Matta Ballesteros Propaganda

The numbers speak loud and clear. This was part of the effects that where brought about by this epidemic, the growing use of the drug. Crack cocaine pierced through urban neighborhoods; its roots were tightly griped in Los Angeles California’s black neighborhoods (Webb “Dark Alliance; War…”). In effect, the growing use of cocaine in the US brought fort new types of profit and purpose for the drug trafficking industry; thus the emergence of crack cocaine on American soil, especially through the explosion in LA. This was due to a link between these areas drug dealers and the Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (FDA), know as the Contras here in the US (Webb “Dark Alliance; the Shadowy…”). The Contras imported the cocaine through one man, Oscar Danilo Blandon (Webb “Dark Alliance; the Shadowy…”). The Contras revolution against the socialist establishment in Nicaragua was being funded by the drug trafficking industry in other words (Webb “Dark Alliance; the Shadowy…”), and this ius when a chain effect begins. The chains of effects begin in Nicaragua, but ultimately it ends and harbors itself in the US within its urban neighborhoods. The CIA was involved with the Contras is one way or another, this is where the conspiracy theories begin (Webb “Dark Alliance; the Shadowy…”). Supposedly in the most extreme conclusion of them all is that the CIA was allowing the Contras to import and deliver all their cocaine, in order for them to find the monetary means for their

The Iran Contra affair is historically defined as the “Reagan administration scandal that involved the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for its efforts to secure the release of hostages in Lebanon and the redirection of the proceeds of those sales to the Nicaraguan Contras.” As the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, known as the Contras, began their efforts to retaliate against the Socialist Sandinista Regime, American government forces stepped in to support the Contra cause in a hope to support the world-wide elimination of Communism. To understand the entire history of the scandal, many individuals, groups, policies, and deals must be researched and put together to tell the complete history of the Iran Contra affair.

The changes in key government leadership positions have had significant implications on Mexico 's drug trade business (Lupsha 1995). Take the example of one of Mexico 's leading drug traffickers, Juan Garcia Abrego who is widely known as the inventor of Mexican drug trafficking. Abrego 's drug smuggling operations flourished under former President Salina 's administration. When former President Zedillo entered office in December of 1994, Abrego lost the high-level protection provided under the former President Salina. Without this level of protection, Abregos influence in the drug trade industry decreased dramatically to the point of bankruptcy, in a traditional business sense. During this transformation, other well-connected cartels gained uncontested access to large drug trafficking corridors once controlled by Abrego. Despite Abregos deteriorating drug influence in Mexico, President Zedillo put a large bounty on him, making Abrego the most wanted drug smuggler in Mexico. Nevertheless, Abrego 's eventual capture was highly celebrated by the United States as a sign of Mexico 's increasing efforts and dedication to the elimination of illicit drug smuggling operations. In my opinion the example of Abrego 's lost influence and highly celebrated capture directly relates to the politic rhetoric and corruption that is associated with

The men captured were: Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martínez, James W. McCord Jr., and Frank Sturgis. Every man had connections to the re-election of President Nixon. Bernard was a former CIA operative, and already suspected to be a part of the Bay of Pigs incident in 1962. Virgilio was a locksmith who ran from Cuba after the takeover of Fidel Castro . James was a security coordinator for the Republican National Committee, as well as the Committee for the Re-election of the President; even more, James is a former CIA and FBI agent. Eugenio was a real estate agent working for Bernard with CIA connections, and was exiled from Cuba for being anti-Castro. Frank also worked for Barker, had CIA connections, and was anti-Castro.

The arrest of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was a victorious circumstance for the Mexican government, who have been closing down on his presence for the recent past years. Mexican authorities began taking down high ranked members of the Sinaloa Cartel including two of Guzman’s main associates. On February 22, 2014, the world’s most wanted man had also been captured. Although the biggest drug lord has been captured, the crime and violence left behind cannot be forgotten.

Norwin Meneses was the primary connection to Colombian cocaine in Nicaragua prior to the 1979 Sandinista takeover. He fled with Blandon and other Somoza sympathizers and became instrumental in the funding of the Contras through CIA sanctioned cocaine sales in America (OIG, 2016). As the Contra counter revolution began to form, he became the adviser to the military commander of the Contra forces. He was known drug kingpin of Nicaragua due to his close ties to Colombian drug cartels and those same connections gave him the access to the quantities of cocaine that would sold in the United States to fund the Contra’s CIA sponsored proxy war to overthrow the Sandinistas.

This U.S. support was part of an amplified foreign assistance policy in a shared effort with the government of Colombia to improve local security and combat the rising narcotics market. After a visit to Bogotá in 2000, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy General Barry McCaffrey, affirmed in a speech to the Atlantic Council of the United States that “with international solidarity and support for Colombia’s broad-based long-term strategy (i.e., Plan Colombia), drug traffickers and terrorist groups can be deprived of their income, drug production will be crippled, and Colombia’s long-suffering people might secure their basic right to earn a legitimate income without fearing for their lives” (McCaffrey, 2000). Plan Colombia bound the government of Colombia to an encompassing goal: “to strengthen the State in order to regain the citizens’ confidence and recuperate the basic norms of peaceful coexistence” (Plan Colombia, 1999: 3).

