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The Colombian drug cartels were ultimately harmful to the country's…

- - - - In 1991, Escobar built himself a prison after surrendering to Colombian forces which was known as the cathedral. (Mcdermott)
      - Pablo Escobar was very violent and his striving for power lead to a conflict and stand-off between the cartel and the government. ("The")
      - On December 2, 1993, Pablo Escobar was killed by Police from his hometown of Medellin on a rooftop. (Mcdermott)
  - - - The PEPES were founded after Escobar murdered Fernando Galeano and Gerardo Moncada, two predominant figures of the Medellin Cartel, in the Cathedral which caused the dissolution of the Medellin Cartel. The PEPES were founded with the money of the Cali Cartel, had declared war on Escobar, and had members such as Diego Murillo (AKA Don Berna), Fidel Castaño, and Carlos Castaño which would go on to become leaders of the AUC. (Mcdermott)
      - AUC
        
        AUC (United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia)- umbrella organization of paramilitary (110) (Holmes)
        
        After the death of Pablo and his structure of drug cartel came the emergence of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary army which was created and strengthened by former members of the Medellin Cartel, especially the PEPES (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar) which were a criminal group started in 1992. (Mcdermott)
      - Paramilitary violence increased in 1980s and they were declared illegal in 1989. (110) (Holmes)
      - Paramilitary groups have caused over 80% of human rights violations in Colombia. (110) (Holmes)
      - In turn, the Colombian right wing paramilitary groups are also thought to control both fields, labs and some of the smuggling routes. This situation has been disastrous for Colombia - both sides in an on-going civil war are able to reap huge profits from the drug industry which are then turned into guns for further fighting. * ("The")
    - - FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)- main guerrilla organization in Colombia- marxist group/ largest guerrilla movement in Colombia/ about 17,000 members/ funds operations by kidnapping and extortion from both legal and illegal businesses (110) (Holmes)
      - FARC has been around since mid-1960s and is present in much of rural Colombia. It has recently expanded to major cities. They want land reform, price supports for agricultural products, credit assistance, and health care and improved education for peasants. (110) (Holmes)
      - FARC created political wing, movement Bolivariano, to combat state terrorism: the injustices, inequalities, and humiliation caused by US imperialism. (110) (Holmes)
      - The most significant grouping, the Fuerzas Armadas
        Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), the oldest guerrilla force in the Americas, grew out of the rural self-defence organisations formed by Liberals during La Violencia. (1067) (Browit)
      - During the 1960s the FARC modulated into a well armed and well
        organised army, complete with a Marxist–Leninist discourse calling for a radical
        restructuring of the national economy and a halt to foreign exploitation of
        Colombia’s natural resources. (1067) (Browit)
  - - - During this time, “baby cartels” became common in Colombia. These were small cartels which were in charge of certain areas of the drug trade such as transporting the coca base to Colombia or smuggling the finalized cocaine product into the U.S. (Mcdermott)
      - In 2006, after the AUC had demobilized and the factions of the Norte del Valle cartel were in the middle of a war, the BACRIM emerged. These were a new style of drug cartel and were named by the government as the mix of the words “bandas criminales” (Criminal groups). (Mcdermott)
      - In the last 20 years, Colombia’s drug trade has fragmented. There is no overarching figure like Escobar who can regulate every step of the ladder anymore. (Mcdermott)
      - Instead of focusing on the US market, which is dominated by Mexico, the Colombian cartels instead focus on developing new markets in Europe by working with the Italian mafia, working with the established domestic Brazilian market, or that which is growing in Argentina. (Mcdermott)
      - “the mafia has become practically invisible” -General Oscar Naranjo (Mcdermott)
      - After the Medellin and Cali cartels ended, the younger drug traffickers realized that the large drug organizations were more likely to be destroyed by the government so the cartels began to break up. ("The")
      - Smaller groups were formed which held individual tasks. In this system, on group smuggled drugs from Colombia to Mexico, while another controlled the jungle labs, while another group transported coca base from farms in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina to the labs. ("The")
    - - Each small node on the web can be taken down with little to no impact on the rest of the web and it will quickly be replaced, which adds to the cartel’s imperviousness. (Mcdermott)
