A Narrative of Coercion and Repression: The Impact of the US War on Drugs & Economic Pressure on Peruvian Society

Abstract

In 1971, US President Richard Nixon declared an official War on Drugs at the international level. This complex campaign sought to shift blame for the proliferation of drug abuse in the US onto coca-leaf producing Latin American countries, like Peru. This paper analyses the way in which the US government applied intense economic pressure to Peru through threatening to retract vital aid, to interfere with the country’s internal politics. It emphasizes the anti-communist Cold War climate which resulted in the aggressive targeting of Peruvian campesinos due to the perception that they were part of the leftists, guerilla group, Sendero Luminoso.  The article analyzes the detrimental outcomes of this financial coercion, seen through the uprooting of livelihoods in the eradication of coca crops, mass human rights abuses inflicted onto citizens, and the subsequent sense of distrust in modern Peruvian political institutions.