Colombia

Narcotics Trafficking

Colombia is currently the largest producer of coca in South America. Colombia is also the center for cocaine trafficking and processing in South America. Coca is not indigenous to Colombia and there is no history of its native tribes using coca for religious or sustenance purposes. However, coca and cocaine production have been influenced by Colombia's 40-year civil war and the presence of powerful criminal syndicates that have used terror to influence state actions in its prosecution of the “War on Drugs.” These criminal syndicates began organizing networks of drug suppliers and smugglers in the 1970s. The most powerful of these syndicates in the 1970s and 1980s began in the city of Medellín and was known as the Medellín cartel.

During the 1970s the existence of contraband networks, crime syndicates, and political instability made Colombia a center for the refining and distribution of coca, heroin, and marijuana. Coca paste was brought into Colombia from Bolivia and Peru and refined into cocaine; it was then shipped to the United States. By 1976 approximately 90 percent of the refined cocaine shipments passed through Colombia.

Financial corruption enhanced Colombia's position as a hub for narcotics trafficking. Money was laundered through Colombian banks using la ventanilla siniestra (open until 1995). The ventanilla allowed Colombian banks to buy tangible U.S. dollars and did not require any identification from sellers of dollars. The banks offered a favorable discount exchange rate to the traffickers who sold their dollars for Colombian pesos. The acquisition of narco-dollars through the ventanilla allowed Colombia to maintain its conservative economic policy. By the late 1970s $1 billion in drug money entered the Colombian economy annually. In 1985 the estimate was $2 billion annually.

Government Responses

As president, Julio Cesar Turbay (1978–82) increased Colombia's participation in the drug war. The United States responded by increasing narcotics control assistance to Colombia. U.S. aid went toward interdiction. The United States paid to maintain helicopters, patrol vessels, and radar equipment to interdict drug traffic. The United States also financed the training of anti-drug personnel. This led to the formation of the Colombian National Police's (CNP) Special Anti-Narcotics Units (SANUs). These units set up checkpoints, swept through the jungle, and used American helicopters to knock out cocaine production centers. To further halt trafficking, the United States used its air and naval forces for interdiction operations along Colombia's Caribbean coast and ran operations such as Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT) to shut down the Caribbean corridor.

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