From a historical perspective, Colombia has hosted some of the most infamous drug trafficking organizations in the world, and these illegal empires threatened the social, political and economic stability of the nation from the early 20th century to 21st century. Perhaps the most prominent and notorious cartel was the Medellin Cartel, an organized network of contraband smugglers and suppliers that originated in the 1970’s in the city of Medellín, located in southern part of the nation. Colombian native Pablo Escobar, perhaps one of the most infamous men in Colombia’s dark history of drug trading, collaborated with a group of criminal entrepreneurs to form the Medellin Cartel, which controlled nearly 80% of the cocaine shipped to the United States. Under his leadership, during the 1970’s and 1980’s, …show more content…
Moreover, there was an expansion in the drug industry in Colombia not only because of the consumers in the United States, which happened to be its largest customer, but due to increased demand in the worldwide market. Interestingly, the drug trade in the 20th century owed much of its success to the international market, and the rapid consumption of narcotics in the international market only served to expand the industry in Colombia. Thus, a perpetuating cycle emerged in which the growth of the drug industry resulted in larger markets around the world, which in turn resulted in larger profits for the drug barons and greater investment in the drug industry. A new socially elite class of wealthy drug lords emerged that included Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, formerly one of the leaders of the notorious Cali Cartel, Carlos Lehder, who ran a cocaine transport empire on Norman’s Cay Island, Daniel Barrera (El Loco), who ran the illegal drug trade in Colombia’s eastern plains (Walton,
A drug cartel is a combination of drug manufacturing and drug transportation organizations under one person’s leadership. While there is numerous drug cartels around the world the Mexican cartels have arguably more power than most in regards to territory and membership. This power has allowed them to have main control in not only Mexico but in the United States as well making them a key player in the drug trade. In 2006, the Mexican government challenged multiple drug cartels such as the Sinaloa cartel, The Los Zetas, and the Gulf cartel, beginning the Mexican Drug War. This war has gone on for the past ten years and is still continuing today, causing the death of 10,000 people a year on average. The Mexican Drug War is having a negative impact
The Influence of the Mexican Cartels in the United States Visiting a tourist attraction in Mexico, tourists do not realize the gruesome reality that Mexican civilians face on an everyday basis. Dead bodies cover the streets, the echo of gun shots ring through the streets daily, and seeing the cartels terrorize businesses. The rise of Mexico’s violence in the past decade has marked the country and made its way to the United States. The United States has ignored the problem for many years, since they always referenced Mexico’s drug crisis as a non-emergent issue. In the past decade the U.S. government has seen an increase in violence and consumption of illegal drugs due to the Mexican cartels.
The cartels are now in control of most of the drug trades and are successful. The Mexican border gives them the power to go everywhere they desire, making them a relentless force. “To date operation Xcellrator has led the arrest of 755 individuals and the seizure of approximately 5 U.S. Currency more than 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, more than 16,000 pounds of marijuana, more than 11,000 of methamphetamine, more than 8 kilograms of heroin, approximately 1.3 million pills of ecstasy”(Doj 2). Mexican cartels extend to central and southern America. Columbia is the supply of much of the cocaine exported to the U.S. Colombia is under control of South American gangs, they do business with the Mexican cartels to transport drugs the north. The Northern Mexican gangs hold the most control because the territory is very important (Wagner1). They are many different types of cartel in Mexico it also signifies that there are killing each other so their cartel can expand an...
Colombia lies in the northern most part of South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea the Bogota is the capital of Colombia. Bordering between Panama and Venezuela and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama. The size of Colombia is 1,138,910 square kilometers less than three times the size of the state of Montana. Mainland territory divided into four major geographic regions. Andean highlands are composed of three mountain ranges and overriding valleys and Caribbean lowlands; Pacific lowlands; and llanos and tropical rainforest of Eastern Colombia. Colombia also has small islands in both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Climate in Colombia has unique variety in temperature resulting in changing differences in elevation not much seasonal variation. The rocky terrain cut by large rivers that flow into the Caribbean the Pacific. The Amazon and the Orinoco facilitates the construction of enormous reservoirs, which have steadily increased the country’s generation of energy and supply of drinking water.
Since it was first discovered by European explorers, Latin America has supplied raw materials and labor to Europe and other locations around the world. Eduardo Galeano writes about the exploitation of native Latin Americans in his 1973 book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Galeano takes a historical approach and examines colonial and post-colonial interactions between Europeans and Latin Americans. He asserts that the native Latin Americans were essentially powerless to fight this exploitation because of the dominance of the European powers. In his 2008 book Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug, Paul Gootenberg writes about the discovery of cocaine and its transition from a regional good to a global commodity. Gootenberg combines history and economics in his view of the relationships between the two powers. Unlike Galeano, he shows a side of Latin American history in which the native people of Latin America had power, however limited, to control their positions in the economic system imposed by the Europeans. Gootenberg accepts Galeano’s theory of dominance as a starting point but complicates it by including the agency of the local people of Latin America, especially Peru. Gootenberg shifts the focus of his book from the national and European players to the local Latin American actors involved in the cocaine commodity chain—from growers and harvesters to refiners and distributors. This theory involves more of the disparate components present in the economies of Latin America; therefore, it is a better way to describe historical relationships between Latin America and Europe.
