Drug trafficking
Main article: Illegal drug trade in Colombia
FARC-EP was not initially involved in direct drug cultivation, trafficking, or trans-shipment prior to or during the 1980s. Instead, it maintained a system of taxation on the production that took place in the territories that they controlled, in exchange for protecting the growers and establishing law and order in these regions by implementing its own rules and regulations[100][101]. During the 1990s, FARC expanded its operations, in some areas, to include trafficking and production, which has provided a significant portion of its funding[102]. Right-wing paramilitary groups also receive a large portion of their income from drug trafficking and production operations[102].
FARC has called for crop substitution programs that would allow coca farmers to find alternative means of income and subsistence. In 1999, FARC worked with a United Nations alternative development project to enable the transition from coca production to sustainable food production. On its own, the group has also implemented agrarian reform programs in Putumayo[103][100][101][104].
In areas where it is involved in coca production, FARC generally makes sure that peasant coca growers receive a much larger share of profits than the paramilitaries would give them[105][99][101], and demands that traffickers pay a decent wage to their workers[99]. According to journalist and author Garry Leech, when growers in a FARC-controlled area are caught selling coca to non-FARC brokers, they are generally forced to leave the region, but when growers are caught selling to FARC in paramilitary-controlled areas, they are generally killed[105]. He concludes that the lower prices paid for raw coca in paramilitary-controlled areas lead to significantly larger profits for the drug processing and trafficking organizations, which means that they generally prefer that paramilitaries control an area rather than FARC[105].
After the April 21, 2001 capture of Brazilian druglord Luiz Fernando da Costa (aka Fernandinho Beira-Mar) in Colombia, Colombian and Brazilian authorities accused him of cooperating with FARC-EP through the exchange of weapons for cocaine. They also claimed that he received armed protection from the guerrilla group.[106][107][108]
[edit] Kidnappings
Main article: Kidnappings in Colombia
The FARC-EP is responsible for ransom kidnappings in Colombia. The group’s kidnapping targets are usually those that it considers wealthy landowners and businessmen, the police and military, as well as foreign tourists and entrepreneurs, and prominent international and domestic officials.[109]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expressed his disagreement with their resorting to kidnappings[110].
[edit] Human rights concerns
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