Ever since President Álvaro Uribe took office in 2002, the
drug cartels in Colombia have been on their heels. After 30 years of terror and
control, the cartels are a shell of their former organization, and have
continued to fragment into smaller organizations. The DEA and the Colombian National police
have continued to keep the pressure on the cartels, and while they are still in
operation, they do not have near the strength they did even 10 years ago.
The two main groups have been the Medellin and the Cali
cartels. They were named after the main cities in which they operated, and at
some points they even basically controlled those areas. I use the past tense
when referring to these cartels because I do not believe they could be
considered cartels today because of how they have broken up and fragmented into
smaller, quasi-independent organizations. What were once large cartels that had
trouble laundering all of their money because they had so much are now run at a
much lower level and are sometimes submissive to the larger, more brutal Mexican
cartels. The drug traffickers in Colombia now deal primarily with the production
of cocaine, and trying to not get caught by the DEA or Police. They let the Mexican cartels focus on the transportation and distribution of the drug, which is where the
most amount of money is to be made. As seen in this article, when the former head of the Medellin cartel was caught and
interrogated, he admitted strong ties to the Juarez cartel.
After the destruction of both the Cali and Medellin cartels,
the cocaine business began to fragment. Younger lieutenants realized that the
large organizations had been more vulnerable to attack by US and Colombian authorities.
They formed smaller, more controllable groups and began compartmentalizing
their responsibilities. One group simply smuggles the drugs from Colombia to
Mexico. Another group controls the jungle labs. Yet another deals with
transportation of coca base from the fields to the labs. However, the Colombian
government has put a huge dent into the day to day operations of the cartels,
and continues to make the possibility of drug trafficking more and more
difficult. With continued enforcement, the state of Colombia should continue to
take control of this transnational crime problem and make it less of a human
security issue for those living in the regions that these cartels used to
dominate and control.
Wow this was a very interesting post! It was thought-provoking to read of the fragmentation of Colombian cartels in line with the rise of Mexican cartels with the examples you provided, particularly Colombian drug traffickers dealing mainly with production, while Mexican drug traffickers deal mainly with transportation and distribution.
ReplyDeleteYes, it definitely shows how unexpected consequences can arise from situations. I am guessing that few policy makers thought that by destroying the Colombian cartels we would give rise to the Mexican cartels that are right in our back yard.
ReplyDeleteI love the Colombian posts. This is definitely an international issue that has been controlled by the state and local forces. The Colombian and Mexican cartels work hand-in-hand (one supplies, the other sells). I believe to take care of our close drug problem, the source needs to be handled. The Colombian government seems more than fit and willing. The Mexican government has been trying, but since we share a border it should have the two governments working together.
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