Cocaine Production in ColumbiaCocaine Production in ColumbiaCocaine Production in ColumbiaColumbia is the largest coca producing country in the world. Over 70% of our nation’s cocaine is produced and manufactured in Columbia (“battles won” 1). The cocaine production in Columbia is different than the rest of the Andean countries because it is grown on plots of land that are gigantic, whereas in Peru and Bolivia coca is grown on small plots of land. Cocaine producing plants are poor farmer’s biggest cash crop. Battles are fought every day between the government and farmers over thousands of acres that produce the raw material for cocaine. In the region that most of these farmers live the growing of coca and the transformation to cocaine is the largest and only functioning industry. It is a reliable income that has brought money into the country’s economy for over forty years (“a crop” 1). For many of these farmers, coca is the only plant that can bring enough money to their family for survival. Coffee, sugar, and bananas have been a major export for farmers in the past but a worldwide over-production has lead the farmers to producing fields of cocoa bushes. The lone functioning governments in parts of Columbia are leftist guerrillas. In these areas order is maintained by FARC, which is the countries largest rebel army.
The Columbian governments have put laws into place since the 1990’s to cut down on drug trafficking. “A legal structure has been in place that encourages traffickers to surrender and collaborate with the authorities in return for judicial leniency”(Clawson 90). The drug trafficking in Columbia is causing many problems for Columbian and United States governments. These drug traffickers earn billions of dollars every year selling cocaine to Europe and the United States.
The use of the coca plant has been a major way of life for indigenous people for thousands of years. Before coca was mainly used to produce cocaine, it was used by laborers as a mild narcotic to suppress hunger and give energy. “Some 70 different folk remedies include coca, sometimes in combination with other plants”(Lee 24).
“Cocaine is one of 13 alkaloids produced from the coca leaf, which has been cultivated in South America for at least 2,000 years”(Lee 21). In Columbia it is illegal to grow coca plants unlike Bolivia and Peru but Columbia is still the world’s largest producer of Cocaine. This is credit to drug cartels in Columbia that are run by people like Pablo Escobar, a powerful drug trafficker from the seventies to the nineties. The current day farmers have been cultivating this plant because of its profitability in producing cocaine. A field of plants can be harvested from three to six times a year. “Cocaine is not hard to make”(Lee 30). It is the trafficking to other countries that is risky. Columbia in the past, “to a greater or lesser extent, is economically dependent on the cocaine industry. The industry is not by any means the most effective source of revenue the economy; in fact, the wealth that it generates is not converted very efficiently into economic growth and may even retard growth in certain areas”(Lee 35). Columbia, as a developing nation, does receive great value economically with the exporting of so much cocaine. The money that is coming into their country helps stabilize their economy and the currency. This money also helps to finance much needed imports and develops the countries creditworthiness.
The drug wars that are fought in Columbia against traffickers and growers are mainly funded by the U.S. government. In 2000, the U.S. reportedly spent over three billion dollars to kill large amounts of cocoa plants that Columbian farmers were producing (battles won). “At the last count by the United Nations, in 2003, land under coca in Columbia was down to 213,200 acres from a peak of over half a million acres in 2000”(Battles Won). This was only a minor setback for the drug lords but it severely hurt the farmer’s incomes.
The only way for most farmers in this country to provide for their families is to produce coca plants for the drug cartels. It is easy money for the farmers compared to producing other products. “Survival is the operative word for these farmers, and la coca assures them of that. The sturdy brush is easy to grow, its leaves are easy to transform into the coca paste that farmers sell to dealers, who then cart the product through the jungle to secret laboratories where it is refined into pure cocaine”(“Columbia’s cocaine” 1). A kilo of cocoa paste only sells for about 900 dollars which covers food for the farmer’s family, taxes on the land, labor, and the production costs. After all these costs the farmers do not incur any revenue. The farmers are surviving but are not making any profit. On the other hand, the guerilla groups profit over 100 million dollars
The Colombian government is providing much the same for the people who have been living like pigs in Colombia for centuries.‖
‚”The government has provided these groups with free public transport and electricity. Most of these groups are well educated and do not have a lot of contacts with the drug lords. We can go to government school in this country and we will see if they are trying to bribe us or even just to help us,” said Juan Luis GarcĂa, head of public information operations at the Drug Enforcement Administrationµ (DEA). He claimed that many of these people were simply farmers who have had to put up with constant intimidation and violence by government officials when they began to import coca (‼Columbia’s coca) based on their family ties. “We have the power to compel the coca companies to come in, but we just hope that the government stops them from becoming an exporters. This is the same situation many of our government employees have in the West,” a representative of the Colombian Ministry of Environment gave.
‚The drug smuggling movement from Colombia has been well documented when it has targeted farmers in Colombia, and a majority of the families in the region are drug traffickers who have now been killed.†There have been numerous stories of farmers in Colombia’s western provinces who went into hiding and were killed by government helicopters.
The Drug Enforcement Agency of Colombia (DEA) is also providing military support for Colombian officers.†The Colombian government is also assisting members of the US Anti-Drug Trafficking Center-U.S. Drug Policy Project (DMPP).
‚The Drug Enforcement Administration and its Colombian counterparts have been using the military to combat the drugs traffickers by carrying out sophisticated surveillance of their operations under the guidance of National Security Advisor and Special Agent in Charge (SOC).†This group has also been conducting targeted investigations of alleged traffickers who are not in the Colombian border or in state custody. These types of raids are being used by the DEA along with other intelligence-led units to obtain information on narcoterrorism. Some of these raids have resulted in the deaths of two US Border Patrol soldiers.
The Colombian government is also providing armed security for the Colombian border, including an array of small arms and light weapons, including two heavily armored UAVs. The Colombian government has supplied the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with a number of helicopters with which the Colombian government often conducts operations. This means that security in most of Colombia has actually been much tougher as the Colombian government has been able to get at least the minimum of logistical support that they need from other countries.
The Colombian government has also provided several security forces who are trained by the US military during the war in Colombia. These men trained by the DEA also provide police with an increasing number of armored vehicles, light weapons, tactical armor, artillery, water cannon, armored vehicles and some air defense and surveillance aircraft.
The Colombian government is also providing some soldiers through its military forces as part of a strategy to secure and secure areas during the war. As such those special forces personnel stationed among the Colombian and US soldiers are also expected to be involved in the security of the border crossings, as well as those controlled by the government. (They are