The cocaine commodity chains play a big role in the history of illicit commodity chains in North America. The origins of the chain begun in the Andes when the drug was found in coca leaves discovered in the 1800’s. In the first paragraph of my essay I’m going to touch on the history of the commodity chain, however my main focus will be on the growth of the chain in North America between 1950 and 2000, the geographical regions, spatial logistics and organization.
“The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels.” Drug Abuse. n.p.,n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Drug trafficking has been a massive concern between the borders of Mexico and the U.S. “since mid 1970s” (Wyler, 1). Drug trafficking is “knowingly being in possession, manufacturing, selling, purchasing, or delivering an illegal, controlled substance” (LaMance, 1). A dynamic relationship exists amongst Columbia, Mexico, and the U.S. the informal drug trafficking economy. This growing informal drug economy leads to many individuals creating a substantial living through this undercover market. These individual drug cartels monopolizing the trafficking market are a growing problem for the U.S economy and need to be located and controlled. If this trafficking continues, the U.S. informal economy will crush the growth of legal industries. The trafficking and abuse of drugs in the U.S. affects nearly all aspects of consumer life. Drug trafficking remains a growing issue and concern to the U.S. government. The U.S. border control must find a way to work with Mexico to overpower the individuals who contribute to the drug trafficking business. This market must be seized and these individuals must be stopped.
“Mexicans smugglers have long trafficked homegrown heroin and marijuana to the U.S. But in the 1980’s, mexico also became the primary route for colombian cocaine bound for the U.S” (Bates). According to Bates, when Guadalajara’s leader was arrested in 1989, the groups remaining capos, including a young Guzman divided up its trafficking routes, creating the Sinaloa, Juarez, and Tijuana Cartels.
McDermott, Jeremy. “US Targets Colombian Rebels as War against Terrorism Escalates.” Scottsman.com. February 10, 2002.
Nunes, E. V., M.D. (2006). A brief history of cocaine: From inca monarchs to cali cartels. The New England Journal of Medicine, 355(11), 1182. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/223930661?accountid=11233
Netflix recounts the elevation of the cocaine trade in Colombia and the prehending authentic-life stories of drug kingpins of the tardy '80s in this raw, gritty pristine series. On August 28, 2015 the television show Narcos short for “narcotraficante” aired, directed by Chris Brancato. A dramatization depicting Pablo Escobar’s rise is status and power. Narcos shows in detail a closer look at the lifestyle of drug lords, which is a topic of morbid fascination since long before the show came to be. On top of this, the show emphasizes the war on drugs with the DEA targeting Escobar as such a prominent and notorious trafficker.
Sub Point 1: Tessa Vinson explains the origins of The Cartel in the Spring 2009 issue of The Monitor. Chinese immigrants working on the railroads brought with them the knowledge of how to grow poppy. Poppy is a plant which contains opium which is a source for many other drugs. As the need for poppy grew in demand Sinaloens began to export it through the Pacific Railroad into the United States. The United States and Mexico became increasingly aware of this and launched "Operation Condor" on November 1975, which eliminated most poppy fields aerially. This forced many small cartels to go out of business but also eliminated competition for the more established cartels. With the supply of poppy gone most cartels shifted their attention toward Columbian cocaine. In the mid-1970s Drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo who was in charge of powerful Guadalajara cartel began to export cocaine, he became known as "El Padrino" as he eventually controlled almost all of the drug market. (Vinson, 2009, pp.
The role of Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Columbian drug trafficker and narco-terrorist who rose to infamy during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Known as the wealthiest and most successful criminal the world has ever seen (Byrnes, 2010), as much as 80% of the global supply of cocaine is said to have stemmed from the Medellin Cartel of which Escobar was the Kingpin (Business Insider, 2015). Kenney (2003) defines a Kingpin as “the leader of an international trafficking enterprise who directs the production, transportation, and distribution of large quantities of cocaine, as well as the organisation’s financial operations.” During the 1990’s, Escobar had an estimated net worth of over $30 billion, in line with today’s inflation the
Many people know of cartels and drug trafficking, however, they do not realize how serious of a problem it is becoming. Every day there are hundreds of drugs transported into the United States from Latin America, mostly coming from Mexico and Columbia. These cartels are becoming smarter and more creative with their ways of smuggling drugs. They have become ruthless and will do whatever it takes to get their supplies into the country. To better understand how cartels work, you must understand their ways of transporting drugs and how creative they have become with it. Cartels will go as far as using tunnels, boats, planes, vehicles, donkeys and mules to transport all of their drugs.