Author Dawn Paley Says Government and Corporate Collusion Part of War on Drugs Troy Shaheen - VT Digger
go to original December 17, 2014

AJ+ asks Dawn Paley about her new book, "Drug War Capitalism," the missing students from Ayotzinapa, the mass graves all over Mexico and who is winning and losing the drug war. (AJ+)

Drug War Capitalism by Dawn Paley Check it out on Amazon.com

Dawn Paley, a Canadian investigative journalist based in Puebla, argues in her book “Drug War Capitalism” that the war on drugs is not a war against the illegal trade of illicit substances, but rather an action in which a largely poor and rural underclass is killed, displaced or oppressed in order to seize resources and open them up for privatization by transnational mining and petroleum companies, as well as foreign direct investment and military control.

Paley subverts the traditional government versus cartel narrative and presents exhaustive research that suggests collusion between the U.S. and local governments, transnational corporations, militant groups and establishment media.

Beginning with Plan Colombia, a U.S. military and aid initiative started in 1999, and continuing on through the modern war on drugs in Mexico and Central America, Paley’s research brings a forceful and fresh perspective to this violent chapter in U.S. relations in Latin America.

Her dense and complex survey of the business of the drug war leaves the reader with more questions than answers, and that seems to be exactly what Paley wants. With the backdrop of widespread protests over the recent revelations implicating police in the killing of 43 Mexican students in Ayotzinapa, she calls on readers to question the ruling establishment in Mexico more deeply.

Read an interview with the author at VT Digger

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