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Shana Thomas

Democracy and Plan Colombia - ProQuest Research Library - ProQuest - 1 views

    • Shana Thomas
       
      Shana found this article! :)
  • Its primary stated objective was to end drug trafficking in Colombia. Later on, it was discovered that the plan had the further objective of defeating the guerrilla movement,
  • it reaches $7.7 billion. But despite this investment, the U.S.-supported government of Alvaro Uribe has defeated neither the drug traffickers nor the guerrilla movement. To the contrary, the plan's only success has been to guarantee a majority to the parties that supported Uribe in the Congressional elections of March 2006, and to guarantee Uribe's own re-election last May.
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  • Plan Colombia
  • instituted a one-time war tax
  • U.S. technical assistance to the Colombian air force that allowed it to engage in effective anti-guerrilla bombing campaigns. The guerrillas had also suffered setbacks due to their own political and strategic errors,
    • Shana Thomas
       
      this will help talk about plan colombia and the efforts made by the colombian gov't to aid their drug trafficking issue
  • Plan Patriota, which called for the Colombian armed forces to surround and annihilate the guerrillas in their interior strongholds. But these were locations the guerrillas knew well and where they enjoyed solid popular support, allowing them to soundly defeat the military
  • the agreement with the paramilitaries.
  • which is to allow the legalization of billions of paramilitary narco-dollars. The paramilitaries finance not only their operations, but also their lifestyles with the country's largest drug-trafficking operations.
  • Since negotiations between Uribe and the paramilitaries began, billions of dollars and euros in drug profits have entered Colombia.
    • Shana Thomas
       
      which helps their economy; in a sense, the gov't was trying to end the drug trafficking but now is torn b/c the money helps float their economy. so they're a corrupted gov't
  • Today, however, they openly finance entire electoral campaigns. The government's own statistics acknowledge that in 2005, $3 billion flowed through Colombia, with no record of how the money entered the country. No one planted money seeds and grew the $3 billion; this is just a portion of the billions of dollars and euros that the paramilitaries have laundered.
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    about plan Colombia; the way that Colombia is taking care of its drug trafficking issue
William Fromm

UN raises Colombia's internally displaced figure to 3.6M - Colombia news | Colombia Rep... - 1 views

  • The U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR) has increased the figure of officially recognized internally displaced people in Colombia from 3.4 to 3.67 million, maintaining its undesired position as the first in the world, Caracol Radio reported Monday. UNHCR explains that in 2010 there were 57 "massive displacements," up from 42 the year before, while indigenous communities and Afro-Colombians continue to be the most prominently victimized by forced displacements, who tend to be concentrated in the areas that have witnessed intensified conflict in recent years such as the Pacific coastal regions. The latest U.N. report claimed that ethnic groups have been further affected by the development of illegal mining as a source of finance for illegal armed groups in the country, while inter-city displacement continues to rise, particularly in the Antioquian capital of Medellin. The U.N. agency noted concern for the situation of young people affected by the country's ongoing armed conflict and the emergence of criminal organizations following the 2006 demobilization process that have largely continued the narco-trafficking work of the paramilitaries. The figure of 3.6 million internally displaced people contrasts strikingly with that of Colombian non-governmental organization CODHES, which released a report earlier this year citing 5.2 million displaced Colombians, over 11% of the population, evidently using different criteria with which to classify what constitutes a "forcibly displaced" person. The government's figure by the close of 2010 rested closer to that of the U.N. with around 3.6 million people. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), however, indicates that "the rates of under-registration are substantially high."
  • "The national-survey by the Civil Society Follow-up Commission showed that 65,7% of IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] are registered," the IDMC explains, while the remaining 34.3% are not. The Colombian government puts the percentage of unregistered IDPs at 21%. The IDMC notes that many people remain outside of the government's official registry "as IDPs did not come forward out of fear or ignorance of procedures, and because many who requested it were denied registration."
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    Colombian Internally displaced figures have been increasing instead of decreasing.
Onurcan Tatman

Plan Colombia: Washington's Latest Drug War Failure | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Instit... - 1 views

