The republic of Colombia has been fighting an internal war for over 50 years. On April 9th 1948, 1:00P.M. The leader of the Liberal Party Jorger Eliecer Gaitan walked out of his office in the downtown area, got shot 3 times and died once he got to the hospital. This day went down in Colombian history as the Bogotazo. Gaitan was a moderate socialist congressman that gave a voice to the middle and lower classes in Colombia. He gave hope to those that had nothing under the right wing elitist government. In 1948 after his death, the era of the Violencia started. A civil war between the Colombian communist party and the farmers against the right wing military conservative government due to the high inflation and unfair assistance to those that …show more content…
Colombia’s trade agreement with the United States opened new doors to foreign direct investment and growth in the manufacturing and industrial sectors. One major issue that Colombia deals with is that a major sum of that money and investment goes through what is called money laundering; which is a method used by criminals including FARC to clean the money that they made through the drug trade or illicit weapons trades. Due to the restrictive Colombian currency controls and tax laws, a black market to exchange currency has existed for decades for Colombian businessmen. As banks around the world became stricter about money laundering laws, Colombian traffickers began avoiding using the legitimate bank system and started infiltrating the black peso exchange to launder their drug money. This sophisticated method would eventually become known as the Black Market Peso Exchange, and is still one the most successful money laundering methods ever devised. “Fanny Kertzman, the former chief of Colombian Customs, says the black peso exchange launders almost $5 billion dollars of drug money a year for the Colombian traffickers”. Raymond Kelly, Commissioner of the US Customs Service stated that it’s the ultimate nexus between crime and commerce, using global trade to mask global money laundering. “Money Laundering is a gateway for the drug traffickers, FARC …show more content…
Most public school in Colombia are underfunded and have very few resources. According to the CIA Fact book education expenditures equal to 4.4% of the GDP. School life expectancy is 13 years and the unemployment rate for your ages between 15- 24 is 21.9 %. These numbers are in direct correlation with the terrorism conflict. The state has to concentrate its spending on military expenditures. This conflict also caused Colombia to become the country with the highest number of Internally Displaced Population. Official, there are 4,175,000 internally displaced people that lost their farms or homes due to the conflict in the rural areas. These people do not receive any assistance and went from being farmers and having a source of income to absolutely nothing. Most move into large cities and live in slumps. President Santos realizes the importance of education assured that “If we want to be free of poverty, if we want to combat it and if we wish to be the most socially unequal continent in the word, worse than Africa, education has to be our primary tool”. Santos believes that this has to be an “American movement. All of the Latin American states have to join together and make education a fundamental objective by creating a regional education
Illegal drug trade in Colombia is the practice of producing and distributing narcotics domestically and around the world. As of 2012, Colombia was the world leading cocaine producer in the world (Neuman, 2012). Cocaine, marijuana and heroin along with other illegal drugs have become a big part of Colombians lifestyle and a major source of income for many people. Since the establishment of the War on Drugs in the late 20th century, European countries and United States have provided billions of dollars, logistics and military aid to the Colombia government to combat the illegal drug trade (Lilley, 2006). As of 1999, Plan Colombia has been one of the biggest movements towards Colombia’s biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The movement was implemented as Colombia supplies 80% of cocaine to American citizens (Vellinga, 2000). The US Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that Colombia’s annual profit ranges between $5-7 billion from drugs smuggled into the United States.
The cartels are now in control of most of the drug trades and are successful. The Mexican border gives them the power to go everywhere they desire, making them a relentless force. “To date operation Xcellrator has led the arrest of 755 individuals and the seizure of approximately 5 U.S. Currency more than 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, more than 16,000 pounds of marijuana, more than 11,000 of methamphetamine, more than 8 kilograms of heroin, approximately 1.3 million pills of ecstasy”(Doj 2). Mexican cartels extend to central and southern America. Columbia is the supply of much of the cocaine exported to the U.S. Colombia is under control of South American gangs, they do business with the Mexican cartels to transport drugs the north. The Northern Mexican gangs hold the most control because the territory is very important (Wagner1). They are many different types of cartel in Mexico it also signifies that there are killing each other so their cartel can expand an...
