They Pounded 7 Gram Rocks! That's How They Rolled!

 <br /><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Cocaine Cowboys</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"> is a 2006 documentary directed by Billy Corben that chronicles the rise of the cocaine drug trade in the 1970s and 80s.&nbsp; The filmmakers focus on the parts that Jon Roberts, Mickey Munday, and Jorge “Rivi” Ayala played in the cocaine business that completely dominated Miami for almost an entire decade.&nbsp; It boosted Miami’s economy and allowed it to survive a nation wide recession.&nbsp; That was until the law enforcement in Miami finally had the resources to shut the cocaine trade down.&nbsp; And Miami suffered for it.&nbsp; How did it get to that point?&nbsp; Paul Gootenberg discusses it in his article.&nbsp; How did the United States make it worse trying to combat the cocaine trade?&nbsp; Coletta Youngers discusses it in her article.</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">The drug trade has been a part of Latin America for most of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, according to Gootenberg.&nbsp; The center of production of the drugs shift from country to country as the century wore on.&nbsp; For example: “Peruvian prospects dampened by the 1920s, when it sold a mere 500-1,000 kilos per annum, at plummeted prices, mainly to Germany or France.” (138)&nbsp; By the 1970s the cocaine center of Latin America turned to Colombia:</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">By the late 1960s, airport arrests show opportunistic Argentines tapping drug flights to Miami and Europe. Argentina's post-1966 military regimes dampened this trade, and, like other South American mules, their role was taken up by Colombians after 1970.&nbsp;&nbsp; (156)</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">When that happened the southern coast of Florida was flooded with cocaine, and Miami’s economy became driven by it: “This much is known though: fed by spiraling crises, cocaine was to be the Andean boom industry of the late twentieth century.” (176)</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">According to Youngers: “Drug trafficking in the Andes breeds criminality, exacerbates political violence, and hence greatly increases problems of citizen security.” (126)&nbsp; Once the traffickers reached the shores of the U.S., and it became a nationwide problem, the U.S. government decided to declare war on drugs.&nbsp; So naturally the U.S. took the war to the source: “The U.S. government’s war on drugs clearly hinders efforts to put civilian-military relations on a new footing and as such constitutes an obstacle to the strengthening and deepening of democratic governance in the Andes.”&nbsp; (127)&nbsp; This pretty much halted advancement of democracy in the region:</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">In Colombia, billions of dollars in U.S. counterdrug assistance are fueling the region’s only significant counterinsurgency war, hence exacerbating the most serious human rights crisis in the hemisphere.&nbsp; (145)</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">This quickly back lashed against the trade in Miami, and the local and federal law enforcement almost entirely shut it down.&nbsp; Except for Mickey Munday, who was a fugitive for six years.&nbsp; BAMF.</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oZKRlfWaWIM/TaJGZgG9TzI/AAAAAAAAABY/sQ4djSSPs64/s1600/comradejd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oZKRlfWaWIM/TaJGZgG9TzI/AAAAAAAAABY/sQ4djSSPs64/s400/comradejd.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BI-WINNING!!!!!</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1378570525637450649-4720476447463991841?l=dcaldwellhistory475.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>