  • Even as President Andres Pastrana and other leaders boasted of the plan's achievements, reports were leaking out that a new study, funded by the United Nations, indicated that there were more than 340,000 acres under cultivation.
  • hat Plan Colombia has done is increase the animosity of farmers toward the Pastrana government and, indirectly, toward the
  • When Pastrana recently traveled to one drug-producing region to sell the "soft side" of Plan Colombia (economic development), he received a harsh reception. At stop after stop he was greeted by angry demonstrators. And their message ought to trouble U.S. leaders as well as Pastrana. Many of the demonstrators waved signs showing a Colombian flag being subsumed by the Stars and Stripes, with the caption "Plan Colombia's Achievements." Other protestors greeted the president with chants of "Pastrana subservient to the gringos."
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  • The Pastrana government already confronts a three-decade-old insurgency being waged by two left-wing guerrilla armies
  • Plan Colombia is ineffectual in achieving its stated objectives, and it produces a number of highly undesirable side effects. The brutal reality is that, as long as drugs are illegal, there will be a huge black-market premium-a lucrative potential profit that will attract producers. Plan Colombia cannot repeal the economic laws of supply and demand. In attempting to do so, the United States is creating even more trouble for an already troubled neighbor.
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    This article shows the failure of president Andres Pastrana and his efforts to end the drug war. It also talks about the misconseption of the whole idea that Plan Colombia actually worked.
Austin Buben

DEA Briefs & Background, Drugs and Drug Abuse, Drug Descriptions, Drug Trafficking in t... - 0 views

    • Austin Buben
       
      Austin Buben found this first
  • The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world. As such, it attracts the most ruthless, sophisticated, and aggressive drug traffickers.
  • according to the U.S. Customs Service, 60 million people enter the United States on more than 675,000 commercial and private flights. Another 6 million come by sea and 370 million by land. In addition, 116 million vehicles cross the land borders with Canada and Mexico. More than 90,000 merchant and passenger ships dock at U.S. ports. These ships carry more than 9 million shipping containers and 400 million tons of cargo. Another 157,000 smaller vessels visit our many coastal towns. Amid this voluminous trade, drug traffickers conceal cocaine, heroin, marijuana, MDMA, and methamphetamine shipments for distribution in U.S. neighborhoods.
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  • Criminal groups operating from South America smuggle cocaine and heroin into the United States via a variety of routes, including land routes through Mexico, maritime routes along Mexico's east and west coasts, sea routes through the Caribbean, and international air corridors
  • The U.S./Mexico border is the primary point of entry for cocaine shipments being smuggled into the United States. According to a recent interagency intelligence assessment, approximately 65 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States crosses the Southwest border.
  • These organizations use a sophisticated infrastructure to move cocaine by land, sea, and air into the United States.
  • Each cell performs a specific function within the organization, e.g., transportation, local distribution, or money movement. Key managers in Colombia continue to oversee the overall operation.
  • Over the past decade, the Colombia-based drug groups have allowed Mexico-based trafficking organizations to play an increasing role in the U.S. cocaine trade.
  • Throughout most of the 1980s, the criminals in Colombia used the drug smugglers in Mexico to transport cocaine shipments across the Southwest border into the United States. After successfully smuggling the drugs across the border, the Mexican transporters transferred the drugs back to the Colombian groups operating in the United States.
  • Colombian drug trafficking organizations increasingly rely upon the eastern Pacific Ocean as a trafficking route to move cocaine to the United States. Law enforcement and intelligence community sources estimate 65 percent of the cocaine shipped to the United States moves through the Central America-Mexico corridor, primarily by vessels operating in the eastern Pacific. Colombian traffickers utilize fishing vessels to transport bulk shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the west coast of Mexico and, to a lesser extent, the Yucatan Peninsula. The cocaine is off-loaded to go-fast vessels for the final shipment to the Mexican coast. The loads are subsequently broken down into smaller quantities to be moved across the Southwest border.
  • However, cocaine continues to be transported through the Caribbean; Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti are the predominant transshipment points for Colombian cocaine transiting the Caribbean. Because of lawlessness and deteriorating economic conditions, Haiti is a growing transshipment point for Colombian cocaine destined for eastern U.S. markets. Haitian drug traffickers, utilizing maritime shipments to transport cocaine to South Florida, are becoming a major threat. Law enforcement reporting indicates that Jamaica is an increasingly significant transshipment point for cocaine destined for the United States since it is located midway between South America and the United States. Cocaine is primarily smuggled into Jamaica by maritime methods, and the cocaine transshipped through Jamaica often is destined for the Canadian, European, and U.S. markets. Cocaine destined for the United States is usually smuggled from Jamaica to the Bahamas aboard go-fast boats. The cocaine is subsequently smuggled to the Florida coast using go-fast boats, pleasure craft, and fishing vessels.
    • Austin Buben
       
      A lot of various different facts potentially useful in my presentation.
  • Cocaine is readily available in nearly all major cities in the United States. Organized crime groups operating in Colombia control the worldwide supply of cocaine.
Eric Wineteer

