Globalist Takeaway: The Drug War and its Consequences in the U.S. and Latin America

by Margaret Zhang:

“Contradiction” was the word of the night as World Fellow Ana Paula Hernández continued the on-campus dialogue on the presence and effect of drug cartels in Latin America.

Her discussion revolved around the seemingly causal dichotomy between the United States’ demand for drugs and the lack of income in many Latin American drug-producing countries.

The night began with an abridged screening of the movie Not On the Label, a film which investigates what Latin American countries are doing in order to prevent cocaine production, and also what America is doing in order to slash cocaine demand.

For example, according to the film, many drug mules in Latin America are single mothers who have no way to support their family. The threat of jail isn’t effective, as jail oftentimes provides amenities that the prisoners otherwise wouldn’t have due to such extreme poverty. Thus, in order to stem cocaine production, countries must provide opportunities for citizens to have economic opportunities.

Additionally, according to the film, American police officers brought up the idea of decriminalizing drugs as a means to combat drug violence. By reducing the risk around the drugs, costs will go down, in turn reducing aggression.

It was this latter theme that drew the most comments from the attendees of the event in the discussion that followed the movie.

Ana Paula Hernández listened and bantered with attendees from Yale and from all around the world as they brought up issues such as regulation of drugs, the role of government in protecting its citizens, the role of moralistic high grounds and stigmatization in America’s fight against drugs, and even the social services drug cartels can provide (according to an attendee, in one Latin American country, the best hospital in the nation is rooted deeply with one drug cartel).

The tossing around of contradictory statements amongst attendees and Hernández underlined just how complicated the drug trafficking dialogue really is.

Margaret Zhang ’14 is a freshman in Berkeley College. Contact her at margaret.zhang@yale.edu.