War on Drugs in Colombia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

War on Drugs in Colombia - Essay ExampleColombia became the source country and the main provider of cocaine to the world markets in the nineties. Al closely 80% of the cocaine used in America came from Colombia. This illegal narcotic trade yielded billion of dollars as revenue, most of which was used to fund armed bases which were involved in do drugs production as well as trafficking. For the past fifty years or so, Colombia has been a very unstable country. In the 1960s it was the two Marxist guerilla outfits the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that were creating instability. In the 1970s it was drug trafficking that became a big problem for Colombia. Drug cartels almost controlled the country then. In the 1990s the right-wing paramilitaries were formed mainly consisting of drug traffickers and landowners. The main paramilitary unit group was the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). The conflict in Colombia began even b efore large-scale production of cocaine began. The conflict was clearly a result of the mismatched distribution of wealth and resources and the fact that people could get away with the abuse of human rights. The guerrilla forces vilated human rights and the wealthy in turn formed paramilitary forces to protect their power. The paramilitary forces dominated the drug trade, and the guerrillas have used money from the drug trade to finance their activities. The War on Drugs is the name given to the proceeding taken by the United States and the participating countries to stop the supply of drugs to the United States and also to lessen the demand for drugs among the people.