What Is Colombia A Transcontinental Country

Introduction. During 1980s until 1996, Colombia lived the most dangerous and violence conflicts between the paramilitaries (FARCS), and the drug cartels by Pablo Escobar.

Most of us are familiar with these global terms “American dream” and “drugs cartels”. These thoughts exemplify one the differences between United States of America and Colombia. Despite United States of America and Colombia are located in the same hemisphere significant differences in food, natural resources and tourist attractions make each country quite distinct from the other.

This U.S. support was part of an amplified foreign assistance policy in a shared effort with the government of Colombia to improve local security and combat the rising narcotics market. After a visit to Bogotá in 2000, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy General Barry McCaffrey, affirmed in a speech to the Atlantic Council of the United States that “with international solidarity and support for Colombia’s broad-based long-term strategy (i.e., Plan Colombia), drug traffickers and terrorist groups can be deprived of their income, drug production will be crippled, and Colombia’s long-suffering people might secure their basic right to earn a legitimate income without fearing for their lives” (McCaffrey, 2000). Plan Colombia bound the government of Colombia to an encompassing goal: “to strengthen the State in order to regain the citizens’ confidence and recuperate the basic norms of peaceful coexistence” (Plan Colombia, 1999: 3).

Colombia is the leading exporter of petroleum, coffee, coal, apparel, bananas, and cut flowers. It is rich in minerals and energy. It is the lead producer of emeralds and is the second largest producer of platinum and gold in South America. Colombia is also the World’s largest producer of cocaine. Colombia produced many emeralds. They believed that the gemstones contained special powers such as healing, making one smarter, revealing the truth, and the power to block spells. Colombia is

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.

The drug dealers have captured a great deal of power in Colombia, and have adopted the position of the government in many instances. The drug trade has ruined the image of Colombia, and has caused the world to forget about the other goods produced in Colombia, like coffee, flowers, oil and gas for instance. As the website put out by the Colombian Government Trade Bureau entitled “Colombia Trade News” states,

Liberalizing drug reforms would be a step in the right direction for Colombia and would seriously burden the cartels (Leff). The drug war is a catalyst that has increased the profits of drug cartels. The illegal nature of narcotics limits supply, allowing the cartels to charge large sums of money for their product. Everytime the authorities fighting the drug war bust a drug deal, the supply currently available goes down, and cartels are able to charge even more for drugs. The system of criminilazation created by the drug war is actually the reason that cartels are so profitable. By driving down prices, the power of drug cartels is limited. The illegality of the drug trade directs its multi-billion-dollar profits go to criminal gangs. The drugs account for the bulk of the gangs’ income and thus their firepower (“Burn”). Legalization benefits drug-producing countries by decreasing the money that cartels can use to buy firearms, 90% of which are sold to them from the United States (Ellingwood et al.). This would allow governments, rather than gangs, to govern the country.

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

Violence in modern Colombia takes place in many forms. The three major categories are crime, guerrilla activities, and attacks committed by drug traffickers. Violence has become so widespread and common in Colombia that many people have now become numb to it. The Colombian economy has also benefited from the illicit drug trade; however violent it may be. During the 1970s, Colombia became well known, as one of the world’s most important drug processing, production, and distribution centers for marijuana and cocaine.

Factor based exports like textile, clothing, leather goods, process food and beverages, manufactured oil, chemicals, cement, and metal products are also growing industries. With destroying Colombia's society due to violence, the drug trade is also a very illegal export of the country. These drugs consist of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and cannabis. Even with the fact of this export to be illegal it has brought many riches to the men and women willing to follow this path.

Columbia is historically the most impacted nation of narco-terrorism. Columbia was first declared an independent nation after the fall of Gran Columbia along with Ecuador and Venezuela in 1830. As of July 2011, CIA World Factbook has estimated its population to be about 44,725,543. Columbia has 1,138,910 sq km of land, approximately three times the size of California. However, according to the CIA World Factbook it is estimated that only 2.1% of the land is arable, 1.37% is already used for permanent crops, and the rest of its 96% is used for “other” reasons. According to the 2008 World Drug Report, over 99,000 ha of Columbian land is used for cocaine cultivation. Due to its ongoing civil wars and weak democratic government, Columbia has become a haven for narco-terrorism. Insurgent groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), National Liberation Army (ELN), and United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) have been known rely on drug trafficking to carry out bombings, extortion, kidnapping, and assassination.

Additionally, Colombia is now only behind Sudan with the world’s second most displaced citizens or refugees within their own country. The cause of that displacement is the paramilitaries, along with the Colombian military. Colombia contains tremendous natural resources such as oil, gold, and silver. However, there are millions of peasant

Colombia was one of the three original countries along with Ecuador and Venezuela that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830. Over the last 40 years, there has been a campaign to overthrow the government partially because of the drug trades throughout Colombia. The movement does however lack support from military and support from the necessary influences. In recent years, there have been challenges for control of the territories throughout Colombia and also for the drug trade.

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.

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.