Although the war on drugs is objectively a failure here in the United States and in Mexico, where petty drug related infractions have resulted in millions of minorities incarcerated in America while prescription drug abuse skyrockets, and where too-big-to-fail banks such as Wachovia and HSBC have been charged with drug-money laundering, the U.S. government now wants to export the strategically engineered lawlessness to Africa.
The New York Times reports that the U.S. is expanding the drug war to Africa, just as the continent seems, with China’s help, to be on the road to recovering from the cancerous ills of colonialism and post-colonial Western/Middle Eastern industrial, agricultural and socio-political sabotage. The States have reportedly begun training an elite group of anti-drug police in Ghana and is planning similar units in other countries in a bid to combat Latin American cartels allegedly smuggling cocaine into Europe.
A top Drug Enforcement Administration official said Africa is seen as “the new frontier in terms of counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues.” The West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative will reportedly bring a model used in Central America and Mexico to 15 African countries. Despite facing widespread criticism for being costly and largely ineffective, the U.S.-led war on drugs has also seen an earlier expansion in Central America. Most recently, DEA agents have come under scrutiny for being involved in at least three fatal shootings in Honduras.