Drug Legalization Controversy in Colombia: President Samper and the United
States (abstract)
Recent drug-legalization history in Colombia, its episodic debate, and
the occasional initiatives to this end have one key actor —President Ernesto
Samper Pizano (1994-1998)— and one basic point of reference, the government
of the United States. Accordingly, I will describe the chronological
stages, and explain the conceptual evolution, covered by the issue
of drug legalization in Colombia, identifying the significant role
played by Ernesto Samper in this controversy and highlighting the
influence of the United States in the manner of dealing with the matter.
Essentially, it is possible to affirm that, if at one point narcotics legalization
acquired any relative momentum in Colombia with citizen Samper, today this
debate is wholly closed due to the experience suffered by Colombia during
his presidential term.