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The United States of America’s war-on-drugs is a problem that has been ongoing for many years, engulfing centuries in its path. To understand this problem, it is necessary to not only look at the issue domestically, but to view it as a major issue in foreign policy that is currently being addressed by the United States government. Extended efforts are being made in one particular country, Colombia, to help deplete the amount of drugs entering our country illegally. To aid this effort, the United States enjoined by the Colombian government have put into effect Plan Colombia, a plan designed to help control the amount of illegal drugs entering our country, among many other things. It is my goal, in discussing Plan Colombia, to discover it’s main concerns and then prove that this foreign policy is really helping our countries drug-war, and at the same instance, improving an impoverished and war-torn democracy. In September of 1999, Colombian President Andres Pastrana held a meeting with the President of the United States at that time, Bill Clinton. This meeting set-up by President Pastrana was an effort to gain U.S. support for a $7.5-billion project being referred to as “Plan Colombia”. President Pastrana’s plan was designed, in his words, “to end the bloodshed, reform government institutions, revive the nations economy” and most importantly to “combat drug-trafficking”. Of the needed $7.5-billion, the Colombian government supported the first $4-billion and looked toward international support for the remaining $3.5-billion. Prior to leaving office in 2000, President Clinton approved a two-year, $1.3-billion, aid package to help combat the “war on drugs” in Colombia (Http://www.nadir.org). With the United States intent to support the so-called “Plan Colombia”, money was not the only commodity being sought. Besides the $1.3-billion grant from the United States government, Colombia looked for the United States to help provide a military component, crop-reduction programs, social development programs, and above all, human right programs. They felt by integrating these programs, they would be able to put an end to the drug problem by means of civility (Powell, 2002).
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