Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 39
BEYOND COCAINE COWBOYS
the judicial system, and the health care system.
Unfortunately, drugs and illicit trafficking are
enduring problems that must remain a part of
security policy in Latin America for the foreseeable future. Wherever possible, counterdrug
programs should focus on targeting the drug
trafficking organizations that are the most destabilizing. In other words, we should prioritize
resources to fight drug trafficking groups that
threaten stability over groups that simply traffic.
The drug fight should be put into the context of
stability whenever possible.
The counterdrug fight will continue, but it should
no longer drive all engagement in the region. U.S.
security cooperation must expand its aperture from
a threat-based focus on the enduring problem of
drugs to include setting the conditions for increased
economic prosperity and regional integration.
The economic possibilities in Latin America
are boundless. U.S. security professionals should
embrace their supporting role in seizing these
opportunities and change their perspective from one
of defense against drugs to one of positive action
to create opportunities. MR
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the
Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
NOTES
1. Cocaine Cowboys, documentary film directed by Billy Corben, Rakontur [film
studio], 2006, .
2. United States, National Security Decision Directive No. 221, “Narcotics and
National Security,” 8 April 1986, . Drugs are a larger problem for producing countries and transit
countries. Others, such as Chile, have been largely spared from these issues and
thus have not received extensive U.S. counterdrug support.
3. Martha Mendoza, “US Military Steps Up Drug War in Latin America,” The
Associated Press, Bloomberg Business Week, 3 February 2013, .
4. CNN Wire Staff, “Mullen: Debt is Top National Security Threat,” CNN, 27 August 2010, .
5. Parag Khanna, “Look South, Not East,” Foreign Policy.com, 11 November
2011, .
See also Parag Khanna video “Mapping the future of countries,” at TED.com,
.
6. Jeffrey Passel and D’Vera Cohn, “U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050,”
Pew Research, Social and Demographic Trends, 11 February 2008, .
7. U.S. Census Bureau website, Trade in Goods With South and Central
America, .
8. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population
MILITARY REVIEW
May-June 2014
Division website, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, .
9. Khanna.
10. Diana Quintero, Colombian vice-minister of defense, Presentation at NASPAA (Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration) Conference,
Austin, Texas, 18 October 2012.
11. The World Bank website, .
12. John P. Sullivan “Third Generation Street Gangs: Turf, Cartels and Netwarriors,” Crime & Justice International, October/November 1997, .
13. The World Bank website, news feature, “Central America: Private Sector
Makes Fighting Crime its Business,” 13 December 2012, .
14. Max G. Manwaring, Gangs, Pseudo-Militaries, and Other Modern Mercenaries: New Dynamics in Uncomfortable Wars (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2010).
15. U.S. Energy Information Administration website, Countries, .
16. See the Inter-American Democratic Charter at the Organization of American
States website, .
17. Executive Office of the President of the United States, National Drug Control
Strategy (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2012), .
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