Illegal drug trade in Colombia
Encyclopedia
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. Colombia has had four major drug trafficking cartels which eventually created a new social class and influenced several aspects of Colombian culture
Culture of Colombia
Many aspects of Colombian culture can be traced back to the early culture of Spain of the 16th century and its collision with Colombia's native civilizations . The Spanish brought Catholicism, African slaves, the feudal encomienda system, and a caste system that favored European-born whites...
. Coca
Coca
Coca, Erythroxylum coca, is a plant in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant plays a significant role in many traditional Andean cultures...
, marijuana and other drugs had been part of the lifestyle of some Colombians, but the worldwide demand of psychoactive drugs during the 1960s and 1970s eventually increased the production and processing of these in Colombia. Cocaine is produced at $1500/kilo in jungle labs and could be sold on the streets of America for as much as $50,000/kilo. The initial boom in production of drugs in Colombia for export began with marijuana in the 1960s, followed by cocaine in the mid- to late-1970s. The USA intervened in Colombia throughout this period in an attempt to cut off the supply of these drugs to the US.
As of 2011 Colombia remains the 'world's largest cocaine producer'.
Since the establishment of the War on Drugs
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
, the United States and European countries have provided financial, logistical, tactical and military aid to the government of Colombia in order to implement plans to combat the illegal drug trade. The most notable of these programs has been the Plan Colombia
Plan Colombia
The term Plan Colombia is most often used to refer to U.S. legislation aimed at curbing drug smuggling and combating a left-wing insurgency by supporting different activities in Colombia....
which also intended to combat leftist organizations, such as the FARC guerrillas, who have controlled many coca-growing regions in Colombia over the past decades.
Despite Colombia having the dubious distinction of being the world leading producer of coca for many years those plans, slowly but surely, diminished the drug produced, to the extent that in 2010 the country reduced cocaine production by 60%, relative to the peak in 2000. In that same year, Peru surpassed Colombia as the main producer of coca leaves in the world. The level of drug related violence was halved in the last 10 years, when the country moved from being the most violent country in the world to have a homicide rate that is inferior to the one registered in countries like Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
Colombia has acted in a more aggressive way than most of the countries signatories of the 1988 Vienna Convention against drug trafficking, by including chemicals and drug precursors, that are freely traded in the rest of the world, in the list of nationally controlled substances. Notwithstanding the internal production of drugs, the rate of internal consumption in Colombia is smaller than the one presented in the United States and in many of the countries of the European Union and the absolute drug consumption is even smaller.
Given the fact that the population of the United States is the largest user of illegal drugs in the world, with one in six citizens claiming to have used cocaine in their life, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), after reviewing the efficiency of the actions taken by the Colombian government for more than 20 years, has called for the coke consuming countries - mostly in Europe and North America - to take their share of responsibility and reduce demand for cocaine, explaining that there are limits to what the Andean governments can do if cocaine consumption continues unabated, a position that has been maintained by the Colombian government for many years and recently accepted by the United States government.
The actions of the Colombian National Police against drug trafficking has been so effective that the country has captured and extradited drug lords to the rate of over 100 per year for the last 10 years and currently gives technical advice to 7 countries in Latin America and 12 in Africa. Drug traffickers have resisted those actions by killing nothing less than the five presidential candidates Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, Jaime Pardo Leal
Jaime Pardo Leal
Jaime Pardo Leal was the candidate of the Patriotic Union for the presidency of Colombia in the 1986 elections.Members of the Patriotic Union became the target of multiple death threats and assassination attempts...
, Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa
Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa
Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa was a Colombian politician member of the Colombian Communist Party...
, Alvaro Gómez Hurtado
Álvaro Gómez Hurtado
Álvaro Gómez Hurtado was a Colombian lawyer, politician, journalist and active member of the Colombian Conservative Party. Gómez was a son of the former President of Colombia, Laureano Gómez...
and Carlos Pizarro Leongómez
Carlos Pizarro Leongómez
Carlos Pizarro Leongómez was the fourth commander of the Colombian guerrilla group 19th of April Movement . Pizarro later ran for president of Colombia after the demobilization of M-19 that transformed the group into the political party, M-19 Democratic Alliance...
, by allegedly planning and financing the Palace of Justice siege
Palace of Justice siege
The Palace of Justice siege was a 1985 attack against the Supreme Court of Colombia, in which members of the M-19 guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Colombia, and held the Supreme Court hostage, intending to hold a trial against President Belisario Betancur...
that left 11 of the 25 Supreme Court Justices dead, by killing over 3.000 members of the Union Patriótica
Patriotic Union (Colombia)
The Patriotic Union or UP , was a leftist Colombian political party founded by the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party in 1985, as part of the peace negotiations that the guerrillas held with the Conservative Belisario Betancur administration...
