Colombian Drug War

8 Pages 1943 Words

the paramilitaries that are financed by private landowners and drug traffickers are determined to wipe out the FARC at any cost. Until the 1980’s the FARC had fewer than 1,000 guerrilla gunmen, but over the past decade, it has grown to over 15,000 well-equipped guerrillas. The biggest expanse of coca fields also concentrates the largest amount of FARC guerrillas. Located within a regional triangle in southern Colombia the FARC operates many clandestine laboratories and provide security to the drug crops. It has been reported that the FARC had earned close to one billion dollars from drug trafficking in 1997. The FARC used their large market of cocaine to trade for guns and cash with crime organizations in such countries as Chechnya, Russia, and the Ukraine. FARC leaders say their goal is to establish political control over as much of Colombia as they can capture in order to install a Marxist Socialist regime.
Colombian President Andres Pastrana was elected in 1998 and forced to come up with a plan to eradicate the drug trade and make peace with the rebel movement. President Clinton has supported Pastrana’s ‘Plan Colombia’ with $289 million dollars aid in 1998, up from $100 million dollars in 1997. The plan devised by Pastrana was to put an end to civil war, repair the economy, and terminate the drug trade. But a negotiation must be settled with the Marxist rebels who are now involved in drug trafficking. As part of the attempt to get a peace pact signed Pastrana offered the rebels control over a large area of Colombia and funding to aid the large-scale agriculture development programs to...