How U.S. Policy Drives Latin America's Homicides

The United States is hurting instead of helping.

The Washington Post published this interesting editorial yesterday about Latin America's homicide plague: It is the planet's most homicidal region, a problem which the author blames on poor governance.

The editorial board is half correct. When parties in dispute lack confidence in the legal system, or

A homicide scene in Mexico, where much of
the violence is driven by the illegal drug trade.
(Photo: The Economist)

when the legal system doesn't fulfill its role of punishing criminals, then its more likely for people to turn to violence.

But the people in dispute also need a motive to turn to violence, and the commentry left out that part. After all, large parts of Africa and Asia also lack rule of law and functioning legal systems, but generally don't suffer from the same levels of violence as Latin America. What's the difference?

The difference is that Latin America is ground zero for much of the world's illegal drug trade. Narcotraffickers by nature cannot use the legal system, so they often turn to violence. Needless to say, if buying and selling cocaine and marijuana were not illegal, then they'd be traded by legal companies, which would sue each other instead of shooting.

Add in the fact that Latin American criminal groups have relatively easy access to firearms purchased in the United States and you have a lethal mix.

Before trying to help Latin America, the United States could stop hurting the region.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Blaming Colombia

A Colombian coca leaf farmer. Guilty for cocaine
consumption boom? 

This not-so-recent Washington Post article about the boom in Colombian coca leaf/cocaine production places the blame on Colombia for the reported big increase in U.S. cocaine consumption.

'U.S. officials say the flood of cheap Colombian product is so large that it has quietly created its own demand,' says the Post.

At first glance, that seems to make sense: More supply generally means lower prices and higher sales.

But many cocaine consumers are addicts, making the market somewhat inelastic. More importantly, according to Tom Wainwright, a former correspondent in Mexico for The Economist who wrote a recent book about narcotics economics called 'Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel', around 2016 a ton of coca leaves that sold for $500 in Colombia retailed for $150,000 on a U.S. street.

Causing U.S. consumption? A Colombian coca field. 

That's a 30,000% mark-up - which is pretty good.

So, virtually all of cocaine's final price comes from the trouble, expense and danger of shipping the stuff across oceans, dodging bullets, hiding it in secret compartments, bribing officials, and paying people to risk prison. The farming cost is such an insignificant proportion that even if Colombian cocalers gave their leaves away for free, it wouldn't make a noticeable difference to buyers in New York or Los Angeles.

Colombian production hasn't caused U.S. consumption to rise. Internal U.S. factors, such as a strong economy, social stresses, unemployment and others are to blame for that.

And that is why all the billions of dollars and innumerable lives expended in the war on drugs have been for almost nothing.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours