Drug War Capitalism

by Dawn Paley

Overview

Though pillage, profit, and plunder have been a mainstay of war since pre-colonial times, there is little contemporary focus on the role of finance and economics in today's "Drug Wars"—despite the fact that they boost US banks and fill prisons with poor people. They feed political campaigns, increase the arms trade, and function as long-term fixes to capitalism's woes, cracking open new territories to privatization and foreign direct investment.

Combining on-the-ground reporting with extensive research, Dawn Paley moves beyond the usual horror stories, beyond journalistic rubbernecking and hand-wringing, to follow the thread of the Drug War story throughout the entire region of Latin America and all the way back to US boardrooms and political offices. This unprecedented book chronicles how terror is used against the population at large in cities and rural areas, generating panic and facilitating policy changes that benefit the international private sector, particularly extractive industries like petroleum and mining. This is what is really going on. This is drug war capitalism.

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist who has been reporting from South America, Central America, and Mexico for over ten years. Her writing has been published in the Nation, the Guardian, Vancouver Sun, Globe and Mail, Ms. magazine, the Tyee, Georgia Straight, and NACLA, among others.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849351935
Publisher:	AK PR INC
Publication date:	12/09/2014
Pages:	225
Sales rank:	510,343
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist who has been reporting from South America, Central America and Mexico for over 10 years. Her writing has been published in magazines and newspapers in Canada, the US and elsewhere. Prior to writing Drug War Capitalism, Dawn's work focussed on the impacts of the extractive industries. She is an editor with the Media Co-op and is dedicated to supporting independent and grassroots media. Dawn has a Masters in Journalism from the University of British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Foreword Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera 1

Chapter 1 Drug War Capitalism 11

Chapter 2 Defining the Drug War 39

Chapter 3 A Look South to Colombia 53

Chapter 4 Mexico's Drug War Reforms 83

Chapter 5 Plan Mexico and Militarization 109

Chapter 6 Mexico, Paramilitarization & the Drug War 139

Chapter 7 Drug War Capitalism in Guatemala 169

Chapter 8 Drug War Capitalism in Honduras 193

Conclusion Thinking Through Peace in Wartime 219

Acknowledgments 225

Notes 229

Index 265