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Peter Dale Scott

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

by Peter Dale Scott (Author), Jonathan Marshall (Author)

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3.9 on Goodreads

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Now in paperback, this penetrating account of the real drug war will lead readers to demand a more thorough accounting of foreign policy. "Scott and Marshall call for immediate action to end Washington's complicity. Their heavily documented book deserves a wide audience".--Publishers Weekly.

ISBN-10

0520073126
ISBN-13

978-0520073128
Publisher

University of California Press
Publication date

April 16, 1991
Language

English
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
Print length

260 pages
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This important, explosive report forcefully argues that the "war on drugs" is largely a sham, as the U.S. government is one of the world's largest drug pushers. The authors unearth close links between the CIA and Latin American drug networks which provide U.S. covert operations with financing, political leverage and intelligence. CIA-protected Panamian ruler Manuel Noriega supplied drugs, pilots and banking services to Honduran and Costa Rican cocaine smugglers who were partners in Reagan's support program for Nicaragua's Contras. Together, Honduran and Costa Rican traffickers supplied one-third of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. in the 1980s, according to the authors. The Bush administration showers hundreds of millions of dollars on Latin American military elites in Guatemala, Colombia, etc. to enlist them in the "war on drugs." In so doing, charge the authors, the U.S. risks empowering the very forces that protect drug-pushing crime syndicates. The U.S. also gave covert aid to Afghan guerrillas who smuggled drugs in concert with Pakistan's military--an operation that produced half of the heroin consumed in the U.S. during the 1980s. Scott, a professor at UC-Berkeley, and San Francisco Chronicle economics editor Marshall call for immediate political action to end Washington's complicity. Their heavily documented book deserves a wide audience.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Coauthor Marshall's recent Drug Wars ( LJ 2/15/91) shows how Washington overlooks or supports drug trafficking as part of its efforts to thwart Third World communism around the world. This new book explores in detail the tangled connection between the Nicaraguan Contras, U.S. support for them, and drugs. Marshall and Scott argue that the United States might actually have furthered the flow of cocaine from Central America to the States by colluding with anti-Sandinista forces. Government intimidation of witnesses, a complacent Congress, and timid media have served to keep this a quiet story. Extensive interviews, government records, and secondary sources (enough, in fact, to produce over 60 pages of cited sources), are used to document in great detail how the war on communism took precedence over the war on drugs. An authoritiative account of a crucial but underpublicized issue.
- Cathy Seitz Whit aker, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press (April 16, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 260 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520073126
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520073128
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,995,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #695 in Central America History
- #3,246 in Social Services & Welfare (Books)
- #10,660 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5

50 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		19%
3 star		8%
2 star		6%
1 star		10%

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Top reviews from the United States

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thrillingwonder

eBook Should Not Be Sold

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

Great book—that is, great content. MISERABLY bad ABSURDLY inept transfer to digital format. This looks like an OCR first draft.

$2.99 should be .29 cents.

Happy to fix it for you myself guys…

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Christopher Beckwith

A Corrupted Patriotism that Trafficked in Guns and Drugs

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 17, 2004

Verified Purchase

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."

18 people found this helpful

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D_M_G

An important must read book, but a lousy e-book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

A tremendous look at an important era of which the history has been suppressed. This is a must read for students of Iran-Contra and CIA-linked drug trafficking. But this e-book is a bad, computer recognized scan job. The footnotes don't worked and there are lots of garbled words. Still readable and still worth it if you must have an ebook, but a pretty poor job of conversion by the publisher sadly.

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Nathaniel Wallace

Fantastic Read: Peter Dale Scott Delivers Another Piece of Riveting Scholarship!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

This text offers a well-written and thoroughly researched expose on the deleterious impact of U.S. foreign policy on Central America's ability to develop economies that work long-term for them; and how the CIA is able to engineer political results that maintain the status-quo of American imperial domination over the entire western hemisphere. The CIA's complicity in allowing anti-communists, and typically right-wing brutes, to distribute cocaine to fund their para-military operations and oppression of the people of Central America. The effect is a permanently marginalized population in a place such as Nicaragua; because of their hopeless dependency on U.S. aid as a means for merely surviving in this harsh economic and social landscape that has come to pass.

3 people found this helpful

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Emac

Scholarly If Circular

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

Repetitious and rambling, it is a great resource for scholars compiling research for a thesis. It is less useful for laymen attempting to simply understand the connections. If you weren't on a congressional subcommittee in the 1980s/1990s, you want to have Google up while you read.

2 people found this helpful

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Luis Carlos Ramos

Why billions in taxes did not scratch the cocaine business so far?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

I had always this question in mind and this book throws some light on it. It seems that the feds have thrown the tower and aligned to the traffickers helping them to get rid off their competitors... The point is just to control where the profit goes, no matter the cost of it as long as it serves for some political intends.

2 people found this helpful

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Ale

Must be read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 7, 2018

Read it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 3, 2009

Verified Purchase

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!

2 people found this helpful

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

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