WILL COMMON SENSE EVER PREVAIL? LOST LESSONS, MILITARIZATION, AND CYCLES OF VIOLENCE AND IMPUNITY IN COLOMBIA AND MEXICO

Abstract

In this article we examine the impact of U.S. militarization in Colombia and Mexico justified by the Wars on Drugs and Terror.  By outlining the magnitude of militarization, we seek to illuminate the brutal consequences of an externally defined military approach by U.S., Colombian, and Mexican elites that is disconnected from complex local realities. We argue that these wars, like the Cold War in the past, are not designed to rid the hemisphere of drugs or terrorists, but to maintain an increasingly precarious neo-colonial order. These wars provide the justification to force entire populations out of regions where there are valuable natural resources or to target social movements that demand justice and political accountability. We also highlight efforts to create local spaces of peace and end impunity in each country. By focusing on Bolivia as a point of contrast, we examine common sense policies to change a history of U.S. military intervention through alliances between governments and civil society.