How the U.S. Used the War on Drugs to Intervene in Latin America

The beginning of the United States' war on drugs in Latin America dates back to the administration of Richard Nixon. Since the 1970s, billions of U.S. dollars have been allocated to this issue across the continent.

While Washington's involvement is based on the official premise of assisting foreign governments with the goal of reducing the supply of drugs within the United States, scholars and critics have argued that the so-called war on drugs has, in reality, been a pretext to conceal military, paramilitary, and interventionist operations.

A Legal Excuse

The legal tool behind the U.S. actions is the so-called Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. In 1972, Congress added a chapter dedicated to international narcotics control, which allowed the president to sign agreements for such activities in other countries.

Colombia: A Prime Example

One of these nations has been Colombia. As early as the 1970s, the government of Misael Pastrana was pressured by the United States to collaborate with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), virtually since its creation in 1973. However, the largest assistance arrived in the form of the so-called 'Plan Colombia'.

Between 2000 and 2015, the program provided the country with $10 billion in funding. Although the aid was primarily military—comprising training and equipment to combat drug trafficking—it was effectively used against left-wing guerrillas and the FARC in southern Colombia. Conversely, pressure against right-wing paramilitary groups and drug trafficking operations in the north took a back seat.

The results demonstrate that the criticisms are well-founded. By the end of Plan Colombia, the FARC had lost much of its power. However, the effects on coca production were limited. The Washington Office on Latin America itself concluded in 2010 that both Plan Colombia and the Colombian government's security strategy "came at a high cost in lives and resources, and only achieved part of the goal." Colombia remains the world's leading producer of cocaine.

Mexico: A Neighboring Theater

Another key country is Mexico. The United States' neighbor is one of the most important corridors for drug trafficking. A key modus operandi of the cartels has historically been based on the corruption of government and police officials—a problem from which U.S. authorities themselves have not been immune.

In 2013, the U.S. television network Fox News uncovered the case of Kiki Camarena, an undercover DEA agent in Mexico who was kidnapped and murdered by drug traffickers in the 1980s. The CIA was involved in the crime. According to the report, its complicity was based on the fact that agency members collaborated with the drug traffickers and used part of the drug profits to fund the Nicarag Contras. The agency has never acknowledged these allegations.

Another argument used to defend the idea that U.S. anti-drug action in Mexico has more to do with interference than with ending drug trafficking is its historical failure. From 2008 to 2021, the United States provided Mexico with $3.5 billion in funding through the Mérida Initiative, a cooperation program aimed at combating drug trafficking.

This was the framework during which President Felipe Calderón launched his famous military offensive against the cartels. This strategy not only led to an increase in violence but also contributed to the fragmentation of the cartels. The result: more than 26,000 missing people and over 70,000 deaths related to organized crime between 2006 and 2012.

An Instrument for Intervening in Regional Affairs

In Nicaragua, the drug problem was closely linked in the 1980s to U.S. support for the anti-Sandinista forces known as the 'Contras'. A 1988 report by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee concluded that members of the State Department provided support to Contra members involved in drug trafficking. The involvement included payments to drug traffickers with funds authorized by Congress for humanitarian aid.

That the use of drug trafficking was a political tool, not only in that country but in the region, is demonstrated by the fact that the President of Panama, Manuel Noriega, provided military assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras at the request of the United States. Meanwhile, Washington tolerated his drug trafficking activities, which had been known since the 1960s. It was only when Noriega fell from grace and surrendered to U.S. soldiers in 1990 that he faced a U.S. court on DEA charges of organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

Virtually all of Central America has experienced the direct involvement of the United States in its nations under the pretext of the war on drugs, whether through the provision of equipment, training, technical support, or directly through the deployment of DEA agents, as happened in Honduras in 2012.

In South America, however, this collaboration has not always been well received. In 2008, President Evo Morales expelled all U.S. agents working for the DEA from Bolivia, alleging that they were helping his political opponents. "The war on drugs is driven by geopolitical interests," he stated. Another Latin American leader who severed ties with the DEA was Hugo Chávez. In 2005, he accused its representatives of espionage, marking the beginning of the rupture in intelligence sharing and bilateral cooperation between Venezuela and the United States.

This interplay of power, interference, corruption, and vast sums of money generates heated debates and opposing positions, but also some incontestable truths: the United States is the country with the highest drug consumption in the world.