First of all, it is important to highlight that Colombia plays a particular role in the chain of money laundering globally. Colombia has been classified by many as the main producer and exporter of cocaine in the world ; in consequence, it should be expected to find generous literature and articles regarding money laundering which support this assertion. Surprisingly, a specialized database as Jane’s Information Group only lists a few more than one hundred results regarding this topic for the last twenty years. On the contrary, Factiva database lists more than five thousand results under the same parameters of search. Similarly, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime presents more than five thousand articles related to money laundering in Colombia. Hence, it is possible to visualize the limited resources and effort that Jane’s allocates to cover this important issue of international crime in comp...
Colombia lies in the northern most part of South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea the Bogota is the capital of Colombia. Bordering between Panama and Venezuela and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama. The size of Colombia is 1,138,910 square kilometers less than three times the size of the state of Montana. Mainland territory divided into four major geographic regions. Andean highlands are composed of three mountain ranges and overriding valleys and Caribbean lowlands; Pacific lowlands; and llanos and tropical rainforest of Eastern Colombia. Colombia also has small islands in both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Climate in Colombia has unique variety in temperature resulting in changing differences in elevation not much seasonal variation. The rocky terrain cut by large rivers that flow into the Caribbean the Pacific. The Amazon and the Orinoco facilitates the construction of enormous reservoirs, which have steadily increased the country’s generation of energy and supply of drinking water.
Drug trafficking and terrorism are illegal clandestine activities with strong national security and law enforcement threat components and operational similarities. Terrorists like drug traffickers, need weapons and engage in violence to achieve goals. Terrorists, like drug traffickers, are often involved in hiding and laundering sources of funds. Both terrorists and drug traffickers operate transnationally, and often get logistical and operational support from local ethnic satellite communities. Both groups often rely on the criminal community for support: they may need smuggled weapons, forged documents and safe houses to operate effectively. Finally, both groups need a steady cash flow to operate. In the case of terrorists, where state sources of funding are rapidly diminishing, drug trafficking is an attractive funding option. Increasingly, terrorist organizations are looking to criminal activity and specifically the drug trade as a source of funding. The FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces, a guerilla force) in Colombia are but one of many cases in point.
Colombia's consistently sound economic policies and aggressive promotion of free trade agreements in recent years have bolstered its ability to weather external shocks. Columbia is the fourth largest coal exporter, and Latin America’s fourth largest oil producer. Economic development is obstructed by inadequate infrastructure, inequality, poverty, narcotics trafficking and an uncertain security situation. A major economic issue that the country faces is the fact that Columbia is a known global supplier of cocaine, marijuana, and heroin. The narcotics trade is around five to ten percent of the GDP, and because of drug trafficking, it has a negative impact on the economy and security. Another major political issue that Columbia faces is
a scheme that brought 10 tons of Colombian cocaine into the U.S. via Delta flights from Puerto
In Jeanette Schmidt’s article, Transporting Cocaine states, “Colombian cartels would pay the Mexican groups as much as $1,000/kilo to smuggle cocaine into the United States” (Schmidt, 2). The Colombian cartels would then pick up the drugs and resume distribution and sales efforts, making personal profits that are unrecorded. In order to seize these individuals who are growing in power and numbers, the U.S. must control the connections between Mexico and Columbia. Mexico is the biggest transporter amongst Columbia and the U.S. because it shares a border with the U.S. This increasingly poisonous drug trafficking leads to drug dealers...
