Mary Lou Seymour is a long-time libertarian activist and author. She lives in South Carolina. CLICK HERE FOR RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST SUPPORT OUR
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of the Week While the focus these past few months has been on the US intervention in the Mid East in the name of the War on Terror, and whether or not this presages a new era of "Yankee imperialism" or "post-millennial pietism" (see "The Utopian Urge") a small item in the news from Latin America illustrates the results of ongoing Yankee interventionisn in Latin America, in the name of the War on Drugs.
A new book by Cato Institute's Ted Galen Carpenter, Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America which calls for global legalization to alleviate the disastrous effects on Latin America of the United States' 30-year effort to stamp out drug trafficking in the region, is a "damning indictment on three decades of unrealistic and prohibitionist US policy which has wrought chaos across an entire continent." For this week's action, let's take a look at the havoc wreaked in Latin America by the US War on Drugs, the growing resistance to US interventionism and its possible future consequences, and, take action to support global legalization. Several countries in Latin America are rejecting the US War on Drugs. ("Latin America rejecting US drug war"). In Bolivia, Bolivian voters gave coca-chewing politician Evo Morales a surprisingly strong position in the country's recent presidential election, guaranteeing that his vehement opposition to the American-backed Bolivian drug war will influence government policies and the presidential selection process. Morales, like many of his countrymen, believes that coca is a medicine, food, and sacrament, and that the US drug war is a front for a takeover of Bolivia by resource exploiters from foreign countries. In neighboring Peru where the US drug war featured herbicidal poisoning of crops and people, as well as attempts to bribe farmers to grow low-paying crops for globalized multi-national corporations instead of growing coca and marijuana, Peruvian coca farmers are marching on Lima, as noted above. Many Peruvians say that the crop alternatives programs are poorly administered, and that foreign intervention is perceived as imperialist interference that is less about eliminating the dangers of the drug trade than it is about procuring Latin American resources and labor for foreign corporate elites. In Colombia, however, newly-elected Colombian President Alvaro Uribe pledged to increase his country's use of deadly herbicide spraying in an effort to eradicate coca and marijuana plants. Uribe says that US funding and personnel will help Colombia spray toxins on 400,000 acres of rural land. The toxic efforts are part of the $3 billion "Plan Colombia" program initiated by President Clinton and intensified since George W Bush took office. ("Brief History of WOD") Given the anti-interventionist, anti-imperialist movements growing in several Latin American countries, and given the current US administration's penchant for solving "problems" with military interventionism, it may be only a matter of time before "regime change" is promoted by the neocons for the recalicitrant Latin American nations. In February of this year, hundreds of concerned citizens from around the world, including Mexican activists, national legislators and advocates throughout Latin America, Americans, Europeans, and numerous students and interested members of the community attended "Out from the Shadows Mérida", at the Autonomous University of the Yucatan in Mexico, an historic, first of its kind, global summit calling for an end to drug prohibition worldwide. To join in this peaceful movement, sign the Global Petition for Ending Drug Prohibition and Reform of the International Drug Treaties. On May 5, 1862, the Mexican army beat the French at Puebla. At the time, the French Army of Napoleon III was considered the premier army in the world. It had enjoyed recent victories throughout Europe and Asia. Despite tremendous odds, the humble Mexican Army defeated the most powerful fighting unit in the world! Even though Mexico later lost the war to France, which ruled for a brief period of time, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated as a commemoration of Latin America's will to resist foreign intervention. This year, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, let's join our voices to the international chorus calling for a peaceful end to the War on Drugs through global legalization, and an end to interventionism in Latin America, through LTEs, call ins to radio shows, and, by copying and handing out some of the articles at Narco News, The Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRC Net), and AntiProhibitionist.Org to inform our friends, family and community. Til next week Mary Lou |
