4 ms·

In the past, I believe the U.S. would not have allowed this. And the U.S. has some very "persuasive" mechanisms to not allow Latin American countries to do thin

In the past, I believe the U.S. would not have allowed this. And the U.S. has some very "persuasive" mechanisms to not allow Latin American countries to do things, in explicit or implicit, overt or covert ways. I am no fan of the Trump administration, but honestly they should have tried this while Trump was still in office, they would have had more chance of getting away with it. For whatever reason "drugs" never really became one of Trumps hot button issues (which kind of surprised me; it used to be a right-wing trigger, but apparently is no longer?), and the Trump administration didn't see to care at all about traditional U.S. foreign policy objectives (for good or ill; in this case it would be for good), or anything that wasn't one of his hot-button issues.

hackeraccount 6y ago
The U.S.? Do you think China would like this? Even Europe? You think Europe would be gung ho for a bunch of Columbian cocaine rolling into their country? Really? Maybe Columbia will legalize but I would tend to think 95% of the rest of the world will say "we're going to make importing it illegal" and after that the Columbian government is going to have a lot of people knocking on their door asking them to help stop Columbians who are exporting to places that don't want it. And when they either can't or won't do that there are going to be consequences. But who knows. Maybe it'll all work out. I don't think so though and I don't think it's just a matter of U.S. thinking it a bad idea.
- jrochkind1 6y ago
  Importing it is already illegal in most of the world (including the US, Europe, and China), that would not be something the rest of the world has to do, it's already done. Perhaps Columbia is hoping it will change. The U.S. is historically the actor with the desire and power to enforce this sort of thing on Latin America, with both carrot and stick. Other countries can decide they care and want to try to enforce it (although the U.S. is the powerful country that's closest to Latin America). I'm not sure if I'd expect them to try or not, really. One example of what the U.S. has done is require toxic spraying of coca crop in Columbia, even though it causes health and pollution problems. In some cases it's even U.S. planes doing it, whether Columbia likes it or not (how would anyone else like it if a foreign country insisted on their right to spray toxic chemicals without permission?) But googling for a cite for that... I see I was wrong about the Trump administration, they actually were trying to force Columbia to start doing the spraying again. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-drugs/colombia-will-have-to-restart-aerial-spraying-to-destroy-coca-trump-idUSKBN20P2WT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-drugs/colombia-w...

hackeraccount 6y ago

The U.S.? Do you think China would like this? Even Europe? You think Europe would be gung ho for a bunch of Columbian cocaine rolling into their country? Really? Maybe Columbia will legalize but I would tend to think 95% of the rest of the world will say "we're going to make importing it illegal" and after that the Columbian government is going to have a lot of people knocking on their door asking them to help stop Columbians who are exporting to places that don't want it. And when they either can't or won't do that there are going to be consequences. But who knows. Maybe it'll all work out. I don't think so though and I don't think it's just a matter of U.S. thinking it a bad idea.

jrochkind1 6y ago
Importing it is already illegal in most of the world (including the US, Europe, and China), that would not be something the rest of the world has to do, it's already done. Perhaps Columbia is hoping it will change. The U.S. is historically the actor with the desire and power to enforce this sort of thing on Latin America, with both carrot and stick. Other countries can decide they care and want to try to enforce it (although the U.S. is the powerful country that's closest to Latin America). I'm not sure if I'd expect them to try or not, really. One example of what the U.S. has done is require toxic spraying of coca crop in Columbia, even though it causes health and pollution problems. In some cases it's even U.S. planes doing it, whether Columbia likes it or not (how would anyone else like it if a foreign country insisted on their right to spray toxic chemicals without permission?) But googling for a cite for that... I see I was wrong about the Trump administration, they actually were trying to force Columbia to start doing the spraying again. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-drugs/colombia-will-have-to-restart-aerial-spraying-to-destroy-coca-trump-idUSKBN20P2WT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-drugs/colombia-w...