Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America"

Book review:

"Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's futile war on drugs in Latin America"

Edited by Ted Galen Carpenter

Overview

Introduction 3

I Modest results after thirty years of war 4

The war on drugs consequences on the drugs crops cultivation 4

The war on drugs consequences on the Latin American opinion 5

II The American strategy on the drug war: definitively a bad strategy? 8

The United States' strategy on the war on drugs 8

The causes of the American's strategy failure 9

III Is "legalisation" the solution for a decrease in the amount of drug in the united States' streets 12

Conclusion 14

Sources 17

Introduction

"Bad neighbor policy: Washington's futile war on drugs in Latin America", from Ted Galen Carpenter, draws a negative critic (as suggested by the title) of the fight against drugs in United States. Carpenter, who is Vice President for Defence and Foreign Policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, gives clearly his negative opinion on what is for him the drug war failure.

This "war" has for purpose to protect the American population against the drug scourge; however this war is mainly set in Latin America. In fact the United States war on drugs began with the entry of Richard Nixon as President in the White house. The year 1968 is marked by the will to eradicate the narcotic problem in United States. Because the supply comes from Latin America, President Nixon decides to cut the supply, by intervening directly in Latin America whether than on the American territory.

The problematic of the book seems to be: What are the consequences of the American war on drugs in Latin America? In fact the consequences on the United States territory are not shown, which should be, considering the conclusion, the purpose of the book.

In this book review, we will in a first part discuss about the global results of this war. Then we will consider the strategy adopted by the American governments and highlighted by the author. Finally we will examine the solution of the legalization, an issue which is brought to the fore by the author.

I Modest results after 30 years of war

Since 1968 and the Nixon drug prohibitionist strategy, the war on drug has taken a considerable interest in the American agenda. Reagan, Ford, Carter, Bush, Clinton, all of them have kept pace with this policy. The drug war has been even more emphasised under the Clinton administration with the Plan Colombia in 2001.

However this determination to fight drugs has not been followed by positives results concerning first the crops cultivation, second the Latin American opinion over drugs.

The war on drugs consequences on the drugs crops cultivation

First of all the results of the war on drugs are quite difficult to measure considering the illegality of the issue. Indeed how quantify the importance of drug in the export trade? How quantify the number of drugs crops produced in Latin America? However, some figures are here, but they have to be taken carefully.

2000 1997 1993

Mexico 7 000 8 600 6 280

Colombia 4 000 4 133 4 125

Jamaica -- 214 502

Others 3 500 3 500 3 500

Total 14 500 16 447 14 407

Bellow are some figures illustrating the evolution of cocaine and marijuana production in Latin America. Those figures are used in the book to show the negative impact of the war on drugs. Those data come from the International Narcotics Control strategy Reports, which is an American organism, the data of this organism seem to have different estimate from the United Nations. The meaning of the number is as well hidden in the book: what are the units of the data?

2000 1997 1993

Bolivia 43 200 240

Colombia 580 360 65

Peru 154 325 410

total 777 885 715

Source: INCS Report, March 2001, « South America », pp. 6, 17, 28

However those tables show that the results of the war on drugs change within the countries in Latin America. Thus, during the period 1993-2000, the cocaine production has declined considerably in Bolivia (five times less in 1993 than in 2000) and in Peru, which is not the case in Colombia, where the cocaine production has increased more than eight times. Those data are as much ill-assorted concerning the marijuana production. The decrease in cocaine production in Bolivia and Peru here reflects the effort of the US Army, as the antidrug programs began from the early 1980's in those countries.

Among of drug-crop land eradicated

Cultivated Eradicated Net

Bolivia 53 386 5 486 47 900

Colombia 38 472 972 37 500

Ecuador 120 80 40

Peru 120 800 0 120 800

Total 212 778 6 538 206 240

Source: INCS Report, March 1992, pp,27,

Now let's consider the table, which is above. We can see here that in Bolivia, the drug eradication in 1992 had good