Mountain High, White Avalanche: Cocaine and Power in the Andean States and Panama

(Paperback)

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The Latin American drug trade has become one of the major problems confronting the United States in the late 20th century. The key dynamic of that trade is cocaine, which is primarily produced in the Andean nations of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. The cocaine trade's influence, however, has spread outwards into other Andean states - Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela. Moreover, countries on the Andean periphery, such as Panama, have become enmeshed in the trade as transit points and money-laundering centres. This book examines the cocaine trade in the Andean states and Panama with a special emphasis given to the relationship between cocaine and power, or stated in another fashion: what are the linkages between the political and economic power of those in the cocaine trade, the narcotraficantes, and the governments in the region Important parts of this issue are the "drug-insurgency nexus" and the significance of the debt crisis. Although the book concentrates on the structure of the cocaine industry in the Andean states and Panama, the final chapters offer policy options on how to contend with the problem.

Reviews

A study examines the structure of the cocaine trade in the Andean nations-Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela-and in Panama. Linkages are explored between the political and economic power of those in the cocaine trade-the 'narcotraficantes'-and the governments in the region. Policy options are assessed.-Criminal Justice Abstracts
MacDonald looks at the connection between drugs and terrorism in South American and Panama. The last chapter views policy operations for the U.S.-Booknotes
"MacDonald looks at the connection between drugs and terrorism in South American and Panama. The last chapter views policy operations for the U.S."-Booknotes
"A study examines the structure of the cocaine trade in the Andean nations-Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela-and in Panama. Linkages are explored between the political and economic power of those in the cocaine trade-the 'narcotraficantes'-and the governments in the region. Policy options are assessed."-Criminal Justice Abstracts

Author Bio

SCOTT B. MacDONALD is the Chief International Economist for Maryland National Corporation in Baltimore. He is the author of Trinidad and Tobago: Democracy and Development in the Caribbean (1986), Dancing on a Volcano: The Latin American Drug Trade (1988), and coedited volume, The Caribbean after Grenada (1988).