NICARAGUA: ORTEGA GRANTS ASYLUM TO 2 WOMEN FROM FARC CAMP - ProQuest Research Library -... - 0 views

  • Four other Mexican students and former students of the Autonomous National University of Mexico were killed in the cross-border incursion ordered by Colombian President lvaro Uribe. The attack triggered a major diplomatic crisis, with Ecuador breaking off ties with Colombia, and Venezuela mobilizing troops to its border.
    • Eric Wineteer
       
      This is definitely an effect of the clash between FARC/Colombia/US on other countries.
  • In the past, [Daniel Ortega] has referred to the members of FARC as "brothers."
    • Eric Wineteer
       
      This shows that America and Colombia don't represent the world's opinions on FARC (no surprise there)
  • The right-wing opposition criticized Ortega for granting asylum to the three women, complaining that the move made Nicaragua "a sanctuary for terrorists."
    • Eric Wineteer
       
      Civil war in Colombia leading to political conflict in Nicaragua
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  • Pallais argued that "they were involved in drug trafficking and guerrilla activities and belonged to the FARC, and the FARC are considered terrorist forces by Colombia, the United States and the European Union.
    • Eric Wineteer
       
      This mention of the EU also demonstrates FARC's effect on countries outside of Colombia
Ellen Mischinski

GIC | Article - 0 views

  • Jorge Briceno, chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was convicted of co-masterminding the kidnapping and killing of three US activists in 1999, a Colombian court said Tuesday.
  • The FARC, with about 17,000 fighters, is the largest armed rebel groups in Colombia and controls nearly 40 percent of the territory.
Daniel Holtzschue

Colombian Criminal Justice in Crisis: Fear and Distrust - ProQuest Research Library - P... - 1 views

  • Colombian criminal jurisdiction not only-and not mainly-as an inefficient and corrupt system but rather as a system driven by fear and distrust.
  • fear also affects the performance of justice by inhibiting and discouraging judges from administering justice
  • These effects of fear relate closely both to a more or less generalized distrust of the Colombia juridical system and state justice and, alternatively, to the prevalence of private justice.
    • Daniel Holtzschue
       
      The main reason why people take matters into their own hands
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  • This is so because, on the one hand, high levels of fear and distrust inhibit the state's capability to provide justice to its citizens. On the other hand, private justice appears as a somehow logical response to the failure of the Colombian state to provide justice. In reality, private justice becomes the main source to further violence and increase people's distrust in the administration of justice
    • Daniel Holtzschue
       
      never-ending cycle
  • The state's failure to provide justice to its citizens and the lack of a reliable criminal jurisdiction are frequent descriptions of the exercise of justice in contemporary Colombia.
    • Daniel Holtzschue
       
      This sums up the entire judiciary problem in Colombia
  • the generalized use of violence has become a powerful way of subverting criminal jurisdiction.
  • Intimidation through violence ensures that the "request" or impositions of these groups are effectively and rapidly carried out. The constant competition within and among these groups and the increasing inability of the state to control them has meant that "private justice" is now available as any other market commodity, and can be bought by most ordinary people, not just those who are involved in armed conflict or drug trafficking
    • Daniel Holtzschue
       
      Daniel Holtzschue
Cole Blum

Young Assassins Of The Drug Trade - Research and Read Books, Journals, Articles at Ques... - 6 views

    • Neha Kukreja
       
      This is where I'd say it's the Government's fault... what are they doing to combat this "same poverty, the same unemployment, the same corrupt authority?"
    • Cole Blum
       
      I agree. The Government is making some changes toward helping combat the violence and poverty, but a lot of these things are only hurting the cause.
  • Adolescents from poor neighborhoods were recruited as sicarios
  • from
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  • Sub- sequently, as the state attempted to bring these gangs under control, these same young boys began assassi- nating policemen and judges.
  • control, these same young boys began assassi- nating policemen and judges. In 1983, a 16-year-old adolescent discharged a sub-
  • President Belisario Betancur immediately enacted a treaty of extradition with the United States -- where traffickers were more likely to be prosecuted -- and an armed bat- tle began in which the young sicarios occupied the front lines for the drug cartels.
    • Cole Blum
       
      This is the most important part about the rise of the sicarios, where a huge armed battle ensued between the poor, the government, and the drug cartels (paired with the sicarios).
    • Cole Blum
       
