Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

U.S. Steps Up Militarization of Africa Through “Drug Wars"
25 Jul 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The United States wants to drag Africa into its drug wars – on top of Washington’s War on Terror. Since drugs always follow American “anti-narcotics” activity in the world, the inevitable result will be an explosion of drug networks in targeted African countries. “Liberia and Ghana will soon emerge as hubs of the African drug trade – just as happened in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America.”

 

U.S. Steps Up Militarization of Africa Through “Drug Wars”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Washington has its eyes on Liberia and Ghana.”

When a high U.S. government official says Africa is “the new frontier,” it’s time for everyone that cares about the continent to watch out, because something really dangerous is afoot. A top guy in the D.E.A. recently described Africa as the “new frontier” where Washington hopes to embed commando-style teams of specially vetted police for an American-run war on drugs, similar to U.S. operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. And we all know how those U.S. so-called anti-drug operations turned out. We should add to the list Colombia and Afghanistan, the world capitals of cocaine and heroin, respectively.

According to mythology, everything King Midas touched turned to gold. It appears the United States has the Narcotics Touch; everything the Americans touch turns to dope. American allies in the developing world quickly become narco-states.

The pattern has not changed in 60 years, since the Italian and French mafias were rewarded with international drug franchises in return for their assistance against socialists and communists. Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle became the center of the global heroin trade during the Vietnam War – a project of the CIA. When the U.S. shifted its focus to suppressing leftist movements in Latin America, cocaine became the region’s biggest export. The United States has never waged war against drugs – quite the opposite. Washington rewards its political friends with drug franchises and monopolies, in return for service to American corporate interests. That’s why most of America’s friends in the developing world are criminal regimes.

“Washington hopes to embed commando-style teams of specially vetted police for an American-run war on drugs.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is most proud of its work in Honduras, where a U.S.-backed coup overthrew a mildly leftist government during President Obama’s first year in office. The Americans now roam the country like they own it, in joint operations with the same soldiers and national police that continue to kill and brutalize peasant, student and worker organizations. The joint drug operations, which have succeeded in killing at least four innocent Mosquito Indians, including two pregnant women, will undoubtedly result in a march larger drug trade under the tight control of the military, police and wealthy landowners allied with the Americans. That’s how the American Narco Touch works. The endless phony War on Drugs is a tool of U.S. policy, designed to subvert foreign governments and societies. The drug trade never gets smaller.

Now it’s Africa’s turn. Washington has its eyes on Liberia and Ghana, where it plans to train elite police units after first “vetting” their personnel – a euphemism for making sure that the commandos are willing to act as de facto U.S. operatives. You can be sure that Liberia and Ghana will soon emerge as hubs of the African drug trade – just as happened in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America. With Washington’s “vetted” operatives in charge of the African drug networks, the U.S. will vastly increase its ability to buy influence among the greedy classes all across the continent, both in and out of uniform. Just as in Colombia and Honduras and Panama and Guatemala, the Drug Wars become indistinguishable from the War on Terror, which used to be called the War on Communism. It's really a war against the poor.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120725_gf_AfricaDrugs.mp3

More Stories


  • Women in Prison Punished More Harshly than Men Around the Country
    Jessica Pupovac and Kari Lydersen
    Women in Prison Punished More Harshly than Men Around the Country
    25 Oct 2018
    Women in prisons across the country are disciplined at significantly higher rates than male inmates for mostly minor, subjective infractions.
  • The Great Un-Blackening: The Corporate Project to Erase Black People from Politics
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    The Great Un-Blackening: The Corporate Project to Erase Black People from Politics
    25 Oct 2018
    Corporate rule imposes a duopoly system in which one party is overtly white supremacist and the other party refuses to tackle racial oppression – but both pursue austerity and war.
  • Stokeley and H Rap Brown
    Dr. Matthew Quest
    What H. Rap Brown Says to Us 50 Years Later, Part 2
    24 Oct 2018
    What H. Rap Brown Has To Say To Us Fifty Years Later – Part 2 In “How H.
  • Freedom Rider: The Migrant Caravan and U.S. Policy
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Migrant Caravan and U.S. Policy
    24 Oct 2018
    Washington blames “socialism” when Venezuelans flee their country’s US-created economic crisis, but defame Honduran refugees fleeing the misery created by the US in that country.
  • Intel Report on Assassins: “Rwandans are cold ass mofos”
    Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
    Intel Report on Assassins: “Rwandans are cold ass mofos”
    24 Oct 2018
    Memos from an intel-for-hire outfit reveal that Washington’s top ally in Africa, Rwanda dictator Paul Kagame, runs one of the world’s most prolific assassination squads.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us