The Role Of Drug Trafficking In Latin America

While the United States and Europe are the main importers of cocaine, the main exporters of cocaine are found in Latin America. Latin America has among one of the most impacted nations involved in narco-terrorism. In Latin America, cocaine is known as the “atomic bomb”. The most impacted countries of narco-terrorism are Columbia, Mexico, and Peru.

In the last decades, narco trafficking and organized crime had emerged as the main security threats in Latin America. Deviant globalization increase their power by establishing connections with similar organizations in other parts of the world, like cocaine distribution networks, for example. This perceived danger increases the pressure on the governments for effective solutions, and some of them consider that these problems had overwhelmed the capabilities of the local police. Consequently, the intervention of military forces would be necessary to secure the stability of the countries. However, the use of force as the only solution is the outcome of a misunderstanding of the root causes that generates them. This paper presents the research for a general pattern in the region that is helpful to understand how the civil society perceives the failures of governance and how the networks of illegal activities exploit this perception.

The alternative crop programs the US proposed to replace coca failed for various reasons. The unstable political situation made the area too dangerous to bring in “agronomists, engineers, and project specialists” to survey the land (Kirk 265). Even if farmers had been successful in growing alternative crops, the Colombian market for legal crops such as corn, yucca, coffee and chocolate was already “battered by global shifts in price.”(Kirk 264) Legal crops had to be transported on poor roads and farmers had to wait months to be paid for their goods. These were no competition for coca which was paid for immediately, often times with American cash, and transported without any charge to the farmers (Kirk 243).

South America: The article "Brits Behind Bars: Cocaine Smugglers," was published on telegraph.co.uk on August 10, 2015 by Jane Shilling. Over the past few years, more arrests have occurred for cocaine smuggling which makes Peru now one of the largest producers of cocaine. Smugglers have now gained more access to drug trades, though drug mules who have their own way of smuggling. The mules are persuasive and gain other smugglers trust to carry the bricks of cocaine, and then use a spray to keep sniffer dogs from catching them. But thankfully, two smugglers were spotted by Maria, an anti-narcotics profiler, who found the £1 million of cocaine they were carrying.

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.

This refers to the elimination of drug crops while they are still being grown. The U.S. has used this policy in several South American countries as a means to limit drug trafficking before it has a chance to develop. However, significantly reducing crops has not always led to decreasing drug trafficking. Reduction of drug crops in one country may lead to increased production in another. This is likely to happen when one country becomes the focus of an eradication effort, while another country can increase its production to fill in the void. If there is one thing that the world market can produce, it is its high demand of illegal drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance gives cites a specific instance verifying the problems that can be associated with eradication procedures. During the mid 1990s, “eradication efforts in Bolivia and Peru created incentives to grow coca in Columbia. While Peru experienced a 66% reduction in coca cultivation and Bolivia experienced a 53% reduction, coca cultivation in Columbia doubled. In addition, more potent strains of coca have been developed, leading to higher yielding coca crops.” This example shows the adverse effects of the policy of eradication.

(Buehring) One reason that the United States’ “War on Drugs” hurt Latin and South American countries was that it strengthened alliances between rural coca farmers, particularly in Peru, and the drug cartels that generated money for them against local and American governments, who attacked and destroyed the farmers’ way of making money, coca. At the heart of the “War on Drugs” was cocaine. The cocaine business was and still is Latin America’s multinational industry, and ever since its’ establishment, Peru has supplied the raw coca leaves and paste for the entire continent. This made it a very important place for the guerilla groups, who distributed and profited off of the cocaine, as much as it did the US and Peruvian governments, who sought

The international drug trade from Latin American states is having an impact on a global scale. The trafficking of drugs along with corruptness and murder is an international conflict that is being fought daily. There are many aspects of the drug war from Mexico and other Latin American states which have effects on United States policy as well as policies from other countries that participate in the global suppression of illegal drugs.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the country became a prime smuggling ground for marijuana. But as the cocaine market flourished, Colombia’s geographical location proved to be its biggest asset. Situated at the northern tip of South America between the thriving coca cultivation epicenters of Peru and Bolivia, the country came to dominate the global cocaine trade with the United States, the biggest market for the drug, just a short trip to the north. Escobar moved quickly to grab control of the cocaine trade. 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 expanded Restrepo’s operation into something the world had never seen. Under Escobar’s leadership, large amounts of coca paste were purchased in Bolivia and Peru, processed, and brought to America. Escobar worked with a small group to form the infamous Medellin

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

In this research paper I will discuss one transnational crime, and compare the contrast of two nations for their definition of the crime rate, and tools used to measure the crime. I will give each country’s legal tradition and their major influences on crime definition, rate, and measurement. In this assignment I will analyze the extent to which crime statistics collected in different nations can adequately be compared.

Drug trafficking is a major issue in Colombia, causing many other issues across the country. Many people involved in the drug trade including civilians are being killed, kidnapped, and injured over this problem. Over the years, the government has started cracking down on the growers, producers, and sellers but so far, they have only caught minor criminals. The government is making agreements with neighboring countries and finding alternative uses for the crops to slow down the production of drugs. Despite all of the efforts being made to stop drug trafficking, violence, and production the cartels are still thriving throughout Colombia.

The shrubs and plants from which both drugs are derived from and processed has been well known in Colombia for centuries, but until the 1970s drug refiners and traffickers had not taken full advantage. The chewing of coca

Drug cartels, in reality, are just as bad as they appear on film. Authorities estimate that between eighteen and thirty-nine billion dollars are brought in from drug sales to the United States each year (Keefe). It is also estimated that the war on drugs has caused over 50,000 deaths in Mexico alone since 2006 (Keefe). Deaths are often overlooked because they are not compiled by thousands at once, but gradually over a large area. Other illegal activity such as kidnapping and oil theft have came about from the cartel (Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Violence). All three films, Miss Bala, Maria Full of Grace, and Traffic give similar accounts to the way the cartel takes people’s lives, only in different areas of the drug moving process.

Latin America has had a long history of drug use, which contributes to its stereotype as a drug infested region. Beginning in the 1970’s, the United States has been trying to eliminate drug cartels, trafficking, and use in Latin America (Bogota). The influence of drugs in Latin America has led to violence and death over the many years.