The American Reputation for Fair Play, by Victor Rauly Haya de la Torre and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

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Raul Haya de la Torre and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

Victor de la Haya was once a celebrated Peruvian politician. He is remembered primarily as an advocate for democracy and workers' rights in Peru. Haya was often viewed as a great political reformer, who tried very hard to change the way the country was governed. In 1923, Haya is most known for establishing the APRA (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana). His political career is filled with many bad periods where the Peruvian government and their neighboring allies turned against him. One such time he was forced to seek asylum in the Colombian embassy in Lima, Peru for over 5 years. Victor de la Haya attracted a lot of attention to himself because of his strong outspoken views. As a result he gained a large number of followers and reputable friends who supported his reformation. But he also had almost as many enemies as friends, enemies that collaborated with Peruvian officials to have him arrested for charges and allegations not related to that of politics, but instead perhaps a result of his political alliances (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011).

And so comes into the question the arrest of Eduardo Balarezo by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in in 1949. Balarezo was a prominent drug lord in Latin America. He was credited as being the sole leading distributor of narcotics specifically cocaine and heroin in the United States. He had a structured organization known as the ‘Balarezo gang’ who had set up cells in the northeastern part of the United States more specifically in New York (Gootenberg, 2011). Harry Anslinger the Director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was on a mission to crack down ...

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...nt throughout Latin America. The author is simply just highlighting the blunders Anslinger made as he was too focused on the small task at hand instead of looking at the bigger picture.

Works Cited

"Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2011.

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Paul Gootenberg. Andean cocaine: the making of a global drug. 01 Jan. 2011. 10 Oct. 2011

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""The American Reputation for Fair Play:" Victor Raul Haya de la Torre and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics." Dr. Glenn J. Dorn. August 30, 2002.

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