According to Restless Mania, the election of Morales in Bolivia is the beginning of the end.
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More here from the Poliblogger.
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[…] Update 2: John Cole says the U.S. has lost the “war” anyhow. His post points to this one, where the author says: As if Hugo Chavez didn’t give Washington enough headaches, Morales will probably make him look warm and cuddly. An avowed socialist who plans to make cocaine production easier will certainly make the entire regional dynamic the U.S. has been trying to put in place in Latin America fall to pieces. The surge of cocaine will be hard to stop, and without the cooperation of the producer it’s unlikely that the U.S. will be able to get anywhere without relying on border protections (already pathetically inadequate). […]
srv
Outstanding. I’m hearing that folks are trying to overturn the drinking age blackmail on the states by Congress.
May we lose all the wars on nouns.
Jorge
If you look at Bolivia, you see a very poor country that is very capable of producing a product that the wealthiest nation in the world consumes by the boatload. The promise of cocaine subsidized socialism probably sounds pretty good to the poor of the country. And of course, we seeing and will continue to see the same kinds of developments in Afghanistan with herion.
This is why messing with the socio-econo-political future of a region isn’t anywhere nearly as easy as the neo-cons would have you believe. Last year, Cheney and co. were touting the Reagan policies in South America as some indication of the wonders that we would create in the Middle East. All I could think is – Do these folks have any idea what is going on in South America?
DonJunior
John – your trackbacks seem to be down, so here’s the next best thing: DEA Leads Largest Steroid Bust in History
– D
John Cole
Your trackback is right above…
The Captain of the O
What’s the over-under on how long it takes this guy to slip in the shower and accidentally slit both his wrists?
DonJunior
Yeah – looks like it showed up about 1.2 seconds after I left the comment :-)
Feel free to delete, if you like.
– D
Steve S
He came to power because a few years ago the US encouraged/forced Bolivia to crack down on Cocaine producers. As a result, the farmers of Bolivia have lost their source of income and are pissed off.
His promise is, to allow farmers to take to market the product that is most profitable for them. i.e. Cocaine.
What’s interesting is he’s being called a socialist, when clearly this policy is one of encouraging free market Capitalism.
Of course the US response will be to try to have the guy assassinated, therefor guaranteeing that we’re hated in Bolivia even more. God Bless Democracy! Er, uhhh… *cough*…
Steve S
I wonder if trying to restrict the production of Cocaine has worked… again simple economics of supply and demand says by restricting production we make it all the more profitable.
that being said, the main failure of US policy with Bolivia was not restricting cocaine production, but not giving them an alternative to make money.
Perry Como
The bad new is Negroponte is leaving his ambassadorship in Iraq. The good news is he is taking up an ambassadorship in Bolivia.
Ozymandius
Commence eyeroll in 3…2…1…
Anyways, for a slightly different look at it check out http://www.poliblogger.com/ and scroll down a little.
Jorge
Ozymandius –
Good link. And yes, like hemp, there are quite a few uses for the cocoa leaf that don’t involve getting wasted. However, an ounce of cocaine is worth more than an ounce of gold. So, while the Bolivians might have many non-drug related domestic uses for cocaine, it seems hard to believe that it will be used for much else other than nose candy as an export.
Barry
Jorge Says:
“If you look at Bolivia, you see a very poor country that is very capable of producing a product that the wealthiest nation in the world consumes by the boatload. The promise of cocaine subsidized socialism probably sounds pretty good to the poor of the country. And of course, we seeing and will continue to see the same kinds of developments in Afghanistan with herion.”
What socialism? It’s the free market; read an abstracted version of the first sentence to any believer in the Market, and he/she will tell you to expect that poor country to produce a whole lot of that substance.
“This is why messing with the socio-econo-political future of a region isn’t anywhere nearly as easy as the neo-cons would have you believe. Last year, Cheney and co. were touting the Reagan policies in South America as some indication of the wonders that we would create in the Middle East. All I could think is – Do these folks have any idea what is going on in South America?”
