Latin Drug Trade
Too many nations have made the mistake of underestimating the nature of the threat posed by illegal drug cultivation, production, trafficking, and consumption. Governments that have tolerated the cultivation of coca or opium poppies have seen deforestation and distortion of the agricultural sector. Nations where drugs have yielded are produced or trafficked have seen their financial sectors and political institutions wracked by economic distortion and corruption. Consuming countries have witnessed addiction and its terrible criminal, health, and social consequences. No nation is immune from this transnational threat. Nor can any nation stand up to the problem unilaterally. Bilateral and ...
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were made in crop reduction, in interdiction, in weakening trafficking syndicates, strengthening law enforcement, and in targeting drug money laundering. The year's best news came from Peru, for years the world's largest coca growing country. Three-plus years of joint efforts by U.S., Peruvian, and Colombian forces to choke off the "air bridge" that carries Peruvian cocaine base to Colombia for processing paid off handsomely. The operation simultaneously deprived Colombian trafficking organizations of critical basic materials and drove down the price of coca leaf in Peru below the break-even point. Disillusioned Peruvian growers abandoned fields to take advantage of alternative development opportunities. As a result of the exodus, in 1997 Peruvian coca cultivation dropped 27 percent, an extraordinary decline that occurred on top of last year's 18 percent reduction (1. Security Problems in Latin America).
The U.S. estimates that Peru now cultivates 68,800 hectares of coca, just ...
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before transnational crime had become recognized as one of the principal threats to international stability, the drug syndicates already had in place an impressive network of supply centers, distribution networks, foreign bases and reliable entree into the governments of source and transit countries. They pioneered many of today's sophisticated money laundering techniques, hiring first-rate accountants, and investing in state-of-the-art technology. And when the former Soviet Union collapsed, the drug syndicates were quick to recruit Eastern European chemists and other technical specialists left unemployed by the change in political systems. Even after suffering considerable losses, the ...
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Latin Drug Trade. (2006, May 10). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Latin-Drug-Trade/45693
"Latin Drug Trade." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 10 May. 2006. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Latin-Drug-Trade/45693>
"Latin Drug Trade." Essayworld.com. May 10, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Latin-Drug-Trade/45693.
"Latin Drug Trade." Essayworld.com. May 10, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Latin-Drug-Trade/45693.
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