Oscar Danilo Blandon was another infamous crack dealer along with Ross and Meneses. “Blandon has also implied that his cocaine sales were, for a time, CIA-approved” (Webb n.p) Therefore, Blandon was also receiving help from officials from the United States in a way that was similar to Meneses. According to Gary Webb, Blandon testified, “And the people that was in charge, it was the CIA, so they didn't want to raise any drug money because they had the money that they wanted” (Webb n.p). The CIA was using the cocaine dealers for their own benefits in order to save up money for their own uses. Furthermore, the CIA did not really care about the long-lasting effect that crack would have on American

The United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of one it’s southern neighbor, Latin America. The war on drugs has been no exception. An investigation of US relations with Latin America in the period from 1820 to 1960, reveals the war on drugs to be a convenient extension of an almost 200 year-old policy. This investigation focuses on the commercial and political objectives of the US in fighting a war on drugs in Latin America. These objectives explain why the failing drug policy persisted despite its overwhelming failure to decrease drug production or trafficking. These objectives also explain why the US has recently exchanged a war on drugs for the war on

So, they began feeding the public information about Noriega’s involvement in drug trafficking in order to undermine him. Noriega’s involvement in drug trafficking was soon placed in a number of news articles. Unfortunately, at that time, the general agreement was that the cost of military intervention would outweigh whatever benefits they could hope to gain. In addition, Noriega had considerable knowledge of U.S. military and intelligence (Robinson, 190). Because Washington had no wish to be defeated as they had in previous wars during the Cold War, and Noriega was not an imminent threat, they chose to restrain themselves from using military force.

In 2006, Mexico began to crack down on drug trafficking operations in union with the United States. Why all of the sudden? In regard to that question, my paper will include a history of events leading up to this sudden crack down on drug trafficking, from its start in the 1960’s until today. After the history of the drug war, I will discuss the main states involved like the United States and Mexico itself. Along with their main goal of eliminating drug trafficking all together, although it is a very high expectation. Mexico has sent out 50,000 soldiers that are being paid less than a burrito vendor, in attempt to lessen the

The U.S decided to work with the Colombian government to establish an extradition treaty between the countries in 1979 (United States Congress ). This treaty would allow the U.S to extradite the cartel traffickers for a trial in the U.S. This caused Pablo to attack the government and this ultimately caused the Medellin cartel’s downfall. In the early 1990’s the cartel’s leaders were apprehended and the leader Pablo Escobar was killed in a firefight after having to run for his life. (PBS2).

During the early 1990’s Colombia being one of the biggest exporters of narcotics in history, led by Pablo Escobar, who had a wide range of organized crime affiliations throughout Latin America. Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and he smuggled narcotics all the way to South Florida as when authorities tried to capture him. One of Pablo Escobar’s most important alliances was that of the Mexican-based traffickers. Escobar knew that this was an important trade route because of its geography and how it would be easier to smuggle the narcotics into the United States. This allowed a smuggling partnership between both countries and Mexico was to eventually lead their own drug based trafficking system with the help of Pablo Escobar. From the distributed drugs, cartels would take a certain amount of profit, and would use that money to bribe Mexican officials. By bribing Mexican officials it was insured that if smugglers were to be arrested they would either be let go, the case would be dropped or taking action against a rival smuggling group by giving away information about the rival’s plan to carry

For many years in Medellin a civil war had occurred costing many lives between both sides of the parties concerning government and guerilla groups, later to become the Medellin Cartel (Fukuyama and Colby 2011). The war had begun and had been prolonged due to the weakness of Colombia’s national government who only commanded a small army and police all around Colombia (Fukuyama et al. 2011). It was by this that the beginning of The Medellin Cartel was able to start strong and continue a successful business. In the book Kings of Cocaine an Astonishing True Story of Murder, Money, and Corruption, authors Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen (Gugliotta and Leen 1989) name the founders of what can

The King of Cocaine, Pablo Escobar, was a Colombian drug lord who created the Medellin Cartel and was once one of Forbes’ Magazines wealthiest people (Levinthal, 2012). Pablo Escobar was born in 1949 in Colombia to a father was a peasant farmer and mother who was a school teacher (Thompson, 1996). His aspirations for a large life began when he was young and he dreamed of becoming the president of Columbia. However things changed when he realized that being legitimately wealthy would require him to be a criminal. Prior to being involved in drugs and smuggling, Pablo was a petty street thief and would steal cars (Jenish, & Wirpsa, 1993). As his criminal activity grew he would gain a name for himself on the streets that would ultimately prepare