NCJ Number
155023
Journal
Current History Volume: 91 Dated: (1992) Pages: 74-79
Date Published
1992
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The politics of cocaine will have a central influence on the handling of crucial political and economic issues in the Andean countries of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia; these countries are being transformed by the thriving cocaine industry and an increasingly militarized United States strategy to suppress it.
Abstract
Foreign debt, economic crisis, civilian-military relationships, human rights, democratization, and guerrilla insurgencies are crucial issues in these countries and are being shaped by the politics of cocaine. The three countries have been economically integrated by a simple division of labor within the Andean cocaine industry. The entrepreneurs protect their illicit business interests through bribery, intimidation, and murder. The resulting spread of corruption and violence has had a profound impact on Andean society and politics, at times posing a direct political challenge to the government's authority. Cocaine is also redefining United States-Andean relations in the post-cold war era. Economic aid, trade policy, loan approval, and other issues are tied to the antidrug effort of the United States. The militarized plan pushed by the United States has appeared both out of date and out of touch with reality, because cocaine provides employment for hundreds of thousands of peasants and is the single most important source of foreign exchange for the region's debt-burdened economies.