LIVING WITH THE U.S.
PLAN COLOMBIA
4/26/2010
The Latin American Drug Trade
What should be the goal/s of drug policy?
 Reducing the supply of illegal drugs
 Reducing the demand for illegal drugs
How do we measure success?
 Efficiency
 Completeness
 Public safety
 Humaneness
The Latin American Drug Trade
Supply and demand
 Major
supply countries: Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico
 Major consumer countries: the United States, European
Union
Eradication
Supply
Alternative Development
Repression/Interdiction
Transit
Financial Flows
Criminalization
Decriminalization
Demand
Public Health/Treatment
Public Information
The Latin American Drug Trade
Problems Associated with the Drug Trade in Latin America
 Increased power and prevalence of organized crime
 Increase in drug-related violence
 The “criminalization of politics” – politics as a means of
engaging in or furthering criminal activity
 The “politicization of crime” – crime as the subject of
political debate rather than a rule of law issue
 Corruption: all three branches of government, the
bureaucracy, police and the military
Colombia: Background




1948: assassination of Gaitán; La Violencia
1953: military coup to end civil violence and end
communist activities
1958: return to nominal civilian rule; military to ensure
“public order”
1966: FARC, an explicitly communist group, is established


1970’s: cocaine production shifts to Colombia



The end of la Violence and the beginning of
counterinsurgency
1982: Cocaine is a USD$2 billion dollar industry in Colombia
and represents more than 30% of exports
FARC “taxation” of cocaine production
1981: Extradition treaty with the US is signed
Colombia: Background

1985: M-19 seizes the Palace of Justice








Deaths: 33 guerrillas, 11 security forces, 11 justices, 43 civilians
1986: Presidential Directive #221 (Reagan) makes drugs a
U.S. national security threat
1979: M-19 begins kidnappings of the families of drug
lords
1981: MAS forms
1982: Paramilitary groups form, merge with MAS
1989: La Rochela massacre (MAS); revocation of the 1965
law legalizing paramilitary groups
1990’s: FARC gives responsibility for local finances to local
commanders; kidnappings increase
1993: Pablo Escobar killed
What is “Plan Colombia”?


A body of US legislation and policies aimed at
ending drug production in Colombia and at
weakening armed leftist groups
An agreement signed by Pastrana and Clinton in
2000 which established U.S. aid for Colombian
anti-cocaine efforts
 Initially
Plan Colombia focused on ending civil conflict
and on humanitarian and development aid
 The final agreement focused on counternarcotics and on
military aid
What is “Plan Colombia”?
Goals: drug reduction and national security

Counternarcotics



Crop eradication
Interdiction
Alternative
development

Territorial Control



Growth and
professionalization of
the military
Military engagement
Expanded police
presence

Aid



Internally displaced
persons
Demobilization
Judicial reform
Poppy cultivation and heroin production declined about 50%
Coca cultivation increased by about 15%; cocaine production
increased by 4%
FARC combatants decreased by about 50%
What is “Plan Colombia”?
Military as % of Total
80 %
99%
76%
80% 82%
82%
81%
80 %
64%
79%
What is “Plan Colombia”?





Myth: Planting coca improves the growers’ standard of
living
Myth: More coca means more forest, since other cash
crops require greater area
Myth: Fumigation will make immigrants who produce
illicit crops return to their area of origin
Myth: Illicit crop eradication increases consumer price
thereby reducing demand
Myth: Illicit crop eradication through aerial fumigation is
environmentally neutral and it works
Liliana M. Dávalosa; Adriana C. Bejaranob; H. Leonardo Correac. "Disabusing
Cocaine: Pervasive Myths and Enduring Realities of a Globalised Commodity,"
International Journal of Drug Policy; 20 (2009) pp. 381–386.