      This is an example of how the government tried to stop the violence in Colombia, but actually hurt it in a lot of ways. It also made a lot more people dislike them.
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    This article talks about the involvement of youth in the violence of Colombia and how it started.
Ellen Mischinski

Ingrid Betancourt: The Story that was Not - 1 views

  • She was the presidential candidate of the Green Oxygen Party - a group that she had created after leaving the Liberal Party in 1998
  • San Vicente de Caguan was also one of the most dangerous areas in Colombia, as it was considered one of the strongholds of the guerrillas protected, forming part of the demilitarized zone of the army.
  • political kidnapping for extortion that are used purely as a means of financing at this stage of the life of the guerrillas
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    • Ellen Mischinski
       
      FARC=anti-government. Betancourt=government.
    • Ellen Mischinski
       
      Money=objective. 
  • But although the government warned repeatedly that there was fighting in Saint Vincent and the strong presence of guerrillas, Betancourt departed the area, but by land, since not been allowed to travel on a military helicopter that was moving place. Along the way, his convoy was stopped by two army checkpoints and warned that there were guerrillas later everywhere. Betancourt ordered his driver to continue driving, but at the last checkpoint bodyguards (the army) said you could not accompany more. She, however, continued the journey to San Vicente and was kidnapped by the FARC, along with Clara Rojas, the number two of his party.
  • It is in this context that the kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt in 2002 moved to Colombia's internal conflict at a global level
  • On the one hand, if there had been no such kidnapping would not have much interest in what happened and is currently in Colombia.
  • the balance of kidnapping has more positives than negatives in terms of Realpolitik, because it weakened the position of the FARC to the world.
    • Ellen Mischinski
       
      found by Ellen
Tomas Hilliard

Plan Colombia overview by scholar - 0 views

  •  
    This is a big summary of what plan Colombia does and how it works.
Mckenzie Hudson

Violence, Organized Crime And The Criminal Justice System In Colombia - Research and Re... - 1 views

  • One of the concerns of the economic theory of crime has been the effect of the justice system on criminal activities
    • Mckenzie Hudson
       
      The justice system in Colombia, through corruption, police ignorance and a lack of manpower, might as well not be there. In fact, it facilitiates more violence when drug dealers can pay off the police to become personal Sicarios
  • At the national level, statistics show a negative relationship between violence, using as an indicator the homicide rate, the presence of armed groups, and various performance indicators for the criminal justice system. In the last two decades, the Colombian homicide rate has more than quadrupled. In a parallel fashion, the influence of the principle armed organizations - the guerrilla, the drag mafia (or narco-traffickers), and paramilitary groups - has increased [Thoumi 1994]. During the same period, the capacity of the justice system to investigate homicides has been considerably reduced. The proportion of homicide cases that reach the courts, which in the 1960s was above 35 percent, today is less than 6 percent. In 1975, for every 100 homicides, more than 60 suspects were captured; in 1994, this figure had been reduced to 20. Conviction rates, which in the 1960s reached 11 percent of the total number of homicides committed, have dropped to barely 4 percent today [Ruhio 1996a].
  • . It is also possible to argue that one of the factors that contributed to the paralysis of the criminal justice system in Colombia was precisely this violence and in particular that exercised by private protection services and extra-judicial prosecution.
    • Mckenzie Hudson
       
      Early drug war and "private army" violence may have contributed to the modern inefficiency of the Colombian Justice System.
Cole Blum

Youth and Violence in Medellin, Colombia - 1 views

  •  
    This article is about the youth in Colombia and their involvement in the violence there. The part that I extracted the most from this article for my video was talking about the sicarios signifying the first youth involvement in the violence, which meant that pretty much everyone had become involved.
alessandro Lannes

Drugs, Violence, and State-Sponsored Protection Rackets in Mexico and Colombia/Drogas, ... - 2 views

