The
New
Cold
War:
A
Guide
for
Citizen
Action
on
US
International
Drug
Control
Policy
7/2/99
Despite the end of the Cold War, U.S. support for Latin American militaries and police forces remains extraordinarily high. In fiscal year (FY) 1999 alone, the U.S. government spent more than $700 million on military and police assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean -- all in the name of the "war on drugs." There is little reason to expect success. As a 1997 U.S. government report pointed out, "despite long-standing efforts and expenditure of billions of dollars, illegal drugs still flood the United States. The amount of cocaine and heroin seized between 1990 and 1995 made little impact on the availability of illegal drugs in the United States and on the amount needed to satisfy the estimated U.S. demand." Furthermore, militarized anti-drug efforts threaten to strengthen abusive security forces just as fledgling civilian democracies seek to rein them in, put millions of dollars worth of equipment and training into the hands of human rights violators, and embroil our country in Colombia's brutal counterinsurgency war. These and many more facts, as well as suggestions for citizen action, can be found in the latest publication of the Washington Office on Latin America, "U.S. International Drug Control Policy: A Guide for Citizen Action," by Laurie Freeman, online at http://www.wola.org/drugsguide.htm, or orderable in print through the WOLA web site. (Check out WOLA info at http://www.wola.org.) Please join this important effort on behalf of drug policy reform, human rights & democracy, and peace! (Those in the Washington, DC area may be interested in the Institute for Policy Studies' next brown bag lunch drug policy video and speaker event, Thursday, 7/8, "Addicted to Failure: the U.S. Drug War Overseas," featuring the video "America's War on Drugs," by the Center for Defense Information, and speakers Coletta Youngers (WOLA), and Peter Zirnite. See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/096.html#videoseries for the full summer listing.)
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