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The international drug trade poisons people, breeds violence, tears at the moral fabric or our society. We must intensify action against the cartels and the destruction of drug crops. And we, in consumer nations like the United States must decrease demand for drugs. (Bill Clinton address to the United Nations general assembly on the occasion of the UNs 50 th anniversary/ Oct 1995) The traffic of drugs is a very complex subject which some of us do not understand. In order for us to understand this business and why and how Colombia became the worlds most famous country known for the empire created around the drug trading industry; we must look back at the origins of drug trafficking to understand how it grew in a poor country and a corrupt society in which money controlled almost everything and everyone. Those on whom money had no effect were probably killed. It was the socio-economic conditions of the country, the poverty and the desire for easy-money which turned Colombia into an excellent location for the narco industry to develop and rule.
The purpose of this report is no other than to analyze how? and specially why? Colombia was drowned into the narco world and how the drug lords almost ruled the country. We must look at Colombian history to understand what the country was going through and how the illegal business evolved in a country in which money became the most important thing. This report will try to prove that it was the conditions- both social and economic- of Colombia such as poverty due to unemployment and inflation and social inequalities; which led to the appearance and flourishing of drug traffic. Ive used as sources two books about the subject, a review by a university professor, articles from magazines and information found on the internet.
Throughout the report quotations from a recent interview with Jorge Ochoa, who is a former member of the Medellin cartel, who quit the business after 5 years in jail, will be used. Despite the fact that since ancient times cocaine and marijuana had been grown on Colombian soil, its use was limited to Indian communities, small marginal groups and certain hand-crafting jobs such as wood-work. When peace organizations entered the nation with clear ideological orientations with the objective of deviating the youth from the ideas of the recent Cuban revolution they discovered Colombian marijuana which they baptized with suggestive names such as Colombian Gold. They became addicts and slowly became distributors by taking it back to North America and spreading it to their friends and relatives. This way the first forms of distribution began, controlled by American citizens. At the same time a major conflict was taking place in Vietnam, where finally United States troops entered a major scale war that lasted almost 10 years.
It has been said that the U. S army drafted more than 10 million young Americans and in some point of the conflict they were sent to fight a very un-popular war. In Vietnam this young generation of Americans were exposed to the atrocities of war and their bodies and minds were submitted to unimaginable things which made them suffer and feel lonely, used and abandoned. This lead them to experimenting with an Asian herb called hashish which doped them and made them forget about what they were going through. When these Americans returned to their country completely devastated and horrified after watching thousand of their friends and fellow countrymen die; they began searching for similar drugs like the Asian hashish theyd tried in Vietnam across the Mexican border. Marijuana appeared and it quickly began being smoked by young Americans.
Along with the Vietnam War came the hippie peace movement, which slowly became an excuse and a synonym for smoking marijuana. Mexico was the initial place where marijuana was sold to Americans because of its location, which allowed distributors to smuggle the drug easily and at low cost into the United States. However, consumers soon discovered a more powerful species found in Colombia where the herb was also found in enormous quantities, which meant low costs and a more powerful product. The herb of Colombia was to the world of marijuana what gold had been to capitalism From the book: KILLING PABLO by Mark Bowden It didnt take long for cocaine to enter the scene. By 1978 warnings about the possible decay or fall of the herbs empire were heard. American consumers were protesting about the mixture of other similar plants with marijuana to reduce the costs.
During this period of time the demand for the most desired blend of the drug the punto rojo or Santa Marta gold began to fall because of two factors: the loss of quality, and the appearance of a new product easier to transport and with higher utilities: 1 kilo of cocaine got to cost almost the same as a cargo ship loaded with marihuana. They were growing marijuana in the United States, so then there's no need for them to receive any marijuana. So the business of cocaine was very small. It was very small. And then, little by little, it became more important than the marijuana business. (former member of the Medellin cartel Jorge Ochoa in a recent interview) Traffickers started out with much more modest goals.
In the mid- 1970 s, marijuana traffickers in Colombia began exporting small quantities of cocaine to the United States hidden in suitcases. At that point, cocaine could be processed for $ 1500 /kilo in jungle labs and could be sold on the streets of America for as much as $ 50, 000 /kilo Cocaine and razor Labeled plants of marijuana At the end of the 60 s Colombia was a country with no drug trafficking but with socio-political unrest with the presence of leftists guerrillas trying to echo Fidel's Castro Cubans revolution. The cocaine business attracted the attention of many and was carried with success in different countries around the world specially in South American countries. Colombia wasnt the exception and narco-traffic entered the country developing into an empire of evil which corrupted the state and introduced billions of dollars to the country. There is no right answer to why this business had such success in Colombia. The truth is that the business appeared and developed around an environment, the social and economic conditions of Colombia which came from hundreds of years before led to the appearance of illegal crops due to the opportunity they represented to poor families living in towns and farmland.
Violence, poverty and social inequality Colombia was a very violent country which after the death of the political leader Jorge Eliecer Guitar in 1948 entered a very dark period of violence in which over 300 000 people died. This period was known as La violence. Horrid acts of murders were committed constantly in Colombian towns and villages. In addition the country was consumed in poverty due to inflation and unemployment which were very high. Villagers began moving to the cities running from violence, this left a considerable number of people without work living in cities were they didnt know how to do anything really. Theyd lived all of their lives dedicated to agriculture, they became useless and poor in the cities.
Furthermore Colombia has an incredible social inequality. All the land of the country in the late 60 s was owned by a privileged 6 %. This 6 % is represented by the social elite, people who receive refined education, lived in luxurious houses with all the commodities and in the majority of the cases have political power or influence. They own local newspapers, magazines, industries etc This while the rest of the population is extremely lucky if they receive education at all. Nowadays there still are a lot of places in Colombia where houses do not have running water, there is no education, malnutrition is a constant and children are used as workers by their parents when they arent even teenagers. Only 5 % of the children that managed to enter primary school were fortunate enough to finish high school, and only 20 % of the population of the time had some sort of social security.
All these factors made Colombia fertile ground for the phenomenon of drug trafficking, violence, corruption and disruption of social and moral values. Therefore we can affirm that the traffic business was a product of the time and the place. It was in these deplorable social conditions that drug traffic entered the scene received by number of men who wanted better conditions for their people. Most of the important traffickers belonged to the lower classes and hated the rich elite which monopolized national industry. Narco's also had great political interest and did social works in their home-cities to gain acceptance from the people. Pablo Escobar had built over 60 football fields over Medellin for the people of poor sectors to enjoy, around 40 of those fields had their own lighting service in case anyone wished to use them at night In fact some of them were cherished in their cities.
Pablo Escobar was not the only drug lord who sat in the congress in Bogot. In fact a lot of them worked for state organizations. Poor Colombian families who grew the coca plant did it because they really had no choice. If they accepted to work for drug lords, besides receiving decent amounts of money which enabled them to maintain their families, they also received protection. This protection allowed them to return - or to stay- in their own villages without fear of possible violent attacks by delinquent groups.
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Research essay sample on Social And Economic Drug Trafficking
