Plata o Plomo (Javdani) Response Paper Analysis Essay

In her essay, Plato o Plomo, Marie Javdani compargons & contrasts the stories of two boys, whom live separately in two countries, to signify their indirect relation. The phrase Plato o Plomo translates to silver or lead, meaning that peasants of South America can either accept a bribe & live (silver) or take a bullet & die (lead). Eric, an American boy, & Miguel, a Colombian, are both out on the road on a Friday night, only when their intentions are entirely different. later scoring doses, Eric whistles while walking down his street to meet up with his fri destroys for a bit of fun. Miguel crawl down the road in his village, praying for the last time in his life he to be slay by the guerillas who have been threatening him & his father. The two stories of both Eric & Miguel begin to unite as Javdani narrates the sire & operation of America & Colombia, showing how choices made in the U.S. can affect the harsh realities of Colombias drug cartel. By using parallelism in the stories of Eric & Miguel, Javdani identifies the factors contributing to high drug activity. Eric & Miguel represent opposite poles in what the unite States g everyplacenment refers to as the war on drugs. Erics drug use symbolizes the demand of production in Colombia, where Miguels village is terrorized by the ruling drug lords & paramilitaries.The strategy that the writer uses to represent both Eric & Miguel is cause & effect. This use of parallelism combined with cause & effect is meant to emphasize two sides to the political turmoil of drug violence in Colombia. Javdani mentions that U.S. money being sent to Colombia is ineffective in its purpose, which is to enforce order over the high drug activity that rules Colombia. Because Colombia produces a majority of the worlds cocaine & heroine, the U.S believes that putting an end to the growth of the coca, a plant used for making cocaine & heroine, can stop the use of drugs in the states. But the billions of aid dollars sent to fund, supp ly, and train Colombian military units have only escalated the violent paramilitaries that choke off drug cartels. As a result of rebel drug lords having control, Colombians have no choice but to cooperate with the production of coca on their land. This approach to eliminating drug activity was obviously not successful, it is congruous easier to see that drug trafficking is market-driven the end to the demand.