University:
University of Wyoming
Course:
POLS4445 | Drug War Geopolitics in the Americas
Academic year:

2023
Views:

254

Pages:

1
Author:

Allison B.

Introduction: What are some of Tate’s “methodological dilemmas”? What insights into the research process do you gain from this chapter? Tate establishes that she intends to examine the policy in Columbia in this book through an anthropological method to “understand the cultural assumptions and frameworks central to this US foreign policy program, as well as resistance to it.” (13) This provides insight that the book will focus on US perceived norms and objectives as well as the opinions of those in Columbia to examine Plan Columbia and its ramfiicaitons. A “methodological dilemmas” is embedded ethnography/anthropolgy. Tate examines how different access to resources and information “can become entanglements, producing not just access and empathy but also alienation and estrangement.” (16) Chapter 1: How have counternarcotics policies changed the role of the US military? Counternarcotics policies have “ militarization… and military expansion in Latin America” (55). Tate builds on the notion that the violence created by illicit activity in turn “justified” the use of militarized force in Columbia. Tate states, “Drug policy is one of many arenas of social and political life that has become dominated by military logics” (55), response to illicit activities in Columbia and other Latin American countries isn’t met by dipolomatic reasoning, but with a military response. Chapter 2: What were the unintended consequences of the Leahy Law in The Leahy Law (passed 1997) put pressure on the Columbian military to abide by human rights law or else they would lose US military assistance. The consequences of this law include: a fear of Procuraduria Syndrome as well as Colombian claims of discrimination and wrongful demotions based from “politically motivated charges of misconduct.” (91) Chapter 3: How and why does Tate view the paramilitaries as a form of proxy violence for the state? Simply put, Tate views paramilitaries as a form of proxy violence because they are funded from the state and carry out their objectives. Through the privitization of state security forces like mercenaries and private guards these forces are “used as the foundation of counterinsurgency efforts, operating outside the law but unofficially sanctioned by the state.” (84). In a way, this allowed the Colomubian government to not abide by the Leahy Law through proxy paramilitary groups. Chapter 4: Why does the chapter have this title? Putumayans (and Coloumbians more broadly) according to Tate “frequently described their experiences [as such] … civilian state officials and local residents understood themselves to be subject to the machinations of distant, powerful forces that shoped daily life and the political possibilities in their region.” (109) Different laws from the Columbian government, regional governments, and the influence of the US and other international and non-state actors made the laws many and confusing.