Customer Reviews

Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America

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2 star:		(1)
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This incredible volume was one of the first things I read when I began researching the issue of Contra cocaine trafficking for the San Jose Mercury News in 1995. To call the experience an eye-opener is a major understatement. Cocaine Politics not only confirmed to me that the Contra-drug link was for real, but that it was just a small part of an even more insidious picture: a secret and practically invisible world where intelligence operatives and criminals collude, wreak havoc, and almost always escape prosecution and accountability. When a producer from Dateline NBC, which did a show about my Dark Alliance series, asked me for recommended reading material on this issue, I unhesitatingly recommended Cocaine Politics. His reaction afterwards was memorable: "This is the most amazing book I've ever read. How come I've never heard any of this stuff before?" The answer is pretty obvious once you read this book. If the American public ever got wind of this story, our country and our government would never be the same again.

This book has all the possibilities of being an academic pot boiler. Divided into two parts, "Right-Wing Narcoterrorism, the CIA, and the Contras," and "Exposure and Cover-Up" and covering twelve chapters, including a glossary of terms, the book is one part investigative journalism and another academic treatise. In general, the book details the toleration or complicity of the American government with drug traffickers to protect the interests of national security or covert operations.
The book has a number of advantages and disadvantages. First, while perhaps a moot point is that a considerable amount of discussion focuses on South America rather than on Central America as promised in the title. Second, and perhaps an editorial point, while there is a four-and-a- half page glossary of names and organizations at the back of the book, there is a sort of breathless spouting off of a succession of names and organizations in the book. This is distracting and tiresome for the reader. Third, even though there is a phenomenal amount of documentation (i.e., approximately 23 percent of the book (a total of 64 pages) is devoted to notes) and a 14-page index, the authors rely on the same basic sources, including Kerry's subcommittee report and american and mainstream newspaper and magazine coverage; few articles come from the spanish speaking press, and few interviews are conducted with sources. Fourth, while the book is highly descriptive and reads like a murder mystery, it is short on analysis, theory building or testing, and/or recommending policy changes. Regardless, this book is a disturbing and sobering necessity for those wishing to understand the so-called war on drugs in the United States and the reasons U.S. foreign policy in Latin America is problematic, a best.

Jeffrey Ian Ross

Good reading.

The book gives an account of the dirty tricks involving Oliver North, the State Department and the Justice Department regarding the Central American activities.

The use of cocaine to finance the contra activities is well documented with opinions and lots of factual information.

Even the Israeli involvement in the central american politics is mentioned. Not to mention about the references to the Argentine hold over the Contras during the early phase of the war.

Although at times I have felt, there is too much of factual information to digest.

This is a densely packed book that serves more as a collation of other sources - the exhaustive task of assembling it was no small feat and much thanks is to be given to Mr. Scott and Mr. Marshall for doing so. The story of drug corruption south of the border during the seventies and eighties is an epic of near mind- numbing detail, with dozens of story lines and characters intersecting at multiple junctures. This is, admittedly, no easy read, nor, for that matter, is the violence and corruption the book describes easy to stomach. But if we are to understand anything about the drug wars, aside from our government's own culpability, we must recognize how the US's unending appetite for narcotics is an integral part - if not extension - of our Cold War legacy. Forget the sanctimonious anti-drug bumper sticker slogans. Cocaine Politics shows us the Big Lie behind the fatuous eighties era motto of "Just say no."

I recommend this engrossing account of secret power struggles in Central America during the 1970's and 1980's. Reading this book was enlightening, and more than a little disturbing. I think few people realize how incredibly corrupt the CIA has been throughout its history.

The authors ordered chapters logically, with several sub-sections to break up the reading. The research is impeccable -- there are extensive notes referencing authoritative sources.

The only significant flaw is the writing style which is hard to follow at times. Imagine reading a novel which has dozens of characters, some of whom never show up again. The authors do not bother to explain in detail many of the people introduced in the book. I would have appreciated better summaries and background information.

Most Americans will not want to believe the contents of this book. Scott & Marshall compile mountains of evidence to support their conclusions. This book deserves more attention.

I wouldn't say the book needs better editing. Some people may find the sheer amount of names and information presented to be cumbersome. I think the information could have been presented better by the authors, laying out facts and relationships between major parties involved such that the material is better digested by the casual reader. But this is my only criticism, otherwise this work is superb.

It is also frightening. This is a well documented, scholarly work; there is nothing here to point the dismissing charge of `conspiracy theory'. There are nearly 100 pages of references, and a great amount of this is from congressional testimony during the Kerry commission. The book documents how the CIA permitted, and one could say sanctioned, drug smuggling to reward American allies during the Contra wars against Nicaragua. The CIA did not seem to care that the drugs were destined for the US. Where was the DEA in all of this? The DEA office in Honduras was closed down after a year of operations. They could do nothing so they closed the office down. Whatever investigation leads they had were connected to the CIA, so they just quietly moved away. The authors also suggest that the DEA had information about certain drug shipments, but just looked the other way.

Meanwhile the Reagan administration, in order to bolster support for their illegal war, tried to misinform the American public by saying the Nicaraguans and Cubans were engaged in `narcoterrorism'. In classic doublespeak, Reagan told us that the evil communists were trying to peddle drugs on American streets in order to destroy us. What liars! They knew full well where the drugs were coming from. Reagan's poor memory came to his rescue, he should have been impeached.

The authors suggest that using drug smuggling as an instrument of foreign policy seemed blase to Washington, like it was nothing shocking or new. For example, heroin smuggling was a major part of the reason for the involvement in Vietnam. So maybe oil isn't the reason for the current US involvement in Afghanistan. It just happens to be the biggest opium producing region in the world..

This book provides a well-documented and comprehensive study of US involvement with drug runners and drug lords in the Central American countries of Panama, Guatemela, Honduras, etc... The book shows how this involvement was run by the executive branch of the US federal govt, often with minimal knowledge or consent by the American people, Congress, or the citizens of the Central American countries. Many of these interventions transgressed US and international law, and most likely broke laws in the local countries of action.

The goal of these interventions was to prevent the spread of communism in the area, regardless of whether the local communists were imports from Cuba/USSR or homegrown products. Specifically, Central America was formerly part of the Spanish empire. During this subjugation, society throughout the region became stratified into a land-holding minority, and a tenant majority. After WWII, many of these nations saw popular uprisings by the lower classes intent on wealth (land) redistribution. This smacked of communism, and the US government would not have any of this. Therefore, one US president after another ordered the CIA to provide arms, funding, training, and other support to groups in the region that promised to fight communists. Often times these groups were involved in the drug trade.

The result was that elected governments and local economies throughout the region were undermined by well-trained and well-armed drug lords backed and funded by the CIA. This destroyed these nations, and allowed drug lords in latin america to enter the US market. The result, a drug war on American streets.

The subject matter of the book is very important, unfortunately the text is poorly written. The book is essentially one fact (person, place, event) after another, and I easily got bogged down in the text trying to swallow all the data being presented. The book should have been edited better; specifically, half as many facts in a book twice as long would have made for a simpler and more digestable read.

Excellent book, responsibly written, clear and readable. The information in it is highly important if you want to understand what is going on. Just buying a second copy because my first got lent.

I just ordered this for my roommate for a project he is doing at Appalachian State University. The only thing he had to say about the book was thanks so I guess it is serving his purpose!