War on Drugs in Colombia - Essay Example

War on Drugs in Colombia Order No.255710 November ‘08 War on Drugs in Colombia The drug trade in Colombiahas been fuelling armed conflict in Colombia for quite some time now. It is also responsible for gross violations of human rights and significant damage to the environment which in turn has caused untold misery to the people. From the 1970s, some of the most sophisticated and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world have made Colombia their home. What began as a small cocaine smuggling business has become a multi-national cocaine empire of enormous proportions. More than anything else, Colombia has become a major player in the “war on drugs”. Colombia became the source country and the main supplier of cocaine to the world markets in the nineties. Almost 80% of the cocaine used in America came from Colombia. This illegal narcotic trade yielded billion of dollars as revenue, most of which was used to fund armed groups which were involved in drug production as well as trafficking. For the past fifty years or so, Colombia has been a very unstable country. In the 1960s it was the two Marxist guerilla outfits the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that were creating instability. In the 1970s it was drug trafficking that became a big problem for Colombia. Drug cartels almost controlled the country then. In the 1990s the right-wing paramilitaries were formed mainly consisting of drug traffickers and landowners. The main paramilitary group was the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). The conflict in Colombia began even before large-scale production of cocaine began. The conflict was clearly a result of the unequal distribution of wealth and resources and the fact that people could get away with the abuse of human rights. The guerrilla forces vilated human rights and the wealthy in turn formed paramilitary forces to protect their power. The paramilitary forces dominated the drug trade, and the guerrillas have used money from the drug trade to finance their activities. “The War on Drugs” is the name given to the action taken by the United States and the participating countries to stop the supply of drugs to the United States and also to lessen the demand for drugs among the people. The actions include tough punishments for drug dealers as well as users. The major supply of drugs to the United States comes from Colombia. Peru and Bolivia were the major sources before Colombia. The US government destroyed most of the coca production in these places which led to a rise in the production of coca in Colombia. Plan Colombia was initiated to stop the production of drugs in Colombia. One measure adopted by Plan Colombia was the use of small aircrafts across Colombia to spray herbicides on coca plants. Another measure was the training of the Colombian Army to destroy not only the coca farms but also the guerillas and right-wing armies that support the production of drugs. It was Pastrana who announced Plan Colombia. The plan was to bring down the drug production by half within six years and to revive the economy that was in recession. The three-year program was to be financed primarily by the Colombian government and the United States and Europe were expected to donate some amounts. Pastrana wanted to introduce tough measures against drug traffic and also an economic strategy that would attract foreign investment and increase international trade. His strategy included tough austerity measures to improve Colombias standing in international financial markets, negotiating peace with the guerillas, modernizing the armed forces and the police, making local government accountable Pastrana was popular in Washington and this got him support from President Bill Clintons administration. Plan Colombia, was renamed the Andean Regional Initiative by President George W. Bush. The US package included assistance for counter-narcotics operations in Southern Colombia, assistance for farmers who grew coca to help them with alternate legal economic activities, support for human rights and support for judicial reform. Colombia has suffered brutal consequences in its war on drugs, civil war, gang violence and corruption being some of the consequences Colombia for long has been in a crisis situation. Drug dealers and government, left-wing rebels and right-wing death squads, are at war. According to Kathryn Wolford (2001) “The focus of the program is the aerial fumigation of coca plants. But in a decades-old conflict as complex as Colombias, it is naive at best and unconscionable at worst to ignore the impact of increased military firepower on counter-insurgency efforts.” The main problem of the war on drugs in Colombia is the effect of spraying of pesticides. In Colombia a chemical called Cosmo-flux has been added to the regular pesticide chemical glyphosate, in order to make the pesticide stick to the leaves of the coca plant. This combination, it is believed, increases the danger to human and animal life. Since coca is often planted along with other food crops, these too get killed. The death of plants has caused soil erosion. And with farmers after being driven from their lands migrating to jungles and clearing new land, more than a million acres of rain forests have been lost. People flee from the fumigations and from the fighting between guerrillas and paramilitaries and are forced to live in settlements where conditions are quite poor. As Hugh O’Shaughnessy (2008) says, “Plan Colombia has been a costly exercise in dangerous futility. Its military component has also been the principal cause of no less than 3 million Colombians, the current world record in one country, being uprooted from their homes”. There are other problems associated with war on drugs. The first problem of the war on drugs is the U.S. companies that fly eradication missions over coca fields in Colombia also provide surveillance planes that are able to spot left-wing guerrillas in Colombia and in the process provide military advice to Colombias army and police. The second problem is that the Colombian conflict may spread to neighboring countries. Neighboring Central and South America were worried that U.S. military aid might lead to the guerrillas and traffickers taking the war across borders. It is a fact that merchants from Ecuador have been killed and farmers terrorized by combatants from across Colombia. The third problem is that arms will not solve the drug crisis. It has been noticed that after arms destroyed the Medellin and Cali cartels there was more cocaine production and even more violence. There has also been an increase in cocaine prices. Tom F. Driver (2001) is right when he says, “The "war on drugs" is counterproductive, since it raises the price of the drugs, makes drug trafficking more profitable, and thus encourages dealers to try to sell more”. Armed struggle in Colombia is partly-financed with drug money. One cannot deny the fact that there is a huge market for drugs. When Governments make certain narcotics illegal, evidence points out to the fact that banning a substance, does not decrease the use of that substance. Figures show that in Colombia, even after so many years of efforts to stop cocaine production, the efforts have not borne much fruit. It has been reported that from 78,000 hectares of coca fields in 2006 it has increased by about 25 per cent to about 98,000 hectares in 2007. The aerial spraying is unable to keep pace with the increasing productivity of illicit crops. What the Government in Colombia needs to do is to review the relationship between its counter-drugs and security policies. There is need to have a rural development program that will consist of voluntary crop eradication programs and not forced eradication, in particular aerial spraying, The government should work towards peace and ceasefires with the insurgents. If the demand for drugs in the US and Europe can be reduced chances of bringing to an end the armed conflicts are more as this would reduce the profit margin of the armed groups as well as international drug trafficking organizations. As Tracy Moran (2002) says, “Reducing the demand for drugs such as cocaine and heroin here in the United States could go a long way toward freeing Colombia of its drug lords and well-funded rebels.” It appears that the finances of the armed groups have not been hard. As long as there is demand very little can be done. Again it is very important that peace must be maintained in Colombia while fighting the war on drugs. Peace must be the first priority of any policy. It must be remembered that drugs were not the only cause for conflict. Social inequality and immunity from human rights violations must be addressed if Colombia is to achieve lasting peace. References 1. Driver F.Tom(2001), Colombia’s War: Drugs, Oil and Markets, The Christian Century, November 7, 2001, Retrieved from http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2117 on 30/11/08 2. Moran Tracy (2002), Fight war on drugs in U.S., not in Colombia, http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnists/tmoran/tm27.htm 3. OShaughnessy Hugh (2008), The failing war on drugs, http://www.newstatesman.com/south-america/2008/06/colombia-drugs-failure 4. Wolford Kathryn (2001), U.S. Isnt Helping Colombia, Baltimore Sun, Retrieved from http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0227-01.htm on 29/11/08 Read More