On this day, November 18th, in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill instituting the death penalty for murder in regards to drug trafficking.
Over the next couple years, Reagan and his successor, Bush, would send US troops to Panama and various location in South America under strict orders to break that law by murdering as many drug dealers as possible.
Of course, they had a looser definition of Murder. They only
Considered it murder if the person being killed wasn’t Hispanic.
The military maneuvers were given the code-name “Operation Just
Cause”. Of course, that was the result of bad dictation. Bush actually said he wanted to call it “Operation Just ‘Cus”.
The whole situation lead to the discovery that the CIA had been
funding cocaine smuggling.

So – happy birthday, Hypocrisy!