Sanctions in Latin America

Academic experts, as well as politicians and policymakers, have been involved in a long and inconclusive debate on how effective sanctions really are in achieving their stated aims. The debate is unresolved, partly because there are so many different types of sanctions being applied in pursuit of different objectives and amid different political and economic contexts. In a 2020 paper the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) cited claims by government agencies that “it is nearly impossible to assess the overall effectiveness of sanctions in lowering the amount of narcotics entering the United States” partly because of the difficulty of isolating the impact of sanctions from other US and international counter-narcotics programmes or actions. Other studies found that sanctions are more effective when implemented though international organisations such as the UN or when the targeted country has a pre-existing dependency on, or relationship with, the United States (such as a trade deal or military cooperation programme). Other studies said sanctions impact has been higher when more comprehensive in scope or severity or imposed through an international organisation.

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