The Trump administration’s illegal commando operation against Venezuela is aimed at securing raw materials and asserting control over Latin America. But it is also about drugs. Venezuela represents a new chapter in US drug policy, which is misguided for three reasons. First, supply-oriented strategies are inefficient. Second, they have harmful side effects. And third, to the extent that this strategy subordinates drug policy to other interests, it risks exacerbating the American drug crisis rather than alleviating it.
Venezuela and the Folly of the US War on Drugs
IFSH Brief Analysis by Dr habil Cornelius Friesendorf
Inefficiency
For decades, it has been clear that drug policy is most effective when treated as health policy. A study published in 1994, for example, showed that US efforts to reduce the supply of cocaine in countries of origin and at borders are far less efficient than providing treatment for people with addiction.
One key reason lies in the value chain: profits increase the farther cocaine and heroin move away from coca and poppy fields. As a result, traffickers can easily absorb the financial losses caused by crop eradication or the seizure of drugs in or near countries of origin. This is why the Trump administration’s practice of attacking alleged drug traffickers from Venezuela at sea is short-sighted.
Side effects
The repressive orientation of US drug policy has negative side effects. When demand remains constant, reducing supply in one location merely leads to the relocation of drug production. In addition, repressive drug policies intensify violence, corruption, disease, and environmental destruction.
For the United States, there is a further consequence: the war on drugs fuels nationalism in Latin America. The abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is yet another episode in a long imperialist tradition. This includes, among other examples, the invasion of Panama in 1989, which landed President Manuel Noriega before a US court, as well as the abduction of a Mexican doctor in 1990.
Worse still, the recent commando operation has global repercussions. It undermines what little credibility democracies still have when it comes to defending international law – especially given that Trump is explicitly framing the operation as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine (which he has called the “Donroe Doctrine”). The primary beneficiary is Vladimir Putin, who can now justify his claims to power in the post-Soviet space by pointing to the US equivalent.
Opportunism
The US war on drugs is misguided for a third reason: it is undermined by opportunism. In his seminal work on CIA support for anti-communist forces in Laos, Afghanistan, and elsewhere during the Cold War, historian Alfred McCoy showed that the United States has colluded with drug traffickers whenever other interests appear more important.
Trump’s decision to pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández fits squarely within this tradition. Hernández had been sentenced in the United States to forty-five years in prison for drug trafficking. For the Trump administration, strengthening right-wing forces in Latin America takes precedence over pursuing a drug policy that, while inefficient, would at least be consistent.
Why the war on drugs endures
If it is so misguided, why is the war on drugs still being waged? The answer lies in a toxic mix of ideology and interests. Ideologically, the war on drugs is deeply embedded in US culture. As medical historian David Musto has shown, illegal drugs in the United States have historically been associated with unpopular minorities (for example, opium was associated with Chinese migrants in the nineteenth century). Closely related to this, the fight against drugs serves as a means of constructing US national identity.
The endurance of the war on drugs is also explained by interests. Politicians can score points with voters by promising to be tough on drugs. State agencies – above all the Drug Enforcement Administration – are financed through the war on drugs. For the media, images of military raids sell better than those of treatment facilities. As a result, the United States will go on waging its war on drugs – sometimes even using drugs as a pretext for war – despite the policy’s evident folly.
About the autor:
Dr habil Cornelius Friesendorf is a Senior Researcher and Head of the Centre for OSCE Research (CORE) at the IFSH.
