Has the War on Drugs failed? After five decades of combating drug traffickers, Latin American allies who bore the brunt of the drug-fueled violence claim that counternarcotics efforts have not achieved any significant results. Critics say the effort cost a lot—perhaps as much as a trillion dollars according to one scholar—and has produced very little for the investment. In this blog post, Professor Patrick J. Paterson examines this complicated issue. 

The United States is frequently criticized for its mixed record of human rights in Latin America. During the Cold War, we actively supported non-democratic leaders in the region (in some cases, tyrants who murdered thousands of their own citizens) as long as they supported Washington’s policies of communist containment. Additionally, although most countries in the region have ratified international human rights treaties, we've refused to join international or regional human rights treaties, including the American Declaration of Human Rights.