In 1971 President Richard Nixon announced that “America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.” With this declaration of a “War on Drugs” Nixon added a major new goal for American policy, a declaration of war against Drug Cartels as well as the drug trade shadow economy. Foreign Policy can be influenced by non-state actors such as cartels and international crime organization as seen by the United States response to groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia People’s Army as well as the Juarez and Gulf Cartels of Mexico. While considered a failure on America’s behalf, few could argue that the drug trade has had
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While internally cracking down on minor drug cases and creating a massive incarcerated population, almost 25% of total incarcerations worldwide , the war on drugs dramatically affected the Clinton administration’s foreign policy views in 1998 with the conception of Plan Columbia. Initially conceived by the newly elected president of Columbia at the time, Andrés Pastrana, the idea was for America to provide “A Marshall Plan for Columbia” in order to create infrastructure and providing Columbian farmers an alternate to growing cocaine, breaking them away from the cartel system. When announcing this project, Columbia currently was already undertaking a large development project, known as the “Programas de Desarrollo y paz del Magdalena Medio,” funded by not only the government but the European Union, multinational businesses as well as several charitable NGO’s. The initial impression was that the United States would provide military aid, but also significant resources for sustainable development, splitting the resources around 55% military to 45% humanitarian aid. This however ended up not being the …show more content…
When brought in front of the houses of congress a different message was painted. Memories of the 1985 Palace of Justice Siege, in which 11 Columbian Supreme Court Justices as well as almost 50 military troops were killed by FARC troops in a hostage scenario gone wrong, haunted the U.S. Congress members, pressuring the bill to become far more military oriented, as many of the locations targeted as areas of interest (locations containing coca farms) were held by FARC. To further complicate issues, in 1999 FARC troops killed three United States Citizens protesting for indigenous peoples rights, providing more pressure for congress to take military action. When the final bill was passed, 78% of the total funding was allocated towards the military aspect of the operation , far less than the original 55% initially
While internally cracking down on minor drug cases and creating a massive incarcerated population, almost 25% of total incarcerations worldwide , the war on drugs dramatically affected the Clinton administration’s foreign policy views in 1998 with the conception of Plan Columbia. Initially conceived by the newly elected president of Columbia at the time, Andrés Pastrana, the idea was for America to provide “A Marshall Plan for Columbia” in order to create infrastructure and providing Columbian farmers an alternate to growing cocaine, breaking them away from the cartel system. When announcing this project, Columbia currently was already undertaking a large development project, known as the “Programas de Desarrollo y paz del Magdalena Medio,” funded by not only the government but the European Union, multinational businesses as well as several charitable NGO’s. The initial impression was that the United States would provide military aid, but also significant resources for sustainable development, splitting the resources around 55% military to 45% humanitarian aid. This however ended up not being the …show more content…
When brought in front of the houses of congress a different message was painted. Memories of the 1985 Palace of Justice Siege, in which 11 Columbian Supreme Court Justices as well as almost 50 military troops were killed by FARC troops in a hostage scenario gone wrong, haunted the U.S. Congress members, pressuring the bill to become far more military oriented, as many of the locations targeted as areas of interest (locations containing coca farms) were held by FARC. To further complicate issues, in 1999 FARC troops killed three United States Citizens protesting for indigenous peoples rights, providing more pressure for congress to take military action. When the final bill was passed, 78% of the total funding was allocated towards the military aspect of the operation , far less than the original 55% initially