Living with the U.s. Plan Colombia

1. Living with the U.s.Plan Colombia 4/26/2010

2. 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

3. The Latin American Drug Trade Supply and demand • Major supply countries: Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico • Major consumer countries: the United States, European Union

4. 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

5. 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 • The end of la Violence and the beginning of counterinsurgency • 1970’s: cocaine production shifts to Colombia • 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. What is “Plan Colombia”? • Counternarcotics • Crop eradication • Interdiction • Alternative development • Aid • Internally displaced persons • Demobilization • Judicial reform Goals: drug reduction and national security • Territorial Control • Growth and professionalization of the military • Military engagement • Expanded police presence 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%

9. What is “Plan Colombia”? 80% 79% Military as % of Total 80 % 99% 76% 82% 82% 81% 80 % 64%

10. 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.