The War at Home
The night of the State of the Union continues. Bartlet tries to rescue the five DEA agents held hostage in Colombia (1), but the operation turns out to be a trap and several soldiers die in the process.
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Colombia (last updated July 13, 2001) (back to top)
Colombia is the center of the international cocaine trade, a dubious distinction that has survived governmental opposition for years and has also fed unrest domestically.
More than 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States is produced, processed or transshipped in Colombia. Drug traffickers grow cocaine locally (an estimated 136,200 hectares were under cultivation in 2000) and also import cocaine base from Peru and Bolivia, refine the base into cocaine hydrochloride, which is then exported.
Colombia's cartels are some of the most sophisticated criminal organizations in the world. Inside Colombia, the cartels pay guerrilla groups (in particular the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)) to protect their crops and refining facilities. The cartels then work with Mexican and Dominican groups to bring cocaine into the United States (Mexican groups started off simply as transport but were increasingly paid in cocaine and are becoming major traffickers themselves, now dominating the West Coast and Midwest). Inside the United States, Colombian traffickers are organized as "cells" covering geographic areas.
Government efforts through the Colombian National Police and army divisions have hurt these organizations in recent years, effectively dismantling the Medellin cartel that dominated the trade in the 1970s and the Cali cartel that dominated in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Medellin drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was killed during a shootout with the CNP in 1993, and major Cali leaders were arrested or killed in 1995 and 1996). But cartels have adapted and new ones continually rise to power. Even traffickers who are arrested manage to retain their power; several have been given light sentences and continue to run their operations from prison.
Colombia's current president, Andres Pastrana, was sworn into office in August 1998; he has vowed to end Colombia's long-running civil conflict and to cooperate with the United States in combating the illegal drug trade. In 1999, the Pastrana administration unveiled its "Plan Colombia," a multifaceted approach to dealing with the country's problems. It not only fights the drug cartels but also aims to improve the economy, improve the country's human rights situation, and strengthen democratic institutions. Colombia plans to finance $4 billion of the estimated $7.5 billion cost, and the United States approved a $1.3 billion assistance package in July 2000.
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By Stephen Lee
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