplished”—was duly dispatched to the proper authorities in Washington. The streets of New York, Los Angeles, and every large city in between would be relieved of the burden of drug-induced crime and of the sick wretches who buy the stuff.