Present Day Conflicts in Colombia

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Present Day Conflicts in Colombia

• Ariel Holman, Stacy Skiftenes and Lisa Williams

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Colombia

• Population 43.8 million
• Just over 1 million sq. kilometers (3x Montana)
• Geography lowlands, highlands, Andes, plains
• 90 Roman Catholic
• Independence July 20, 1810

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Colombian Government

• Republic Government
• Power divided among 3 branches
• Executive
• Legislative
• Judicial

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President Álvaro Uribe Vélez

• Elected May 2002
• Predecessor Pastranas Policy
• Uribes Hardline Policy

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Drugs in Colombia

• World supply
• 80 cocaine
• 30 heroin
• Cocaine base imported from Peru, Bolivia, but
  also locally grown
• Heroin
• 8 metric tons yearly
• Most to United States

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More on drugs

• Nearly 200,000 hectares of land to coca and opium
• Both crops and laboratories spread throughout the
  country
• Concern with exportation, but also domestic
  concerns

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Drug Flow/Traffic

• Cocaine
• Commercial maritime vessels
• General aviation aircraft
• Heroin
• Human couriers on commercial airlines
• Cartels
• Much less centrally organized
• Use of technology instead of physical meetings

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Control Efforts

• 1991-1999
• 3,261 cocaine labs destroyed
• 80 heroin labs destroyed
• 1998 2000 arrests

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PLAN Colombia

• Designed and implemented by Presidente Pastrana
• Projects worth 7.5 billion

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Five Aims of PLAN Colombia

• Peace
• Colombian economy
• Anti-narcotic strategy
• Reform of justice system/protection of human
  rights
• Democratization and social development

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Effects of PLAN Colombia
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Citizens views
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• "We are (telling) peasants to grow legal crops
  that must be transported on vehicles they do not
  have, over roads that do not exist, to sell in
  domestic and international markets to which they
  do not have access," says Sanho Tree

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La Violencia 1946-1964

• Political conflict between liberals and
  conservatives
• 1948-1953 (most desctructive years) 80-400,00
  killed
• Extends through 1980s
• Colombia highest homicide rate in LA
• 245/100,000 persons

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FARC Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia

• 15-18,000 members
• Responsible for kidnappings that target
  landowners, tourists, and officials
• Formed 1966
• Originally communist
• Controls 1/3 of country
• Control over cocoa crops

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ELN Ejército de Liberación Nacionál

• 2nd largest 5000 members
• Trans-Andean oil pipeline bombings since 1986
• Kidnapping for ransom
• Bombing and extortion
• Funding ransom, taxes, drug trade

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Shared Goals

• Represent the rural poor
• Oppose American influence
• Oppose privitization of resources
• Oppose multinational corporations
• Decry rightist violence

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AUC Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia

• Organization of several right-wing paramilitary
  groups
• Supported by landowners, drug-cartels, parts of
  Colombian military
• Paramilitary groups outlawed in 1989

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AUC continued

• AUC favors
• Respect for public property
• End to kidnappings and extortion
• Recognition as a political group
• Further negotiations with guerillas and
  government
• Targets leftist guerilla groups, citizens with
  leftist sympathies, trade-union members,
  human-rights activists
• Originated with Death to Kidnappers group
• 2001 AUC killed at least 1,015 civilians

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AUC continued
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Thanks for listening!