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Explicit Narcotization: U.S. Policy Toward Colombia During the Samper Administration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Russell Crandall
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Abstract

Suspecting that his electoral campaign had received contributions from the Cali drug cartel, the U.S. government considered Colombian president Ernesto Samper (1994–98) an enemy in the drug war. U.S. antidrug policy accordingly targeted not just illicit crop cultivation, traffickers, and money laundering but also the democratically elected president himself. In many ways, U.S. policy became obsessed with bringing down Samper, an “explicit narcotization” that had severe consequences for the two countries' relationship. This case study analyzes the often complex interactions between dominant and subordinate states, especially when the dominant state's involvement in the subordinate state is driven by domestic political concerns.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , Fall 2001 , pp. 95 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2001

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