US Decries Drug Lords While Pardoning Its Own
Al Jazeera reports that amidst US claims of cracking down on drug gangs in Venezuela, one notable exception emerges: a Honduran drug lord pardoned by a former US administration. The hypocrisy is stark, yet entirely predictable from a foreign policy machine that has historically cultivated alliances with unsavory characters when it serves 'strategic' interests. One recalls the Iran-Contra affair,
where the US allegedly facilitated drug networks to fund covert operations, or their long embrace of Central American regimes rife with narco-corruption. It appears the 'war on drugs' operates on a sliding scale, where culpability depends less on the crime itself and more on who's signing the checks or offering geopolitical leverage. So, when the headlines scream about foreign cartels, consider
the convenient amnesia regarding those 'friends' nurtured in the shadows. How many 'drug wars' are actually wars on inconvenient adversaries, while literal kingpins get a pass?