, a legal political party, and by assassinating countless policemen, judges and witnesses.
History
ProhibitionProhibition (drugs)
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent drug use. Prohibition of drugs has existed at various levels of government or other authority from the Middle Ages to the present....
of drugs in Colombia was based on the introduction of prohibition laws in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 which prohibited the production and consumption of opiate
Opiate
In medicine, the term opiate describes any of the narcotic opioid alkaloids found as natural products in the opium poppy plant.-Overview:Opiates are so named because they are constituents or derivatives of constituents found in opium, which is processed from the latex sap of the opium poppy,...
s and cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, in 1937 added marijuana, tobacco
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
and alcohol
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
and later on a variety of stimulant, depressant, and hallucinogenic drugs between 1964 and 1968.
Some psychoactive drugs were already grown in Colombia at limited level by local indigenous groups
Indigenous peoples in Colombia
The indigenous peoples in Colombia comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500.-Origins:...
, who mostly employed marijuana and coca leafs for ceremonial and traditional medical uses as part of their culture.
Marijuana bonanza
To counter increasing production and consumption, the government of the United States and the government of ColombiaGovernment of Colombia
The government of Colombiais a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.Its legislature has a congress,its judiciary has a supreme court, andits executive branch has a president....
along with other countries initiated a campaign called the "War on Drugs
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
".
The Black Tuna Gang
Black Tuna Gang
The Black Tuna gang was an American marijuana-smuggling organization active in 1970s Miami. The group were responsible for bringing in around 500 tons of marijuana into the United States over the course of 16 months....
was a Miami-based Colombian marijuana-trafficking group. It was responsible for bringing in over 500 tons of marijuana over a 16-month period in the mid-70s.
Drug Cartels in Colombia
With prohibition, established producers and traffickers formed armed and clandestine cartelCartel
A cartel is a formal agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production. Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products...
s. During the 1980s, as demand increased, the cartels expanded and organized into major criminal conglomerates usually headed by one or several kingpins as in the case of the Medellin Cartel
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
and the North Coast Cartel
North Coast Cartel
The North Coast Cartel was a drug cartel operating in northern Colombia mostly controlling the area of the Colombian Caribbean coast illegal drug trade flow from other regions of Colombia and neighboring countries and local production. The North Coast Cartel was headed by Alberto Orlandez-Gamboa...
, along with federation-style groups such as the Cali Cartel
Cali Cartel
The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño...
and Norte del Valle Cartel
Norte del Valle Cartel
The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, is a drug cartel that operates principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia...
.
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín CartelMedellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
led by Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
established a ruthless organization, kidnapping or murdering those who interfered with its objectives. The Medellín Cartel was responsible for the murders of hundreds of people, including government officials, politicians, law enforcement members, journalists, relatives of same, and innocent bystanders. The cartel sometimes cooperated with guerrilla groups such as the M-19
19th of April Movement
The 19th of April Movement or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance , or AD/M-19.The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of 19 April 1970...
, to process and protect illegal drugs. When conflicts emerged between the Medellín Cartel and the guerrillas, the cartel also promoted the creation of paramilitary groups
Paramilitarism in Colombia
Paramilitarism in Colombia refers to the origins and activities of far right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia during the 20th century.Right-wing paramilitary groups are the parties considered to be most responsible for human rights violations in Colombia during the later half of the current...
.
The cartel originally imported most coca from Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, processing it into cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
inside Colombia and then distributing it through most of the trafficking routes and distribution points in the U.S., including Florida, California and New York.
The pressure mounted by the US and Colombian governments to counter them led to the cartel's destruction, with key associates being gunned down by police
Colombian National Police
The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military of Colombia , it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. They are the largest police force in Colombia...
and military
Military of Colombia
The Military Forces of Colombia are the armed forces of the Republic of Colombia.-Services:The Military of Colombia consists of:* National Army of Colombia * Colombian National Armada - Marines, Navy and Coast Guard attached* Colombian Air Force...
forces or turning themselves in to authorities in exchange for lenient prison terms.
Cali Cartel
The Cali CartelCali Cartel
The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño...
