drug war
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It is difficult to say when Mexico’s “Drug War” began. For nearly a century, the United States and Mexico have been engaged in operations to halt the production of drugs south of the border as well as their shipment to the United States, which is the world’s largest drug market. However, the genesis of the…
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Colombia has experienced one of the longest periods of political conflict of any country in the modern era. The main source of tension has been the decades-long struggle of the Marxist paramilitary group calling themselves the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) against the Colombian government. The rebel group’s demands have largely centered around agrarian…
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Last month, the Mexican government announced an initiative to “legalize” vigilante self-defense groups that have sprung up in response to drug-war related violence. The groups, known as “autodefensas” or “Rural Defense Units” have actually had some success in battling the cartels and the government has been moving from leniency to outright cooperation with them over the…
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The US’s attention is spread pretty thin at the moment – wrangling with Russia; negotiating with Iran; drawing down in Afghanistan; “pivoting” to Asia; looking for solutions to violence and unrest in Iraq, Egypt, Syria and elsewhere. Somewhat understandably, there hasn’t been much attention paid to Latin America recently. Despite some success in ameliorating poverty…
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I wrote a few months ago that legalizing marijuana in Uruguay could be a bad idea because gangs and drug traffickers might export cheap, price-controlled government pot for sale in foreign countries where it is illegal. Recently, Quartz had an interesting article that made me rethink the issue. Citing Paraguayan officials who say illegal pot from Paraguay will be…
Mike LaSusa 