Brown Not White

Latin America has been a major source of illicit drugs in the United States for decades. Over the past fifteen years, the U.S. has spent more than $25 billion on source country eradication and interdiction. Despite these efforts, the price of cocaine and heroin are at record lows while purity is at a record high - evidence that these drugs are more available than ever. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 82% of heroin in the U.S. comes from Latin America. Colombia alone produces three-quarters of the world's cocaine supply.

Ð'* Eradication refers to attempts to eliminate drug crops while they are being grown. One major reason that eradication programs have failed is the tendency of drug crops to be displaced rather than eliminated. For example, during the mid 1990s eradication efforts in Bolivia and Peru created incentives to grow coca in Colombia. While Peru experienced a 66% reduction in coca cultivation and Bolivia experienced a 53% reduction, coca cultivation in Colombia doubled. In addition, more potent strains of coca have been developed, leading to higher yielding coca crops. Experts compare eradication efforts to squeezing a balloon. Even if the air is squeezed out of one part, it is simply transferred to another part.

Ð'* Interdiction refers to attempts to seize drugs while en route to the U.S. Interdiction efforts have also been unsuccessful in reducing drug use in the U.S. Despite efforts by the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Customs, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it is an impossible task to keep drugs from coming in through 19,924 kilometers of shoreline, 300 ports of entry and more than 7,500 miles of border with Mexico and Canada. It is estimated that interdiction efforts only seize 10-15% of the heroin and 30% of the cocaine coming into the U.S.

Not only is U.S. anti-drug intervention in Latin America ineffective, it also fuels violence, and worsens human rights conditions. The Clinton and Bush administrations have sent well over $1 billion in anti-drug aid to Colombia in the last two years, as the instability and violence related to the country's 35-year-old civil war continue to worsen. Almost all of the U.S. aid is going to Colombia's military and national police, despite their documented, ongoing ties to the violent right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for more than three quarters of the polotical killings in the