It’s called “disaster capitalism,” that merger of U.S. military and economic interests in another country while taking advantage of another problem. When people say that the war on drugs has been a bumbling disaster, they may be missing the point. Wars like Vietnam or the “War on Drugs” are not failures to those making the money.
“The Truthout on the Mexican Border series has noted that more than 50,000 persons have been killed since the outgoing Mexican President, Felipe Calderón, launched the escalation of law enforcement and military attacks on drug cartels in 2006, at the behest of the United States. But most of those murdered and injured are widely considered civilian collateral damage, as are the minimum of 10,000 missing persons and the more than 180,000 (primarily indigenous) Mexicans displaced by the conflict.
As a result of this record of destruction left in the wake of the US-declared war on drugs, Paley speculated that there may be other unstated goals at work, particularly US military hegemony through surrogate armies (and paramilitary forces) in Latin America that help facilitate economic “free trade” expansion for transnational corporations.” -Mark Karlin, Truthout