Blog #4 Current Online News Article

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269381,00.html?sPage=fnc/world/americas

This article titled "Colombia Seizes 27 Tons of Cocaine Worth $500 Million" relates to what the textbook says in Chapter 4 about the drug war in Latin America. The article states that Columbia is the world's leader in production of cocaine. I related this to the article because cocaine is the main source of financial income for the country of Latin America. This is because cocaine brings hard currency and therefore the government cared little about controlling the drug war.

The article also talks about how American taxpayers have paid over $5 billion since 2000. The textbook then said that President Bill Clinton in 2000, committed $1.3 billion to Columbia to help stop the drug war. Therefore comparing this article and the textbook, over the last ten years Americans have taken it upon themselves financially to help stop the drug war.

One thought I had after reading this article was the idea of Columbia's economy being crippled after the navy made the largest drug seizure of cocaine. The textbook says in 1980 the region was hurt by a badly damaged judicial system. It was during these 1980s that the costs of the drug war became so important to Latin America. If Latin America is paying police to help control the drug war will that threaten the power within the country?

The textbook also says that although Columbia has successfully created coca it will cause a war elsewhere in the world. This article then brought up how evident a war could be between countries when another country seizes their cocaine, like the ship in this article.