Colombia with cocaine trade_Measures to illicit trade
Luo Ding (Tina ) Student ID: s06109 Law School
Research Paper Supervisor : Dr. Sekou Conde
Minzhu University of China
2006-2007 Academic Year
Chart 1 The Map of Colombia[1]
Introduction
In the resplendent history of China, there had no second merchandise like opium which shocked the groundwork of this ancient nation. When it forced the prelude of Chinese nation’s suffering for more than a century brutally, Chinese people had been struggled for a long time. The United States, as the world's largest cocaine-consuming country today, racks its brains to forbid cocaine. And Colombia, the biggest cocaine exporter to the United States, should be regarded important.
It is the 19th century that is the century when drugs came into being. Cocaine was first abstracted from coca in the 19th century. Since the 20th century, the consumption of non-medical anesthetic has increased fast. The abuse of cocaine has been serious. As the raw material to produce cocaine, coca is originated in Andean region in South America.[2] The heart of the international cocaine trade is located in the Andean region of South America.[3] As shown in Chart 1, Colombia is a country in the northwest of South America and it plays an important role in the production and trafficking of cocaine. Most countries all around the world cannot produce cocaine legally except several countries who gain the permission of the WHO (World Health Organization). It is with no doubt that cocaine smuggle and cocaine trade are illicit. As a result, almost every country forbids coca planting, cocaine manufacturing and cocaine trafficking.
Colombia remains to be the world’s largest cocaine exporter. People have taken measures against illegal Colombian cocaine trade because it has huge negative impacts, new and innovative strategies should be taken to confront the evolving cocaine trade successfully. In my paper, I will introduce the situation of illegal Colombian cocaine trade first, and then analyze the negative impacts of illicit Colombian cocaine trade. After referring to the measures that have been taken against illegal Colombian cocaine trade, I will suggest the measures that should be taken to solve the cocaine trade problem.
??/span> The situation of illegal Colombian cocaine trade
According to the reporter staying in Colombia of the Mexico’s Universe, Colombia remained to be the world’s largest cocaine exporter in 2005. Although the cultivation of coca in Colombia was cut down by 6000 hectares in 2004 compared to 2003, it transferred to the area that was not affected previously. Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the self-government institution belonged to UN, indicated in 2005 that 60 percent of the plantations of cocaine in Colombia are new.[4]
Estimated Andean Region Coca Cultivation and Potential Pure Cocaine Production, 2000–2004.
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Net Cultivation (km²)
1875
2218
2007.5
1663
1662
Potential Pure Cocaine Production (tonnes)
770
925
830
680
645
Chart 2[5]
In the fact, Colombia remains to be the world’s largest cocaine exporter. The cocaine produced in Silver new moon in South America are mainly manufactured in Colombia and smuggled to the United States and Europe, Asia and Australia by sea and by air. The major Colombian drug trafficking groups continue to produce most of the world's cocaine, and they rack their brains and adopt a lot of smuggle instrumentalities include direct consignment by a certain conveyance, consignment by a certain object and consignment by human body.
Since the appearance of the drug problem, the drug groups came into being in order to smuggle drugs. Illegal Colombian cocaine trade began in late 1970s,
and Medellin and Cali cartel are two biggest drug trafficking groups in Colombia. They import coca leaves and cocaine base from Peru and Bolivia, convert it into cocaine HCl??/span>cocaine hydrochloride??/span>at clandestine laboratories and export the illicit product to the United States and Europe. Producing a kilogram of cocaine needs approximately 800 kilograms of coca leaves. In addition, the drug trafficking groups in other countries are mostly subject to Colombia’s groups.
Medellin cartel, the biggest international drug trafficking group in the world at that time, was founded by more than 200 drug traffickers in Medellin on December 2nd, 1981. Cali cartel rose after Medellin cartel and thrived accompany with the collapse of Medellin cartel. At present, Cali cartel has taken the place of Medellin cartel and has been the biggest international drug trafficking group in the world. Medellin and Cali cartel colluded together, monopolized Colombian drug trafficking, and seizured 80 percent of the cocaine market in the United States.[6]
??/span> The negative impacts of illegal Colombian cocaine trade
Illegal Colombian cocaine trade has a variety of huge negative impacts on politics, economy, society and so on. And among them, furthering violence and crime, together with influencing the national economy and the people’s livelihood are two foremost negative impacts.