From Cheney & Co’s point of view, probably ‘not enough mass murder’. Remember, they were raised on the US sponsoring the killings of God knows how many people, in most of those countries.
DougJ
How long until Pat Robertson recommends that we assassinate this guy?
Don
Well Lord knows it would be a giant fucking tragedy if we spent all that money on education and treatment rather than incarceration and foreign meddling. Think of all the prison guards who would be out of work.
If we really want to fuck this guy over we won’t have him killed, we’ll legalize everything. Prices would plummet and he’d have to come up with some other way to support the country. The fact that it would remove most of the violent drug crime in our own country could just be viewed as icing on the cake.
p.lukasiak
hell, we didn’t lose the war on drugs with this election, we surrendered when we decided that the drug lords of Afghanistan were our allies in the “war on terror.” Of course, Bushco didn’t care about massively increasing heroin production in Afghanistan — smack is a “ghetto” drug, and Bush is notorious for not giving a flying fuck about poor/black people.
PotVsKtl
The “socialist” part comes in when you stop focusing on cheap quality blow (I understand this is difficult) and read the rest of his statements, specifically about nationalizing the natural gas supply of his country. I’ve got $50 dude doesn’t last a year.
Steve S
Nay. He said he’s going to demand more money for the natural gas. I can’t find anywhere where he said he is going to nationalize the companies.
Again, that’s pretty much capitalism.
Now where we may have socialism is if this plan results in the people receiving checks from the government rather than being encouraged to start up private industry.
But again the article indicates he is giong to use the increased moneyes from gas sales to improve infrastructure and schools. Again, an important aspect of a capitalistic society and to be applauded.
We’ll see. I don’t know how much of a pain he’ll be, but since he is Democratically elected we ought not to try to have him assassinated.
PotVsKtl
Eh…
The Disenfranchised Voter
Call me a “defeatist” all you want. We should retreat from the War on Drugs.
I’d gladly wave the white flag for that ridiculous war.
Bob In Pacifica
Losing the drug war? Depends on what side you’re on.
Here in California, it used to be that benign hippies up in the North Country would grow their weed and sell it. Then the government got involved and started waging a war on the farms up there. To get around having their property seized, they started growing on public lands, which led to the occasional hiker getting shot at while traipsing through a national forest. When it got too hot and too many hippies got arrested and sent away for long sentences, a more criminal element moved in.
Of course, twenty years into the war on marijuana here in Cali you’ve got Mexican drug cartels who get around smuggling weed across the border by growing it here on public lands, posting illegals with guns to guard.
So stupid.
capelza
Well hell….does this mean I could buy cocaine and NOT feel guilty about the violence and corruption anymore? Not that I would, just that I could…:P
I agree with Bob in Pacifica, except as a former Humboldt County resident, I can personally attest that the bad element came in earlier than you say. They made life hell for the old time locals, and brought in the violence. Though quite a few local “horticuluralists” still are involved. Er….so I have heard…
MAX HATS
You’re an idiot.
rachel
We’ve lost the war on drugs? Does this mean that the people that are making wads of money because their product is untaxed and has been made artificially scarce have won?
John S.
We’ve lost the war on drugs precisely because people are making untaxable wads of cash off an artificially scarce product.
A friend of mine did a thesis paper for his MBA on how much money the government stood to make if they regulated the narcotics industry. The cost benefits alone were staggering.
Derek Flint
Face it, the majority of Bolivians are poor people of native descent. They have been getting screwed over for years now, really centuries. Most recently they have been effed over by world bank and WTO policies adopted by their goverment encouraging free markets and privatization. They were promised these policies would make things better for them but in reality have done nothing for them, worse than nothing. The same is true for a lot of countries in South America. Now these people are fed up with the bullshit and are making a change.
Democracy at work.
John S.
In the modern Republican view, Democracy only works when the people unanimously agree to be just like America and pledge eternal fealty to us.
Graham Shevlin
Yes, well “Democracy” when applied outside of the USA is really what the advisers to the Bush Administration say it is at any point in time. Rather like the U.S. Constitution…