Political and economic conditions throughout Latin America provide an ideal setting for a wide range of contraband markets including heroin and other drugs. These conditions coupled with changing patterns of illicit international supply resulted in Latin America's emergence as the primary source and a major transshipment centre for the United States heroin market. Unfortunately it took the United States several years to respond to these unanticipated developments. The United States only recently succeeded in stemming the Latin American heroin trade but to do so it has had to exert considerable economic and diplomatic pressure on the countries involved. However, the underlying conditions which spawned the Latin American heroin trade still exist and the progress made to date may ultimately prove to be temporary.
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