Trump and Latin allies push rebrand of failed War on Drugs

[marmar]

Trump and Latin allies push rebrand of failed War on Drugs
Using old, failed tactics, Trump puts U.S. influence over legitimate solutions

By Garrett Owen
National Affairs Fellow
Published March 31, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) At the first summit meeting of the Shield of the Americas on March 7, more than a dozen countries in the Caribbean and Latin America signed a joint security declaration with the U.S., which called for increased cooperation on international security. The signatories agreed to “join a coalition to combat narco-terrorism” and advocated for the policy of “peace through strength.”

The Shield is President Donald Trump‘s new international coalition to combat drug cartels in the Americas — but experts say it uses old, heavy-handed tactics, with a focus more on centralized control than real results.

....(snip)....

Notably absent were Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, major players whose combined GDP accounts for 60% of Latin America’s economy. Each nation has a strained or tense relationship with the Trump administration, and all refused to join the Shield.

....(snip)....

Oswaldo Zavala, author of “Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in U.S. and Mexican Culture” and professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at the City University of New York, said the regional operations are being carried out with “no regard to law domestically or international law, or any sense of human rights and decency.”

“What you see already is the immediate and extremely dangerous policy of bombing regions without even showing any pretense of evidence that you’re actually hurting the drug trade,” Zavala told Salon. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/03/31/trumps-shield-of-the-americas-crackdown-wont-stop-drug-trafficking/

[Firestorm49]

1. Sounds familiar.

[dlilafae]

2. Oh, no! Is smoking

marijuana going to make us kill each other, resulting in our faces melting off? Again? 😄https://www.famousinreal.life/blogs/news/reefer-madness-how-this-propaganda-film-became-a-cult-classic?srsltid=AfmBOorcLMlWK3PKFijTjExcLg0vVCpttKiwbc9D0_mtmWYkwsuOiDIk