, also known as "Cali's Gentlemen," was based in southern Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, around the city of Cali
Calì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
and the Valle del Cauca Department
Valle del Cauca Department
Valle del Cauca is a department of Colombia. It is in the western side of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean, and it is considered one of the most important departments in the Republic of Colombia. Its capital is Santiago de Cali...
. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto
Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela
Gilberto José Rodríguez Orejuela is a Colombian druglord, formerly one of the leaders of the Cali Cartel, based in the city of Cali.-Cali Cartel:...
and Miguel
Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela
Miguel Angel Rodríguez Orejuela is a Colombian druglord, formerly one of the leaders of the Cali Cartel, based in the city of Cali. He is the younger brother of Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela...
, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño. The Cali Cartel originally began as a ring of kidnappers
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
known as Las Chemas. The profits of kidnapping helped finance the ring's move to drug trafficking, originally beginning in Marijuana and eventually spreading to cocaine. The cartel's estimated revenue would eventually reach an estimated $7 billion a year. The cartel's influence also spread to the political and justice system. It also played a role in the manhunt that led to the death of Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
, helping form the vigilante group "Los Pepes
Los Pepes
Los Pepes , was a short-lived vigilante group composed of enemies of narcotics kingpin Pablo Escobar who waged a bloody war against Escobar and his associates in the early 1990s.-Name:While the name suggested that all, or most, members of Los Pepes were previously persecuted by...
", which worked alongside members of the government's elite Bloque de Busqueda
Search Bloc
The Search Bloc was a Special Operations unit of the National Police of Colombia .-History:...
, exchanging information on the whereabouts of Escobar and key figures in the Medellín Cartel
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
.
After the collapse of the cartel, it was discovered it was wiretapping phone calls made into and out of Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, and was engaged in money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
using numerous front companies spread throughout Colombia.
Norte del Valle Cartel
The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, is a drug cartelDrug cartel
Drug cartels are criminal organizations developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the largest trafficking...
which operates principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department
Departments of Colombia
Colombia is an unitary republic formed by thirty-two departments and a Capital District . Each department has a Governor and a Department Assembly , elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods...
of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. It rose to prominence during the second half of the 1990s, after the Cali Cartel and the Medellín Cartel fragmented, and was known as one of the most powerful organizations in the illegal drugs trade. The chiefs of the Norte del Valle cartel included Diego León Montoya Sánchez
Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez
Diego León Montoya Sánchez , also known as Don Diego, is a former Colombian crime boss leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel...
, Wilber Varela
Wilber Varela
Wilber Alirio Varela Fajardo aka Jabón was a former Colombian Police agent who then became a drug dealer and member of the Norte del Valle Cartel...
and Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía
Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía
Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía is a drug trafficker who, until his capture, was one of the leaders of the North Valley Cartel , who was wanted on drug smuggling, murder and RICO charges in the United States of America...
. Of the original leaders of the cartel, Wilber Varela was the last remaining member being sought by the authorities, but was found dead on January 31, 2008.
The Norte del Valle cartel is estimated to have exported more than 1.2 million pounds – or 500 metric tons – of cocaine worth in excess of $10 billion from Colombia to Mexico and ultimately to the United States for resale. Indictments filed in the United States charge the Norte del Valle cartel with using violence and brutality to further its goals, including the murder of rivals, individuals who failed to pay for cocaine, and associates who were believed to be working as informants. Leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were further alleged to have bribed and corrupted Colombian law enforcement and Colombian legislators to, among other things, attempt to block the extradition of Colombian narcotics traffickers to the United States for further prosecution. According to the indictments filed in the United States, members of the Norte del Valle cartel even conducted their own wiretaps in Colombia to intercept the communications of rival drug traffickers and Colombian and United States law enforcement officials.
The cartel is believed to have employed the services of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia was created as an umbrella organization of regional far-right...
(AUC), a right-wing paramilitary organization internationally classified as a terrorist organization, to protect the cartel’s drug routes, its drug laboratories, and its members and associates. The AUC is one of the 37 Foreign Terrorist Organizations identified by the U.S. State Department in 2004.
