Colombia has long been the world's largest producer of cocaine and controls some 80% of the world market. It is also the world's third largest producer of marijuana. In the late 1980 the country started growing opium poppies and producing heroin. Most of the drugs are exported to Europe and the United States.
The production and trafficking of these drugs is illegal and ran by regional mafia organizations, known as cartels. During the 1980's the Medellín cartel dominated the cocaine business, but it was later overshadowed by the Cali cartel. Other important cartels include regional groupings in Bogotá, Santa Marta, Bucaramanga and other large cities.
In the beginning of the 1970's the cartels started in a small way. Cocaine was hidden in shoe heels, or sewn into the linings of suitcases and coats. So-called mulas (mules, persons that were paid to carry the drugs) smuggled the cocaine overseas on regular flights on commercial carriers. In those days the cartels bought the raw cocaine paste in Bolivia and Peru. They refined it in their hidden laboratories in Colombia and then the mulas took the pure cocaine to the U.S., mainly Florida.
The cartels became richer and their methods of smuggling more sophisticated. In the beginning of the 1980's the Medellín cartel became the most powerful. It's leaders included Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder, who lived in luxury and moved freely around the country. Lehder founded a newspaper to promote his political party, the Movimiento Nacional Latino. Escobar did the same and in 1982 he was elected to congress. He was popular among the poor, as he used part of his personal wealth of US$2 billion to construct a barrio for 200 poor families in Medellín, as well as numerous other benevolent actions. He was known as Robin Hood Paisa throughout Colombia.
In 1983 the cartel opened the largest cocaine laboratory in history, known as Tranquilandia. It stood in the Colombian jungle, on the banks of the Río Yarí in Los Llanos. It included 14 fully equipped laboratories, water supply, electricity, dormitories for its workers and its own airstrip to fly out the cocaine in private airplanes. In Tranquilandia, some 3500 kg of pure cocaine was produced every month.
After President Belisario Betancur appointed Rodrigo Lara Bonilla Minister of Justice in August 1983 everything changed. Bonilla launched a campaign against the drug trade, which led El Espectador, one of Bogotá's leading newspapers to publicize a list of crimes committed by Escobar. This event started off a war between the cartels and the Colombian government.
In March 1984 the police raided Tranquilandia and arrested everyone working there. Seven airplanes were confiscated, along with weapons, vehicles and chemicals. It is said that the police dumped some fourteen tons of cocaine into the river after the action.
The cartel bosses escaped to Panama. In May 1984 they proposed to use their fortune to pay off Colombia's entire foreign debt, which amounted some US$13 billion at that time, in exchange for immunity from prosecution, but the government turned down their proposal.
The cartels continued to operate secretly and their profits were used to buy land. The drug traffickers became major landowners and the started to create small private armies to protect their investments. After Ochoa's sister was kidnapped, the notorious MAS (Muerte a Secuestradores, or Death to Kidnappers) army was created.
The Medellín cartel assassinated Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984, thus eliminating its major adversary. The government responded by implementing an extradition treaty with the U.S. that had been signed several years earlier, but never enforced. Colombia sent four minor drug traffickers to the U.S. to stand trial there and the Medellín cartel launched a campaign against the extraditions. They started calling themselves the 'extraditables' and used slogans such as 'better a grave in Colombia than a jail in the U.S.'. As a result, a fair amount of nationalist opposition against the treaty arose.
The government stood tough on the issue though and the cartel started supporters of the campaign against them. In 1986, Guillermo Cano, the publisher of El Espectador was assassinated. The situation became more violent and eventually even the Attorney General was murdered. In February 1987 the Colombian police captured Carlos Lehder in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
In August 1989, the cartel assassinated the leading presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galán. This event led the government to declare an all out war against the cartels. With the support of US$65 million in aid and logical support from the U.S., then President Barco confiscated 989 buildings and ranches, 367 airplanes, 73 boats, 710 vehicles, 4.7 tons of cocaine, 1279 guns and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. The cartel responded with a campaign of terror. Farms of regional politicians were burned and bombs were detonated in banks, newspaper offices, political party headquarters and private homes in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín and Barranquilla.
In September 1989 the headquarters of El Espectador was destroyed. In November all 101 passengers and six crewmembers aboard an Avianca flight from Bogotá to Cali were killed when the plane was bombed. In December the building of the national police agency (DAS) was blown up.
After a massive manhunt Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, a cartel leader known as 'El Mexicano' was killed. He was thought to be the mastermind behind all the bombings. After his death the remaining cartel leaders started negotiations with the government, which led to the surrender of the three Ochoa brothers, Pablo Escobar and their aids. The deal they made with the government was to plead guilty to one crime only, in exchange for guarantees that they were not to be extradited to the U.S. and that they could serve a reduced sentence in a luxury prison especially built for them in Envigado, the hometown of Pablo Escobar. The Colombian government rejected the extradition treaty for Colombian nationals.
With all the top leaders of the Medellín cartel either dead or behind bars the narco-terrorism subsided, but the drug trade flourished like never before. Around two to three tons of pure cocaine continued to enter the U.S. every week. Escobar and his associates continued to run their business from their prison, but they were unable to maintain domination of the market. The Cali cartel took over the number one position.
When the government attempted to move Pablo Escobar to a more secure prison in July 1992, he escaped and narco-terrorism resumed. A new manhunt started and a 1500-man Search Elite sought for Escobar 24 hours a day. Finally in December 1993, after 499 days of searching, he was located and killed.
Unfortunately, when the government was concentrating on one man and one cartel, the other cartels continued to expand their business and Colombia's cocaine exports continued to grow. The Cali cartel took over most of the Medellín cartel's business. It is lead by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers who run their business quietly. They avoid violence and terrorism as much as possible.
The Cali bosses have diversified their business into opium poppies and heroin. They exchange cocaine for xtc tablets from The Netherlands, as they are immensely popular in Colombia, while cocaine use is on the rise in Holland. In recent years some leaders of the Cali cartel, including Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela have been arrested, but that won't deter the cartels to move out of the US$5 billion a year business.
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