Congress recognized this new problem that criminals encountered and began to enact money-laundering laws aimed at preventing the criminals from accessing these profits. Congress has created a regulatory system that works to identify the point at which criminals try and invest those profits or funnel them through the financial institution. As the black market becomes more profitable, anti-money laundering laws provide a unique alternative to many of the other laws aimed at preventing and punishing crime. Instead of only convicting the drug dealer who stood on the corner, anti-money laundering laws establish liability for anyone who has knowledge of the illicit origin and proceeds to transact with the drug dealer. They aim to take away any ability to use profits and thus any incentive to get involved in profitabl...
Violence in modern Colombia takes place in many forms. The three major categories are crime, guerrilla activities, and attacks committed by drug traffickers. Violence has become so widespread and common in Colombia that many people have now become numb to it. The Colombian economy has also benefited from the illicit drug trade however violent it may be. During the 1970s, Colombia became well known, as one of the world’s most important drug processing, production, and distribution centers for marijuana and cocaine.
Drug trafficking is a prohibited, global trade that involves the production, the distribution, and the sales of drugs. It is a topic that has become a very large issue all over the world. It also has had a very big effect on many different countries because they often depend on the business that the drug trafficking creates. Since it has become such a problem, there have been many different efforts to put a stop to drug trafficking by different enforcement agencies. A website about drug statistics, drugabuse.net, indicated that the Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA, as it is well known as, makes over thirty thousand arrests each year dealing with the illegal sales or distribution of drugs. It is also believed that Mexico’s economy would shrink by over sixty-three percent if they lost their drug trafficking industry. There are many different tribulations like this that drug trafficking has created. Many people see it as such a vital asset to some countries, so it has emerged as an extremely big business that brings in a boatload of money. Just like any other immense problem, drug trafficking has its causes and effects
I have been recently hired by the company to conduct research on El Salvador. I have conducted this research on the political, social, and economic factors in order to determine if this company should build a factory in El Salvador. Based on my research I am not recommending to build in El Salvador.
Costa Rica’s emphasis on providing free, universal education is easy to see in its English-speaking, globally-minded citizens. For Costa Rica’s schools the goal is to create a populace that is well-educated, so that one day they will improve their national and global position. However, despite the high level of spending, there is a gap in educational outcomes. Gaps in the access to education depend on household income, and have widened in the last two decades. According to the OECD, average school attainment remains low, as only 40% of the workforce has completed secondary education. The OECD recommends that the country should move away from an exclusive emphasis on increasing spending as a policy target and instead establish better educational outcomes as the main target. There is also a need to improve efficiency and evaluation mechanisms, and enhance accountability across the entire education system, including
The paper traces Escobar's life from humble peasant beginnings to powerful cocaine drug dealer and kingpin. The paper discusses the sound financial decisions Escobar made as well as the way he invested in legitimate projects using the funds he gained illegally. The paper explores the influence Escobar had and the way he worked, ultimately unsuccessfully, to establish a no-extradition clause into the Colombian constitution.
There is currently a war in schools in the United States. Many school districts are losing funding so they are cutting band, choir, or art. People are in raged. People in the United States have lost sight of the world around us. The United is currently seventeenth in the world for education and spends 591 billion dollars on education each year. The United States prides itself on education for all. In the United States people are pushed to go further and further in education offering scholarships and grants for college and graduate schools. The United State, like other countries, has public, privates, charter, and alternative schools but what is common in Latin America? Many Latin American countries spend less than 5,000 U.S. dollars per student on education. In the United States approximately 11,810 dollars is spent per student per year. () Due to the lack of funds in these countries, the average grades of the students are lower than other countries. Without money to keep kids in schools all day, build schools, and pay qualified faculty it is impossible to expect the average grade to be equivalent to ours. In the journal The Economist, an article duly titled “Cramming them in” was published. The article talked about the economic problems, the over crowding, and the changes they are making to the system. The author of the article wrote “Two-thirds of Latin American children now get at least some secondary education, whereas only half did in the mid-1980s.” There is progress happening and Latin American countries are trying to make sure the progress will keep going. The world is pressuring the countries to build education and innovation. Because many people are poor they cannot get good educations. The current rise in the economy i...