    • alessandro Lannes
       
      Alessandro Lannes
  • Some authors have argued that high violence was the result of Escobar's excessive political ambition (Camacho and López 2001), which made traffickers unnecessarily visible
  • Colombian traffickers faced in penetrating and making stable connections with the political establishment, the event does not by itself explain the highly violent methods of Escobar's organization, which preceded his brief transit through Congress and persisted well after it. The relative centralization and coherence of Escobar's organization were also crucial factors that help explain its employment of highly organized and brutally violent methods.
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  • Pablo Escobar was arrested for the first time for drug trafficking. By 1978 Carlos Lehder had consolidated a network of cocaine trafficking both with us and Colombian citizens, and by the early 1980s two organizations, based in the cities of Medellin and Cali, controlled most cocaine exports (Camacho and López 2001). Since the early 1980s the Medellin traffickers began to employ increasingly violent methods. This violence was the result of three interrelated factors: (1) the inability of Medellin traffickers to successfully penetrate the political establishment, (2) the government's decision to confront traffickers by approving an extradition treaty with the United States, and (3) the relative centralization and internal coherence of Medellin traffickers under the leadership of Pablo Escobar.
  • Escobar was elected to represent Medellin in the Lower Chamber of Congress. Escobar's election generated a strong negative reaction among a wide range of political elites, who opposed the public presence of a trafficker in Congress and successfully pushed for Escobar's loss of political immunity and expulsion from Congress in 1983 (Camacho and López 2001). These events motivated Escobar to react violently against political "oligarchs", who in turn publicly declared war on traffickers by approving an extradition treaty with the us that included narcotics offences. As a reaction to this policy, traffickers led by Escobar created the group "Los Extraditables," responsible for initiating the period of "narco-terrorism" by engaging in strategic violence against the state, targeting high level politicians and carrying out terrorist attacks against the civilian population in an effort to push the government to refrain from making extradition effective
  • sign of Escobar's war against the state was the assassination of the Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984, and, as of 1990, the violence of Medellin traffickers had claimed the lives of some 500 police officers in Medellin, hundreds of civilians in terrorist attacks in Bogota and Medellin, and prominent politicians, including presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galá
    • alessandro Lannes
       
      Pablo Escobar was desperate to get into Congress, when he was kicked out he took drastic measures to get revenge on the people responsible
William Fromm

http://watchlist.org/reports/files/colombia.report.php - 0 views

  • Causes of Displacement Young people's vulnerability to abuses is the motivating factor for fleeing in many cases. The UNHCHR reports that threats by guerrillas and paramilitaries are the primary reasons for families to seek refuge elsewhere. According to CODHES, in 1998, 36 percent of families fled with their children because of direct threats; 25 percent because of fear; 22 percent because of massacres and killings; 8 percent because of battles; 4 percent because of "disappearances"; 3 percent because of armed attacks; and 2 percent because of torture. According to the ICG, armed conflict accounted for 66 percent of displacement cases in Putumayo in 2002. Families regularly cited fear of forced recruitment of children into armed forces as a reason for fleeing from their homes. For example, 60 families fled from their homes in the municipality of Cunday, in Tolima department in August 2002, following the announcement of a recruitment order by the FARC-EP for everyone over the age of 12, according to the UNHCHR (E/CN.4/2003/13, Annex). In 2002, fighting for territorial control between guerrillas and paramilitaries in western Urabá forced a group of 64 civilians, including 36 children, to flee to the Punusa area of the Darién jungle in Panama, near the Colombian border (UNHCR). World Vision Colombia reports in Victimas Civiles en Medio del Conflicto Armado, 2002, that paramilitary forces committed six massacres during the last quarter of 2002 that provoked displacements of at least 170 people each in Antioquia, Chocó and Córdoba departments. The report also cites 11 massacres by unidentified forces committed during the same period that also forced residents to flee. No specific locations or dates of these events are provided.
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    Helpful Website on Colombian history with drug trafficking and the reactions of its citizens.
Eric Wineteer

The FARC's Fifth Column; Pastrana issues an ultimatum, but rebels from Colombia have al... - 0 views

  • Their arrival may be one of the predictable spillover effects of Plan Colombia
    • Eric Wineteer
       
      Both the spillover of fighting and poppy planting are effects of the conflict in Colombia.
Katy Field

Can Mexico learn from Colombia's drug war? - SignOnSanDiego.com - 1 views

  • A decade ago, before Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican cities became bloody front lines, the biggest battles in the drug war were taking place 3,000 miles to the south.
Ellen Mischinski

FARC Agrees to Release Three Hostages; U.S. Urges Ratification of Trade Agreements with... - 0 views

  • 30 percent of its territory literally under FARC control,
Ellen Mischinski

Rebels Seize Research Team in Colombia - ProQuest Research Library - ProQuest - 0 views

  • two scientists
  • (FARC), a violent insurgency group known for ransoming abductees, has claimed responsibility.
  • prepare a biological survey of a potential national park.
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  • Biologists have launched an international campaign to win the release of two scientists and their guide who were kidnapped last month by Colombian guerrillas
  • founding member of Colombia's new Ornithological Association and, although still a graduate student, is a rising star in the international bird science community.
    • Ellen Mischinski
       
      important people=more ransom $$$
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