About the author

Belen Boville

Belén Boville, a Spanish journalist working in Latin America, holds a doctorate in geography and history from the Universidad Complutense (Madrid) and a masters degree in environmental education, UNED/UNESCO (Madrid 1996). The Cocaine War (her first book to be translated into English) was originally published by Random House (Spain), and is an outgrowth of an earlier work, “Inter-American Relations Against Drugs.”She has regularly weekly columns in various newspapers in Spain, including El Correo and Marco De Jerez.

The Cocaine War

in Context: Drugs and Politics

Price range: $22.95 through $28.95

A Spanish journalist reveals what the Drug War really means: the danger it poses to the political stability of weak democracies, human rights and development, and its environmental impact.

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Sound Bite

The Cocaine War denounces the geopolitical interests behind the US 'War on Drugs' in Latin America, and shows the how Washington uses this new pretext to preserve its grip on Latin America.

About the Book

A Spanish journalist reveals what the Drug War really means: the danger it poses to the political stability of weak democracies, human rights and development, and its environmental impact. In an important and desperately needed alternative view on the 'war on drugs,' Boville explores in depth the relationship between the United States and Latin America, explaining the political need of the US government to develop a useful tool to extend American authority after the Cold War. She depicts Andean society and the cocaine culture, with all of the social, political, environmental and economic changes brought about by drug trafficking, and provides essential information on how the Drug War currently works, in order to predict what the future may hold. The book has proven widely popular in Spanish, especially in Latin America. In the complex web of today's politics, this courageous and intelligent text offers an objective, critical look at all aspects influencing the war on drugs. Bibliography, Index RELEVANT ACADEMIC COURSES: Political Science, International Relations, History, Economics, Latin American Studies, Anthropology. Other works on this topic are mostly anecdotal; none of them provides an historic and environmental perspective and none gives importance to international relations as this book does. This is an essay about the past and the future, useful for academic purposes but also for general information about the current drug war in Colombia, Mexico, PerÃ??Ã??º, Bolivia and the United States.

Information

Sound Bite The Cocaine War denounces the geopolitical interests behind the US "War on Drugs" in Latin America, and shows the how Washington uses this new pretext to preserve its grip on Latin America

About the Book

Spanish journalist Belén Boville offers one of the most clear-eyed critiques of the US "War on Drugs" you're likely to find — one that goes far beyond the usual debate about legalization versus prohibition. Drawing on years of academic research rooted in her doctoral work at Universidad Complutense and fieldwork across Latin America, Boville argues that Washington's drug war is fundamentally a geopolitical tool, a way of maintaining American influence in the region after the Cold War removed the convenient pretext of fighting communism.

The book traces US drug policy from its Puritanical roots and early prohibitionist laws — passed, Boville notes, without proper parliamentary debate — through the McCarthy era and into the modern militarized campaigns in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. She examines the Andean coca culture with genuine depth, showing how cocaine trafficking reshaped entire societies economically, politically, and environmentally, often with devastating consequences for local communities and fragile democracies.

What makes this book stand out is Boville's insistence on connecting the dots between American foreign policy interests, international drug control agencies like the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and the human rights abuses that flow from aerial eradication programs and military interventions. She doesn't let the drug cartels off the hook, but her real target is the hypocrisy of a policy that causes enormous harm in Latin America while doing little to reduce cocaine use in the United States. Originally a bestseller in Spanish, this English translation brings a vital outside perspective to one of the most contested policy debates in the Americas.

Additional information

Weight N/A
Book Type Ebook, Hard cover, Soft cover
Pages

220

Release Year

LC Classification

HV5840.L3B6913

Dewey code

363.45'dc22

BISAC I

POL000000

BISAC II

HIS033000

BISAC III

SOC000000

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