In one hand, Illegal Colombian cocaine trade furthers violence and crime. Drug trafficking groups threaten and assassinate the governmental officials, and the criminal behaviors caused by the drug trafficking are more and more. That from 1982 to 1988 is called the Years of death. Only during these 7 years, 108 politicians, 157 judges, 17 journalists, 1536 policemen, 408 militaries and 3100 citizen in addition were killed because of their anti-cocaine behaviors. The criminal behaviors caused by cocaine are hard to count. Robbery, larceny, prostitution homicide and so on went with the drug crimes.[7]
In the other hand, Drug economy influences the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Drug economy is an illicit activity, therefore, it is hard to carry through accurate statistics. A lot of experts consider that drug economy has a great influence on some countries’ economy and the people’s livelihood. Amid the export income of Colombia, drug income is in a high proportion between 22 to 48 percent. An German economist named Nicholas Hardinhouse indicated that drug economy influenced GNP directly or indirectly; drugs and cash exchange attributed to direct aspect, indirect aspect included the exchanges and courses that drug economy led to.[8]
??/span> The measures that have been taken against illegal Colombian
cocaine trade and their effects
To control illicit cocaine trade, a series of measures have been taken. There are 3 ways of actions that are done by different main bodies.
First, one country can take actions by itself. I would take Colombia as an example. Colombian government took various actions towards the cocaine trafficking groups, and in recent years major target is Cali cartel. By the end of 2000, Colombian government posed Plan Colombia to solve the country’s problems of drug production and distribution.
According to the journalist Li Dewang in Mexico City, since the beginning of the year 2007, all the countries in Latin America have intensified anti-drug efforts to crack down on drug production and smuggle activities, and have scored remarkable achievements.[9] Colombia has the largest cocaine production in the world. The amount of cocaine which is smuggled from Colombia to the United States and Europe reaches 550 tons every year. Faced with the serious drug problems, the Colombian government has launched a new offensive to drug mafia since 2007. The military, police and intelligence department carried through joint operations, developed large-scale anti-drug operations frequently and put down comprehensive activities towards drug manufacturing and trafficking.
Second, international cooperation is essential to combat the illicit cocaine trade and international organized crime. It is widely used. The Anti-Organized Crime and Law Enforcement Unit helps donor States and bilateral donor nations in identifying recipient needs through the provision of a Law Enforcement Training and Assistance Database. In addition, it acts as a liaison with international partners, such as Interpol, Europol and the World Customs Organization, as well as with regional partners such as Europol and the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, the Regional Centre for Combating Transborder Crime. The Section also actively contributes to conferences, meetings and specialized workshops, promoting the implementation of the international drugs and crime control conventions and the technical work of UNODC.[10]
International cooperation includes bilateral cooperation and multilateral cooperation. Most of the bilateral cooperation have been carried through between the United States and some primary cocaine producing countries. I would take the United States and Colombia as an example. The bilateral cooperation between the United States and Colombia began in 1970s. In 1979, the two sides signed the extradition treaty. According to the treaty, Colombia extradited 13 important drug criminals in 1985. After that, Colombia extradited more drug criminals in succession. In 1990, two countries held united military action to make a surprise attack on Colombian cocaine process basement.[11] The United States intervened with Plan Colombia and became the main force of fighting Colombian cocaine. The United States invested 3 billion U.S. dollars in Plan Colombia, had trained and financed anti-drug police force for 5 years, even sent its own troops to crackdown on drug processing and trafficking. In addition, the United States carried out large scale spray activity in Colombia to destroy coca scrub. However, this action has been oppugned. Local Colombian officials and people think that this action has brought gone disaster to people. In the other hand, the United States and UN has claimed that the action was correct and successful.[12] Multilateral cooperation means that regional organization, economic organization, political organization and civilian organization develop the international anti-drug cooperation.[13] Here I would set South America as an example. The [...]
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