Peace Negotiations in Colombia

Drugs. They have entered our communities, our schools, our neighborhoods, our homes. For generations now they have been affecting our society; influencing politics, laws, wars, science, and the overall structure of society. Russia and Mexico have had some of the highest involvement in drugs, and the fight against them. In Russia almost 6 percent of the total population, which is about 8.5 million people are drug addicts, or regular users. Russia has also become increasingly involved in the trafficking of drugs. In comparison Mexico has been one of the largest marketplaces for drugs, and has been a major producer and exporter of marijuana and heroine. In order to further better their countries, Russia and Mexico have implemented certain policies to restrict, outlaw, or limit drugs and the trafficking of them. This paper is going to compare Russia’s and Mexico’s policies on drugs, it will explore the history and background of both countries policies, the effectiveness of each of the countries policies, and will compare the two countries policies. In this comparison we will discover which country if any has had a more effective policy on drugs.

Plan Colombia is a long-prevailing foreign aid package bestowed to the country of Colombia from the United States. This foreign aid package grants substantial financial assistance to Colombia, intending to fight the “War on Drugs” and to reduce the trafficking of narcoleptics, but there is a multitude of other factors and implications, both unintentional or indirect and intentional due to ulterior motives. To accomplish the goals of Plan Colombia, most of the aid has been provided in the form of armed forces. This situation is complicated because of the ongoing civil war between the government of Colombia and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC). Additionally making matters difficult has

Colombia has endured vicious conflicts throughout its country for the past 36 years. It is considered to be the one of the most violent places in the world, with a murder rate of eight times greater than the United States. Colombia’s army troops, consisting of the 12th Brigade, rebels, guerillas and paramilitaries, have not made the horrendous war any better. Washington has singled out the 12th Brigade for it’s severe brutality towards civilians to the point of U.S aid suspension. The Colombian people constantly live in fear, not only from criminals, but their own troops as well. In the article, “Columbian Army to Push Human Rights” armed forces commander General Fernando Tapias says, “Civilians should find, in a soldier, a defender of

Historically, Colombia has opposed the ELN and their attempts at gaining power within the country. However, there has been corruption by government and military officials. The corruption comes in the way of support for the ELN (Stanford, 2012). Regardless of the corruption, the Colombian government is currently making strides to begin peace talks with the ELN in 2014; however, no specific dates have been established. (Insight crime, n.d.).

Narcobusiness is entrenched in economies and in lives of people in the drug producing countries. It provides much better income than traditional jobs. Weakening of the state, its inability

As Charles Bergquist observes, "Crises in Colombia tend to generate cycles of violence instead of mutations in the political regime." The reason is simple: regime changes in Colombia tend to produce very little change in anything other than nominal rule. Since Colombia's independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Colombia has seen a series of civil wars and secessions (Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama the last coming rather conveniently at a time when the U.S. was prepared to pay millions for a canal through its nation preparation that later resulted in a multi-million dollar redress to Columbia). Colombia's political history, therefore, has been colored by outside influences pulling on the two dominant liberal and conservative parties, with violent exchanges, and long periods of instability being the consequences. While regime changes have occurred, they have not produced significant improvements. Rather, Colombia in the 20th century has become a nesting ground for paramilitary forces and drug traffickers, with U.S. Central Intelligence operatives contributing heavily to the violent conflict that has risen between regimes. This paper will examine the regime types that preceded the Rojas Pinilla regime in mid-20th century Colombia, analyze their similarities and differences, and discuss the extent to which Rojas Pinilla reached his goals and objectives.

Like many other countries in Latin America and across the globe, Peru is no stranger to the economic and social impacts of illicit drug trade. However, unlike most other countries in the region like Colombia, Peru does not experience a high rate or organized crime or violence surrounding the drug trade. Although violence is minimal, the growth of cocoa and the production of cocaine is a massive industry within the country, creating an interesting dynamic between the people of Peru, those involved in the drug trade, and the Peruvian Government. The drug trade in Peru has been fueled by the geography, structure of the criminal groups involved, perceived corruption of the military and police forces, and an ineffective and overcrowded prison system.