      - The BACRIM are a very different type of cartel from that of Pablo Escobar. While Escobar’s cartel and its competition only created cocaine and exported the drug to the US, the BACRIM deals in extortion, illegal gold mining, and producing and dealing many drugs such as marijuana, synthetic drugs, cocaine and its derivatives. On top of this, the modern-day cartel deals the drugs in Colombia which is something that Escobar never would have done. (Mcdermott)
      - Since there is no way for one man to be the sole leader of a drug cartel due to the fact that Colombian police or the US Drug Enforcement Agency will quickly stop them, the BACRIM, the third generation of Colombian drug cartels, has evolved into a large web of various independent factions which work together to produce the drug yet rarely communicate, their only connection being the fact that they are part of a large network such as the Rastrojos or the Urabeños. This setup makes the modern-day Colombian drug syndicate nearly impossible to destroy. (Mcdermott)
      - Today, the BACRIM is trying to create innovative new ways to smuggle drugs. The average leader of these factions instead looks more like a well-rounded entrepreneur than a criminal. (Mcdermott)
    - - Medellin is still the drug capital of Colombia and many groups such as the AUC and people compete to be the next leaders of the infamous Medellin cartel which Pablo Escobar founded. (Mcdermott)
      - In October of 2013, peace was brought to Medellin as Oficina de Envigado and the Urabeños, two of the principle factions of the BACRIM, agreed on a peace treaty which has caused the city to have the lowest murder rates it has had in three decades. (Mcdermott)
- - - - Amnesty will be granted to the FARC for armed conflict or rebellion, disciplinary sentences, and even ongoing investigations. Any excusable behavior will be pardoned. (110) (Encinales)
      - The amnesty which is being granted does not take the right of the victims to repair the situation. (110) (Encinales)
      - The peace treaty would have to cause institutions and organizations to research and convict the FARC of its crimes (this would mean hiring many lawyers and forensic officers) (104) (Encinales)
      - Special forces would be created in order to investigate those who have gone missing during this conflict (105) (Encinales)
      - A special force of investigation and accusation is needed, integrated by international specialists in the subject of exhumation and identification of victims of the conflict and sexual violence. (112) (Encinales)
      - These are all things which would negatively impact the country economy as it would cost money.
- - - - Gustavo Gaviria, general manager of the Gavicafe Group of coffee-exporting companies, has been in business for 40 years was forced to pay extra to transport his coffee in individual bags instead of in bulk to prove that drugs were not being smuggled in his packages. He pays for his products to go through extensive security measures yet they must wait days for inspection in United States warehouses . ("Cocaine")
      - Gaviria pays $2 in security costs for each 132 pound bag of coffee, which added up to $27.4 million. These security measures discover drugs in less than 1 percent of the coffee exported. ("Cocaine") (Holmes)
      - The cocaine trade had a large impact on rural parts of Colombia because as the production cost for coffee went up and its commodity price lowered which caused rising levels of unemployment and lowering levels of income and this all lead to a switch by Colombian farmers from producing coffee to producing drug crops. (Holmes)
      - Even if illegal drugs do not bring in as much money as coffee, the illegal drugs still are easier to plant, maintain, and transport, have a longer storage life, and have a more developed distribution system. (107) (Holmes)
      - Oftentimes, farmers decide to supplement their incomes by growing drug crops due to competition from foreign producers with lower costs and lowering coffee prices (107) (Holmes)
      - Colombian coffee farms are usually vulnerable to lowering coffee prices because they usually do not have a way to diversify their crops, and drug crops give them a way out of this. (107) (Holmes)
      - Coffee, the main cash crop of Colombia, employs 12 percent of Colombia’s agricultural workers while the illegal crop business employs 6.7 percent. (107) (Holmes)
      - Coffee employs about one million people in Colombia and is grown on small farms while drug crops is dominated by a few and employs only a few people. (107) (Holmes)
    - - In the second half of the 1990’s, GDP growth slowed and unemployment increased as coca production increased in Colombia. (106) (Holmes)
      - Until the mid-1990s GDP growth and coca production were fairly stable. (106) (Holmes)
      - High incomes due to drug trade caused a boost in the construction sector which created jobs for the lower class (107) (Holmes)
      - The real estate boom caused a collapse of asset and real estate values in the long run. Property values growing at an increasingly unsustainable rate results in an a collapse of assets ("Cocaine")
      - Sector Impact
        
