A Different War
Besides the GWOT (Global War on Terror), we also have the WOD (War on Drugs, which is also global in nature, but didn't get the G when it was first initiated, so doesn't have one now). We're not doing so well on the latter these days, mainly because the current regime hasn't done so well in its dealings with Latin America.
Bolivia, the third largest producer of cocaine, is pushing back on the US's demands that it root out the coca crop, according to the Scotsman.
...Yungas, an almost inaccessible area, has become the country's main coca-growing area. The government allows 12,000 hectares of legal coca cultivation in Yungas, but real production is nearly double that and growing - explaining the 35 per cent increase in cocaine production last year from 2003, according to the latest UN World Drug Report, and consolidating Bolivia as the world's third-largest cocaine producer.
The US now seems determined to put an end to this situation, despite stern opposition from Evo Morales - a leader of the Chapare coca growers and favourite to win next Sunday's presidential elections - who defends the legalisation of coca for traditional uses such as medicinal tea.
A senior member of Mr Morales's party said the American embassy had told them Yungas was one issue the US would stand firm on. The US ambassador to Bolivia, David Greenlee, warned that Mr Morales' idea of legalising coca would have repercussions.
But Mr Morales refuses to budge. "We'll have zero cocaine but not zero coca," he told The Scotsman. "The US isn't really interested in cocaine eradication - it uses the war against drugs like the war against terror in Iraq, as an excuse to dominate other countries.
"The fact that it doesn't really target the demand for drugs demonstrates this."
Influential members of Mr Morales' party are even pushing to expel US anti-narcotics police from Bolivia. [Emphasis added]
While the US arguably has a legitimate interest in ending the drug traffic inside the US, and stopping the flow into the country is one part of that interest, the current tools used to effect that interest clearly need to be returned to the tool box. Threats from an ambassador and bullying tactics from the narco-cops just aren't working anymore. The Bolivians, at least, have had enough.
Perhaps the US should stop building expensive fences at the border and start engaging in some old fashioned diplomacy in which a sensitivity to the role the coca plant plays in various countries in Latin America might be more helpful. Of course, that would mean the regime would have to start paying attention to more than the money that can be sucked out of the hemisphere into the coffers of US corporations.
I am not optimistic.
Bolivia, the third largest producer of cocaine, is pushing back on the US's demands that it root out the coca crop, according to the Scotsman.
...Yungas, an almost inaccessible area, has become the country's main coca-growing area. The government allows 12,000 hectares of legal coca cultivation in Yungas, but real production is nearly double that and growing - explaining the 35 per cent increase in cocaine production last year from 2003, according to the latest UN World Drug Report, and consolidating Bolivia as the world's third-largest cocaine producer.
The US now seems determined to put an end to this situation, despite stern opposition from Evo Morales - a leader of the Chapare coca growers and favourite to win next Sunday's presidential elections - who defends the legalisation of coca for traditional uses such as medicinal tea.
A senior member of Mr Morales's party said the American embassy had told them Yungas was one issue the US would stand firm on. The US ambassador to Bolivia, David Greenlee, warned that Mr Morales' idea of legalising coca would have repercussions.
But Mr Morales refuses to budge. "We'll have zero cocaine but not zero coca," he told The Scotsman. "The US isn't really interested in cocaine eradication - it uses the war against drugs like the war against terror in Iraq, as an excuse to dominate other countries.
"The fact that it doesn't really target the demand for drugs demonstrates this."
Influential members of Mr Morales' party are even pushing to expel US anti-narcotics police from Bolivia. [Emphasis added]
While the US arguably has a legitimate interest in ending the drug traffic inside the US, and stopping the flow into the country is one part of that interest, the current tools used to effect that interest clearly need to be returned to the tool box. Threats from an ambassador and bullying tactics from the narco-cops just aren't working anymore. The Bolivians, at least, have had enough.
Perhaps the US should stop building expensive fences at the border and start engaging in some old fashioned diplomacy in which a sensitivity to the role the coca plant plays in various countries in Latin America might be more helpful. Of course, that would mean the regime would have to start paying attention to more than the money that can be sucked out of the hemisphere into the coffers of US corporations.
I am not optimistic.
posted by Diane at 4:51 AM
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