Colombian Corruption

ranked ninth with a score of 82 out of 100 on the “Corruption Perceptions Index

According to the latest corruption index of countries around the world specified in the text, the least corrupt country is:

Furthermore, Colombia’s drug trafficking history has hindered its path to development also. The largest cocaine smuggling cartels were the Medellin Cartel led by the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel ran by the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and Santacruz Londono. Pablo Escobar was a very violent man that let success go to his head. His quest for power within government created a lot of violence between his cartel and the government (Frontline, n.d.). Escobar was tracked down and killed by the Colombian police then the Cali Cartel took over. They ran their smuggling business with finesse and professionalism. They hired lawyers to study DEA laws, they sold cocaine to government officials and police officers, and gave donations to government officials as well. The list of officials included former president Ernesto Samper ( Frontiline,

Pablo Escobar entered the cocaine trade in the early 1970s. He collaborated with other criminals to form the Medellin Cartel and eventually controlled over 80% of the cocaine shipped to the U.S. In 1975, Medellin drug trafficker Fabio Restrepo was murdered. His killing, it’s believed, came at the orders of Escobar, who immediately seized power and

During the 20th century Latin America went through a change after the U.S made the clam to directly defend Latin America. This caused a sudden trade switch from the Europe nation to the U.S. With this trade switch we start to see a big gap between the lower and upper class. With this gap the poor gets poorer and the rich become Carlos Slim. Carlos Slim was the world’s richest person form 2010-2013 and is a perfect example on how the upper class becomes billionaires. The wealth Disparity can also be seen in area like Sao Paulo, Brazil with their slums. With this wage gap crime started to flourish in Latin amerce along with corruption. Some of the best example of crime and corruption are the Colombian drug cartels with their wide spread murder and bribery tactics.

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born December 1, 1949 in Antioquia, Colombia. Pablo’s life was ended on December 2, 1993, when he was surrounded by police and was shot. Pablo Escobar will be remembered in history for being one of the wealthiest and most influential drug lords the world has ever seen. Pablo Escobar grew up from modest means, his father was a peasant farmer and his mother was a school teacher (biography.com editors, 2016). From his early days Escobar strived to raise his status up from modest to extraordinary. Unfortunately, his family could not afford his education so he had to drop out, this was the first step to Escobar’s life of crime (Crimemuseum, 2016). Escobar got his start at crime by becoming and average street thief and eventually stealing cars. Other early exploits include stealing headstones from cemeteries and sanding them off to sell off as new headstones (Crimemuseum, 2016). Escobar’s prominence came in during the “Marlboro Wars” where he had a high profile position in Columbia’s smuggled cigarette market (biography.com editors, 2016). Realizing the potential of the cocaine market Escobar made his first major power play. In 1975, Escobar ordered the assassination of Fabio Restrepo, who was the current head of the cocaine market (Crimemuseum, 2016). Escobar immediately took control of the cocaine market and expanded Restrepo old territory.

During the early 1990’s Colombia being one of the biggest exporters of narcotics in history, led by Pablo Escobar, who had a wide range of organized crime affiliations throughout Latin America. Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and he smuggled narcotics all the way to South Florida as when authorities tried to capture him. One of Pablo Escobar’s most important alliances was that of the Mexican-based traffickers. Escobar knew that this was an important trade route because of its geography and how it would be easier to smuggle the narcotics into the United States. This allowed a smuggling partnership between both countries and Mexico was to eventually lead their own drug based trafficking system with the help of Pablo Escobar. From the distributed drugs, cartels would take a certain amount of profit, and would use that money to bribe Mexican officials. By bribing Mexican officials it was insured that if smugglers were to be arrested they would either be let go, the case would be dropped or taking action against a rival smuggling group by giving away information about the rival’s plan to carry

During the 1970’s through the late 1990’s Colombia was widely known as the birth place for the cocaine drug traffickers. Colombia has produced the two most famous drug traffickers that have produced lots of cocaine and tons of money. Those drug traffickers were Griselda Blanco and Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria and his Medellin Cartel. Pablo Escobar and his cartel, The Medellin Cartel did most destruction to the country of Colombia. But poverty in Colombia has been reduced due to Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel. Since the beginning of La Viuda and Escobar, Colombia has grown as a country with its citizen to do better and prevent these drug lords to do damage once more. Griselda Blanco was the first women drug lord that made the country of Colombia lots of chaos.

