Cartel Violence In Colombia

It wasn't just in Miami that the violence had erupted but also in Colombia. The situation in the country was much worse; the Medellin Cartel which was controlled by Pablo Escobar, The Ochoa Brother, Carlos Lehder, and Jose Rodriguez Gacha controlled much of the drug trade in Colombia. The Medellin Cartel would be at war against the Colombian government; as a result police, judges, and government officials were gunned down on the streets of Columbia. The government had evidence to extradite anyone who was caught acting in drug related crimes. As a result the Cartel made one of the most violent act they have ever committed. On November 6, 1985 the guerrilla group, M19, raided the palace of justice. According to Business Insider the raid took course over 2 days.

The rebel group had a connection with the cartel and so Escobar paid 1 million dollars for the rebel group to raid and to get rid of evidence secured by the government that would allow the United States to extradite any cartel members to the US.

The group was able to destroy all the evidence on the last day of the raid, about 6000 cases involving the cartel were destroyed in a fire. The Colombian Army was only able to take back the palace by using automatic weapons, explosives, and eventually tanks to take control and free the hostages. In the end a handful of hostages were killed, 11 of the 25 justices were killed, and all 40 of the rebels were killed by the Army. Drug organization will go to any extent to keep them in power and out of jail. They’re money and power allows them to go by their own rules and to get rid of anybody who opposes them. The US would soon put more pressure on the Colombian government to take out the

cartels.
What made the US more involved in the war on drugs was the discovery of the cartel and Nicaragua working together in transporting the drugs into the US. Nicaragua was run by the Marxist Sandinistas, a communist run government. The US found out that the Cartel had made a deal with Nicaragua; it would allow them to transport their drugs through Nicaragua without being stopped their authorities. Barry Seal a key person in discovering this information. He was a smuggler for the Medellin Cartel, transporting their product from Colombia to Miami. He would later be caught and indicted in Fort Lauderdale, facing a 10 year sentence he decide to cooperate with the authorities saying he could get evidence on Escobar. Working undercover for the DEA Seal’s was able to capture pictures of Escobar unloading a plane with Nicaraguan soldiers. Reagan seized the opportunity that America was being destroyed by the communist in Nicaragua, saying that they are helping the people who bring violence to our streets and are threatening our children's future. America became more involved with the fight and pressured the Colombian government to take action and to start fighting back.
Crime will never be completely gone, but what we can do is fight it and prevent drug organization from being too large. As we move further into the future Cartels are being more creative in transporting their product into the states. They not are only finding new ways to transport their product but also acquiring more dangerous weapons to use. We not only need to eliminate the cartels but also the corrupt police and government officials.
Drugs consume people in many ways. Crime rise with the use of drugs, violence erupts; there is corruption in the government, and fear in the people. The War on drugs needs to be fought in order for these events from happening again. If we do not support the fight all the violence and corruption will rise again and we will be back where we started. Violence will come back, death and destruction to our communities will ruin the lives of many people, we have fought the War on Drugs and we have seen it fall, we can prevent it from ever happening again.