U.S. involvement with the Colombian drug wars
The war on drugs has been a hot issue in the U.S. over recent years. Part of this would be because of the drug war in Colombia and the unfortunate heights it would achieve. It would reach a point to where U.S. interference was an essential step in effectively ending the drug wars once and for all and this would be completed due to the money the U.S. would give to Colombia to combat the various cartels, the various policies put in place to slow the drug flow in the U.S., and the cease of violence after American interference.
Various cartels such as Medellin and Cali would begin to dominate the streets. Cartel leaders such as Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa would be placed “among the richest men in the world” with the amount of cocaine and marijuana they were producing which included over 50 percent of the marijuana and over 70 percent of the cocaine distributed in the U.S.[1] With this amount of money, these cartels were able to basically buy police officers and other officials with bribes of a better life for themselves and their families if they would work for them. Some would take the bribe and do whatever the cartels would ask them to do, giving them an extra edge on this war in Colombia. This would include the cartels buying the 1994 Colombian election where President Ernesto Smaper would be elected to office.[2] This would also lead to a mass amount of violence where the officials who didn’t agree with the cartels or spoke out against them would be the ones who would suffer. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, as well as over a thousand police officers, political officials, and journalists would all be murdered.
The amount of money the U.S. would give Colombia to help their efforts on this nasty war on drugs would be essential. The U.S. was already giving Colombia financial assistance during the 1970s but this would slow down during the 1980s when the Colombian economy would begin to make improvements mainly due to the rise and spread of illegal drugs on the streets. Because of this, there was not as much of a need for financial assistance from the United States. However as the cartels began to earn more money, there would be more of a need for financial assistance from the United States. So with that being said, “Plan Colombia” was introduced by President Pastrana of Colombia, being proposed to the U.S. under the Clinton administration. This plan would range over the span of six years where the United States would provide 4.5 billion dollars towards Colombia ranging from weapons to whatever was necessary to mark an end to this mass amount of violence and drug flow in Colombia and the U.S. once and for all.[3]
The various policies that were put into place by the U.S. would also play a role in the affect towards Colombia. Policies such as “Plan Colombia” would make a difference but other policies made during the Reagan administration and prior would begin to make a difference as well. One policy that was eventually turned law during the 1970s would allow American officials to arrest Colombian cartels if they were located in the United States and throw them in American jails. This would lead to more cartels from Colombia being arrested. Another policy that would later be introduced would be during the Reagan administration which would the increase of law enforcement in the U.S. as well as the increase of efforts to end the war on drugs.[4] Although this may not have had a direct impact with the Colombian cartels, as well as having any impact on the war on drugs, it would raise popularity and concern on this international topic.
The cease of violence that was a result of American interference would play a major factor. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel were dominating the streets of Colombia, as well as the international market where the U.S. had many of the cartel’s major buyers. While Escobar would continue to have his way, it became obvious that the only way to stop him was to take him out permanently. Although Escobar was essentially untouchable during the early 1990s, Colombian and American officials were able to locate him and kill him in a “rooftop gun battle in Medellin”.[5] With Escobar out of the way, the Medellin cartel essentially fell apart and nothing was really ever the same again after his death for the cartel. The same thing would happen with the Cali cartel after the death of one of their leaders. This violence would finally begin to cease with the help of American involvement.
[1]Bagley, Bruce M. “Colombia and the War on Drugs.” Council on Foriegn Relations 67, no. 1 (1988): 70–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043675.
[2]Fajardo, Luis Eduardo. “From the Alliance for Progress to the Plan Colombia: A Retrospective Look at U.S. Aid to Colombia.” LSE Research Online, 2003. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28249/.
[3]Veillite, Connie. “Plan Colombia: A Progress Report.” www.ditc.mil, 2005. http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a573962.pdf.
[4]Andelman, David A. “The Drug Money Maze.” Council on Foreign Relations 73, no. 4 (1994): 94–108. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20046746.
[5]Bagley, Bruce. “Drug Trafficking, Political Violence and U.S. Policy in Colombia in the 1990s.” ugalapagosfall.miami, 2001. http://www.ugalapagosfall.miami.edu.
