NCJ Number
120968
Journal
International Journal on Drug Policy Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (September/October 1989) Pages: 10-12
Date Published
1989
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Miami, along with Los Angeles, anchors the political economy of cocaine in the United States; but unlike Los Angeles, Miami is the undisputed domain of the producer nations.
Abstract
Latin culture, language, and history dominate Miami's finances, banking, real estate, municipal administration, and law enforcement. All come together in Miami to do essentially Latin American business. The recent revelations about the involvement of top-ranking Cuban officers in cocaine trafficking help to complete a picture of the geopolitical character of the drug trade and reaffirm the capacity of the cocaine trade to penetrate every political arrangement and bend human affairs to its own purposes. Ideology, national boundaries, and political loyalties are often secondary to the economic enticements of the cocaine trade. The offer by the cocaine barons of Colombia to repay the national debt in exchange for the ability to operate freely came close to being accepted by a government which can barely maintain sovereignty in the country. Likewise, in Peru, the neo-Maoist Sendero Luminoso insurgency has made an alliance with Andian cocaine producers and local growers to get capital sufficient to acquire heavy weaponry and seize control of 50 percent of the nation, virtually isolating Lima, its capital. 5-item bibliography.