Columbia and Drug Trade

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Columbia and Drug Trade

Nowadays, when someone thinks of Colombia, they unfortunately almost always think of two things, coffee and cocaine (with its associated guerilla warfare). It is true that during the last 50 years these two products, one legal, and the other not, have been great monetary contributors to the Colombian economy. Coffee is Colombia’s principal agricultural product, and it is also the country’s second largest export. The production of coffee uses 300,000 farms and employs almost one million people (Steiner 6). Conversely, cocaine is a completely illegal product, but it earns almost twice as much money as coffee (Steiner 6). Also, in contrast with the production of coffee, cocaine uses fewer employees but earns more money (Steiner 6). The history of the Colombian drug trade is something relatively recent, given that it pertains to the last 50 years of contemporary Colombian history. After World War II, there is evidence of the, “exportation of drugs from Colombia to the United States…since the 1950s Medellín was an international center of drug trade…” (Salazar 78). Basically, the drug trade had its small beginnings in the 1950s, and in the 1960s the different groups of drug lords began to consolidate into drug cartels. “The activity of dealing drugs in Colombia dates back to the 1970s with the cultivation and exportation of marijuana…” (Thoumi 139). In the 1970s, drug lords like Pablo Escobar, an extremely powerful mafia-like leader of the Colombian drug ring, took control and created a completely illegal and clandestine economy centered around narcotics. Little by little, these groups of drug lords and their cohorts, who divided themselves regionally, began to gain control. Eventually the situat...

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Salazar, Alonso J. La Cola del Lagarto: Drogas y Narcotráfico en la Sociedad Colombiana. (The Tail of the Lizard: Drugs and the Drug Trade in Colombian Society.) Medellín, Colombia: Corporación Region, 1998.

Steiner, Roberto, Alejandra Corchuelo. Economic and Institutional Repercussions of the Drug Trade in Colombia. Bogotá, Colombia: Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico, Universidad de Los Andes, 2000.

Thoumi, Francisco E. Drogas ilicitas en Colombia: Su Impacto Económico, Político y Social. (Illicit Drugs in Colombia: Their Economic, Political and Social Impact.) Colombia: Programa de la Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, PNUD, 1997.

Tokatlian, Juan G., Bruce M. Bagley. Economía y Política del Narcotráfico.(Economy and Politics of the Drug Trade) Bogotá, Colombia: C.E.I. Uniandes, 1990.

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