North Coast Cartel
The North Coast Cartel was based in the Colombian city of BarranquillaBarranquilla
Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...
by the Caribbean coast
Caribbean Region
The Caribbean Region or Caribbean Coast Region is a natural region of Colombia mainly composed of eight Departments located contiguous to the Caribbean. The area covers a total land area of including the San Andres Island Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina in the Caribbean...
and was headed by Alberto Orlandez-Gamboa "Caracol" (the snail) considered as ruthless as Pablo Escobar. The organization transshipped significant amounts of cocaine to the United States and Europe via the smuggling routes it controlled from Colombia’s North Coast through the Caribbean. As head of the organization, Gamboa depended on his close associates to conduct the organization’s operations and to insulate himself. As is typical with many Colombia-based organizations, Gamboa compartmentalized his business dealings. In addition, the success of Caracol’s Barranquilla-based drug trafficking organization was attributed, in part, to the respect the drug organization received from other traffickers operating on Colombia’s North Coast. DEA Intelligence indicated that traffickers paid taxes to Gamboa’s organization in order to be allowed to ship drugs out of the North Coast. His influence in this region was so strong that traffickers even asked him for permission before conducting assassinations. On June 6, 1998, Caracol was arrested in Barranquilla, as a result of an ongoing joint investigation between DEA’s Barranquilla Resident Office and the Colombian National Police. After his arrest, Caracol immediately was flown to Bogota, Colombia, where he was held on murder, kidnapping, and terrorism charges. He was extradited to the United States in August 2000. On March 13, 2003, Caracol pleaded guilty to participating in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy that smuggled tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into New York and other cities. His plea was announced on the morning he was to go on trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan after losing a crucial appellate ruling. With the capture of Gamboa the North Coast Cartel structure was later dismantled by the Colombian National Police.
Extradition
Perhaps the greatest threat posed to the Medellín Cartel and the other traffickers was the implementation of an extradition treaty between the United States and Colombia. It allowed Colombia to extradite any Colombian suspected of drug trafficking to the US and to be put on trial there for their crimes. This was a major problem for the cartel since the drug traffickers had little access to their local power and influence in the US, and a trial there would most likely lead to imprisonment. Among the staunch supporters of the extradition treaty were Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Police Officer Jaime Ramírez and numerous Supreme Court Judges.However, the cartel applied a "bend or break" strategy towards several of these supporters. When attacks against the police began to cause major losses, some of the major drug lords themselves were temporarily pushed out of Colombia, going into hiding while they ordered cartel members to take out key supporters of the extradition treaty.
Influence of Medellin Cartel
During the 1980s, the Medellin Cartel leader Pablo EscobarPablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
, already possessed of considerable wealth, attempted to expand his influence and notoriety by entering into Colombian political life through the political movement of liberal leader
Liberalism in Colombia
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Colombia. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme...
Luis Carlos Galán
Luis Carlos Galán
Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento was a Colombian journalist and liberal politician who ran for the presidency of Colombia on two occasions, the first time representing the Liberal Party in 1982 which he lost to Belisario Betancur...
named New Liberalism
New Liberalism (Colombia)
Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galán founded the Nuevo Liberalismo in 1979, as a dissident force of the Colombian Liberal Party.Running against both the conservatives and the mainstream party, Galán lost the elections in 1982...
. Escobar succeeded in becoming deputy to congressman Alberto Santofimio
Alberto Santofimio
Alberto Santofimio Botero is a Colombian politician member of the Colombian Liberal Party. He has been Minister of Justice, a two-time presidential candidate and a Senator. He was considered to be a sure bet for president in 1982, but he decided to let his boss, Alfonso Lopez Michelsen who had...
, but after the provenance of Escobar's wealth and his mounting influence were made a public controversy Galán was forced to reject him from his political movement and pushed for an extradition treaty with the United States. Another member of the Medellín Cartel, Carlos Lehder, used his cocaine wealth to make a push for political power. His movement was populist, funding free education and health programs in rural areas and the construction of homes for slum-dwellers. His rhetoric was also anti-American, anti-Russian and anti-imperialist. His program showed similarities with that of Pablo Escobar, who paid for lighting to be installed in local football clubs and also paid for housing for slum-dwellers. The active political stance of some members of the Medellín Cartel was a significant factor in the attempts of the Colombian state to destroy their influence in the country.
Influence of Cali Cartel
In contrast, the Cali Cartel adopted a much more subtle and non-confrontation attitude. Many of its bosses were from already wealthy and influential families, and they tended to invest their earnings from the cocaine trade in legitimate businesses. This often included complementary businesses, such as pharmacy and chemical manufacturing, which provided a cover for the purchase of the chemicals needed to refine the coca-paste purchased in the coca-growing regions into cocaine for export to the USA.The cartel's non-confrontational strategy and its integration within the existing power structure, in contrast to the political challenge attempted by members of the Medellín Cartel, meant that they were threatened much less by law enforcement, from both Colombian investigators and the DEA. The head of the DEA in Bogotá said that in comparison with the Medellín bosses, the Cali bosses were "more refined, more cultured." The DEA regularly left the Cali Carltel alone in exchange for information that would allow them to arrest figures from the Medellín Cartel. In this sense it is clear that the US was not simply attempting to limit the cocaine trade, but to prevent anti-American and anti-imperialist groups from controlling the wealth from the cocaine trade.