To many, he is a terrible person, who brutally ruined lives, but to others, a savior and a provider. Pablo Escobar will always be remembered in the history of Colombia. Throughout his reign, he smuggled 66 tons of cocaine out of Colombia. He killed a lot of innocent people associated with the government and so many saw him as an overly aggressive savage. A clear majority of the population thought that Pablo was a saint even though he was a known to terrorize tons and tons of lives of people all throughout Colombia and the United States. Through his work, he made a lot of money which he donated to the poorest people of Colombia. As mentioned many times before, his donations of money, schools, hospitals, and other facilities left a mark on many of these people and communities. In 1986 he attempted to enter politics and lend aid to eradicate the national debt of 10 billion dollars. In 1986, Forbes listed his as the seventh-richest man in the world. Pablo Escobar was an immensely brutal and intimidating individual and due to his desire for riches, fortune, and authority in the Columbian government, he was forced to leave his role and leave the government

During the 20th century Latin America went through a change after the U.S made the clam to directly defend Latin America. This caused a sudden trade switch from the Europe nation to the U.S. With this trade switch we start to see a big gap between the lower and upper class. With this gap the poor gets poorer and the rich become Carlos Slim. Carlos Slim was the world’s richest person form 2010-2013 and is a perfect example of how the upper class becomes billionaires. The wealth Disparity can also be seen in areas like Sao Paulo, Brazil with their slums. With this wage gap, crime started to flourish in Latin amerce along with corruption. Some of the best examples of crime and corruption are the Colombian drug cartels with their widespread murder and bribery tactics.

Most importantly, the influence of drug cartels has led to rampant corruption in Colombia through the use of bribery . Traffickers attempted to influence government policies through large contributions to politicians and electoral campaigns This is exceptional in the 1982 election, where contributions from drug cartels were a large funding source, moreover, the 1994 election, the funds collected by the Samper campaign were deemed scandalous and even made international headlines . The latter case, sparked an inquiry into the corruption of Colombian Politics, a legal investigation dubbed ‘Proceso 800’, exposed Presidential candidate

According to James Painter in his BBC News article “Latin America faces year of change”, Latin America suffers from social violence, kidnapping, drug trafficking, child pornography, lack of women’s rights, and little accountability over the region’s law makers and authorities which can lead to government corruption (para. 12). Government corruption can be defined as political power used by government leaders for private gain and to maintain their power as a government official. Most of the times these corrupt politicians in Latin America say they are accomplishing apprehension of criminals to the best of their abilities when, in reality, they commit the same multitude of crimes. Politicians are able to maintain their power as a result of

Governmental corruption, political instability, and coup d’états have become almost commonplace in the world of Latin America. The complex sociopolitical and economic conundrums that plague Latin America stem from its deeply complex history. Corruption by the viceroyalty had been commonplace while the region was under the reign of the Spanish crown. This foundation of corruption paved way for the problems that we see in Latin America today. Latin America sought independence from the Spanish and Portuguese crowns in the 18th and 19th centuries. Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda were integral figures in facilitating Latin America’s freedom from the Spanish crown. Bolívar’s success in fighting off the Spaniards was inherently tied to Miranda’s

Another important cause of unemployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina is corruption. At the end of each year, numerous organizations do researches related to corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of these organizations is Transparency International organization. According to Transparency International, Bosnia and Herzegovina is represented as the one of the most corrupted and the most undeveloped countries in Europe. The corruption rate in this country is calculated as 14.9% and it places Bosnia and Herzegovina as the 5th country on the list of corrupted countries. During last four years, this country records constant decrease in global corruption rate because the other countries involved in this survey showed high increase in corruption rate. Moreover, Divjak (2012) states that this country did not make any improvement or decline in corruption rate, so it represents stagnation in economy. Although the decrease is finally stopped, the result is disappointing because there is no desire of the government to overcome the corruption. According to Tomas (2004, p.141.)

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.