Revisiting the Supposed Success of Plan Colombia
America has spent over $13 billion over the past two decades on Plan Colombia, a policy aimed at combating drug trafficking and a violent anti-government insurgency in #Colombia. Yet, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, #cocaine production in Colombia is at its highest levels since the United States began Plan Colombia in 2000. Many rural areas are also experiencing record levels of #violence and #displacement. Colombia’s new left-wing president Gustavo Petro has called the U.S.-backed war on drugs a failure. Even so, the United States considers Plan Colombia a major foreign policy success. Why? EGF traveled to Colombia to find out.
This post is part of Independent America, a research project led out by EGF senior fellow Mark Hannah, which seeks to explore how U.S. foreign policy could better be tailored to new global realities and to the preferences of American voters.
