Description
Drawing a portrait of the rampant violence that characterizes the decades old Colombian civil war, Kirk (a researcher for Human Rights Watch) links American drug consumption and U.S. government policy to the spiral of violence carried out by government-linked paramilitaries and rebel guerillas. Although she takes the American government's proclamations about it's intentions in Colombia at face value, she condemns the so-called "war on drugs" as an abject failure. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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The estimated 6 million Americans who use cocaine and heroin spend at least $46 billion a year on the drugs. For the past two decades, the United States government has spent more than $7 billion a year to destroy the coca and poppy plants used to manufacture cocaine and heroin, to prevent the illegal drugs from arriving in the U.S., and prosecute those who traffic in them. Yet these drugs are cheaper and more plentiful than ever. The "war on drugs" is a spectacular failure.At first, the effects of America's drug consumption on Colombia were mainly visible in the lavish lifestyles of a few kingpins, an increasingly corrupt political process, and the many lives cut short as a result of the violence linked to drug trafficking. Now, illegal armies from the political left and right are prime beneficiaries, and they use drug cash to equip thousands of troops to fight over the spoils. Massacres have become a daily horror, and no place in the country is truly safe. Caught in the crossfire are most Colombians, who are simply trying to stay alive.More Terrible Than Death is an invaluable history lesson about the U.S. role in the conflict and a gripping narrative about the Colombian lives most affected by the violence. It is vital reading for anyone interested in Latin America or the emerging war on terrorism and its links to America's drug policy.
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