Influence in the armed conflict
During the 1980s the Medellin CartelMedellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
led by Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
was at its height and the U.S. and Colombian governments were moving towards enforcing laws regarding the illegal drug trade. The Medellin Cartel associated with 19th of April Movement
19th of April Movement
The 19th of April Movement or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance , or AD/M-19.The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of 19 April 1970...
(M-19) guerrilla among others to rely on them the production and processing of the illegal drugs. The guerrillas saw in the illegal drug trade a form of financing their guerrilla movement which had been collapsing since the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
(USSR), their financial backbone and provider of weapons and doctrine. Other guerrillas such as FARC and ELN followed the same example and also began collecting taxes on small illegal drug trafficking organizations to improve their financial stability.
With the fall of the two main drug trafficking cartels of Medellin and Cali in the 1990s, some of organizations that inherited their drug routes were members of the newly formed Norte del Valle Cartel
Norte del Valle Cartel
The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, is a drug cartel that operates principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia...
. The FARC and ELN guerrillas came to control the coca-growing regions in the Colombian Amazon and to tax the income from the sale of coca-paste. The para-military groups initially grew out of the private armies of cocaine cartels. They have however also been employed by the Colombian state to assassinate trade unionists, left-wing priests and any others deemed to be leftist sympathists. "The strengthening of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during the 1990s was an unintended consequence of a series of tactical successes in U.S. antidrug policies. These included dismantling the Medellín and Cali drug cartels, interdicting coca coming into Colombian processing facilities, and using drug certification requirements to pressure the Colombian government to attack drug cartels and allow aerial fumigation of coca crops. These successes, however, merely pushed coca cultivation increasingly to FARC-dominated areas while weakening many of the FARC's political-military opponents. This provided the FARC with unprecedented opportunities to extract resources from the cocaine industry to deepen its long insurgency against the Colombian state."
Drug production
Between 1993 and 1999 Colombia became the main producer of cocaCoca
Coca, Erythroxylum coca, is a plant in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant plays a significant role in many traditional Andean cultures...
in the world along with cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, and one of the major exporters of heroin.
Effects
The effects of cocaine production range from environmental damage to effects on educationEducation in Colombia
Education in Colombia includes nursery school, elementary school, high school, technical instruction and university education. A typical colombian studies 11 years and attempts to complete the secondary level of education.- History :...
, health
Health in Colombia
Health care in Colombia refers to the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions in the Republic of Colombia....
and the country's economy
Economy of Colombia
Colombia has a free market economy with major commercial and investment ties to the United States. Transition from a highly regulated economy has been underway for more than a decade....
.
The environment
Environmental issues in Colombia
There are many environmental issues in Colombia but deforestation is one of the major concerns.New environmental protection legislation was enacted in 1991, including the creation of specially protected zones, of which more than 200 were created in the early 1990s, mostly in forest areas and...
is damaged through deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
caused by clearing fields for plant cultivation. Soil erosion and chemical
Chemical waste
Chemical waste is a waste that is made from harmful chemicals . Chemical waste may fall under regulations such as COSHH in the United Kingdom, or the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in the United States...
pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
also have effects on Colombia. The issues are difficult to address because of the wealth and power of drug traffickers.
Many plantations provide prostitutes to sustain their employees. Sexually transmitted diseases are spread at a rapid pace and contribute to the workers inability to heal from the flesh wounds and their incapability of survival outside of this environment.
The few positive outcomes from the manufacturing of cocaine include temporarily providing a job for a family struggling financially and raising Colombia’s GDP and standard of living
Standard of living
Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
.
See also
- War on DrugsWar on DrugsThe War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
- Office of Foreign Assets ControlOffice of Foreign Assets ControlThe Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
(OFAC) known in Colombia as "Lista Clinton" - Medellin CartelMedellín CartelThe Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
- Cali CartelCali CartelThe Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño...
- Norte del Valle CartelNorte del Valle CartelThe Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, is a drug cartel that operates principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia...
- Mexican Drug WarMexican Drug WarThe Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...