Historically, the relations between U.S and Colombia have been marked the foreign policy and the international trade. Nevertheless, the civil war in Colombia have shifted this relation. In Colombia, the establishment of The Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) during the 1960s created the beginning of an era of terrorist and drug trafficking. The FARC began forming in 1966 inspired by the Cuban Revolution with a left-wing nationalism and Marxism-Leninism. FARC’s actions trough the history has been involved with terrorist against of the population in Colombia. As well, thousands of peasant farmers that have been obligated to produce illicit drugs in their own properties controlled by the guerrillas. Nowadays, the FARC has been the largest and oldest insurgent group in the Americas. The FARC has been roundly criticized for initiating

Colombia is a Latin American country located in South America that has been ravaged by violence, starvation, and large-scale inequality between higher and lower classes. The chaos in Colombia has been between rebel forces and the government and has lasted for over fifty years. These rebel forces have fought to achieve their Liberalist lead goals of overthrowing the current democratic government of Colombia and replacing it with a communist government. La Violencia was the main contributor to the conflict between the resistance fighters of Colombia and the Colombian government that has brought on violence and terror from the violent actions between the Liberal and Conservative parties in the 1950’s. , which has directly brought on the violence and terror from the guerrilla groups.

The earning of mass amounts of drug money has created a debate about whether the drug trade has helped or hurt the Colombian economy. Specifically, the debate centers on how narcotics have affected the economy in the short and long runs because the drug trade, in reality, has brought in millions of dollars. How this money, earned by trafficking drugs, has returned (or not returned) to the country and its population through its

Negotiated forgiveness consists of the perpetrator and the victim to confront one another and discuss the motives and understand the perpetrator’s intentions. With the dialogue between the two opposing parties, reconciliation can finally emerge. Kraft states the need for negotiated forgiveness, “In the context of truth commissions, unilateral forgiveness is forgiveness, and negotiated forgiveness is reconciliation. During truth commissions, forgiveness appears as an internal disengagement from the perpetrator, independent of the actions of the perpetrator. In contrast, reconciliation is a dialectical process of acceptance, involving direct interactions between perpetrators and victims,” (Kraft 115). This is why reconciliation is extremely important, to resolve reconciliation is essential in promoting peace. With a strong understanding of the contrast between forgiveness and reconciliation, one can intensely evaluate the process of reconciliation during the events of the TRC.

Throughout Colombia’s history there has been two very violent groups of people who do not like each other. This caused the War of Thousand Days and The Violence,

In the late 20th century, the South American countries of Argentina and Chile went through two considerably turbulent periods of violent clashes between governmental and military forces against native citizens. These clashes not only caused severe damage within both communities but also led to specific reconciliation recommendations by truth commission committees set out in Núnca Mas and the Rettig Report. These specific recommendations not only aided in the reconciliation process but also helped in the social, and political, development of both Argentinian and Chilean society. These reports were translated into multiple languages; recorded scores of people, who were hurt both physically and psychologically by these terrors, and mostly allowed for those with no voice to be heard not only by the countries involved, but by the world as a whole. In the end, the Argentinian and Chilean people effected by these atrocities not only were given the option of knowing the history of their countries, but ultimately the ability to feel protected and valued in the places they were hurt most. With the aide of truth commission report recommendations the societies effected were given a new chance at healing and rehabilitating their country, which mostly was destroyed both physically and mentally. These reports not only give a direct and unabridged version of the story of the conflict, but also gave the victims of these countries, as well as the world, one history they can all be agreed

Colombia’s stance on human rights is still a work in progress. Many people such as rights advocates Colombia’s stance on human rights is still a work in progress. Many people such as rights advocates continue to be attacked. More than 110 cases have been committed from the year 2009 and up. Human rights defenders are being attacked in such a way that the Interior Minister of Colombia is in charge of a protection program that protects them (World Report 2015: Colombia, 2015). The president of Colombia made a statement that the assistance from the U.S. is very effective in the fight against human rights and drug trafficking. The U.S. secretary of State John Kerry gave great accolades on how the country of Colombia is becoming a stabilized institution

Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking happens on the border between Mexico and the United States. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, “Our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our door and our window”