        The construction sector in Colombia, mostly in Cali, entered a recession during this time (1995) due to the fact that demand and prices and fallen. (Drug)
        
        About 20% of investment in the construction sector in Cali was from drug traffickers. (Drug)
      - Most Colombian economists agree that most of the economical problems in Colombia are caused by the drug trafficking. (109) (Holmes)
      - Damage to Peso
        
        "One of the real factors that have pressured the devaluation of the peso has been the suspension of part of the drug traffickers' income," Mr. Kalmanovitz said. (Drug)
        
        in Nov. 1995, the peso had lost more than 7% of its dollar value due to the scarcity dollars. (Drug)
      - ‘In Medellı´n, income inequality had increased to such a degree that the distribution
        of wealth was worse in 1989 than it had been in 1967’ (109)(Holmes)
      - Off-shoring
        
        “Offshoring”- the practice of moving business operations to a foreign country, and sometimes outsourcing them to another company- was picked up by drug traffickers in the late twentieth century. (105) (Wainright)
        
        As cartels are an illegal business, they move to outsourcing because they want to reduce their costs just like the other firms and also because they prefer to have the most relaxed environment in which to operate as possible. (105) (Wainright)
      - Explanation: In the short term, it is clear that revenues from drug trafficking, as those
        from any exportable good, may result in a temporary increase in domestic
        spending, generating an expansion of aggregate demand.
        On the other hand, the
        long term dynamic effects on economic growth are very much affected by the
        distorting effects that the drug trade creates in terms of key relative prices Due to
        these distortions, the evolution of legal economic activities can be seriously
        affected.
        Therefore, despite a temporary positive impact, it is very likely, as will be
        discussed below, that these illegal funds cause essentially negative consequences
        to the domestic economy. (Steiner)
    - - in the short term, the drug crops provide wage gains for the poor. In the long run, they cause farmers to not have a reason to work since they have modern and competitive market to work towards. (107) (Holmes)
      - As farmers put their money into drug crop production children become involved in the drug trade there is a loss of investment in legitimate companies. (107) (Holmes)
      - Coca cultivation increased by 21.98 percent while the production of other agricultural commodities decreased by just over 1 percent which means that legal crops were replaced by drug crops. (107) (Holmes)
      - Illegal crops are destroyed with chemicals which then make it difficult to grow legal crops (108) (Holmes)
      - farmers on the lower end of the spectrum do not even actually benefit from illegal crop growing due to competition which makes their profit margins very small.(109) (Holmes)
      - Because the armed groups that control the cocaine trade in Colombia act as monopsonies. So, the sole local group which buys coca leaf dictates its price. So if the price of coca goes up, that burden is on the farmers instead of on the drug traffickers. (Wainright)
      - The Colombian Marxist Guerrilla groups are linked to the cocaine trade. The guerrillas protect the drug growing fields and the drug-producing labs in exchange for a large fee. ("The")
  - - - In regards to Macroeconomy, the illegal drug trade causes macroeconomic imbalances due to an influx of foreign exchange and an overvalued peso. (109) (Holmes)