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The Key Factors That Drive and Sustain the Drug Trade

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The Key Factors That Drive and Sustain the Drug Trade LESSONLESSON 3 CartelsCartels andand thethe GrowingGrowing DDrugrug TTraderade QuickQuick WriteWrite he drug trade is dangerous not just because it produces problems such as addiction and gang Tviolence—serious though those are. The drug trade also generates immense amounts of money, enough to fund a whole army. In Colombia, the drug trade supports a Marxist guerrilla What effect do you group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, suppose the rescue or FARC. FARC began its campaign to topple the Colombian of the 15 FARC hostages government in 1964. It has funded its efforts with hundreds had on Colombians? of millions of dollars in drug profi ts. On FARC members? On the Colombian The government has fought back. In recent years, it has government? met with some great successes, including killing top FARC leaders. In addition, the ranks of FARC’s foot soldiers have shrunk by about half over 10 years. But the rebels still have some things going for them: the drug trade and hostages. FARC has nabbed hundreds of civilian and military hostages over the years. LearnLearn AboutAbout None was higher profi le than one particular group of 15 hostages that included three American contractors • the key factors that drive and Ingrid Betancourt Pulaceo. Betancourt, a former and sustain the drug trade Colombian presidential candidate, was held captive for • how the drug trade six years. With family in France, she had become a cause undermines local célèbre—her circumstances aroused a lot of sympathy governments and damages economies and interest—especially in the European press. • how the US and local In a daring operation in July 2008, the Colombian military governments have tried rescued all 15 hostages “safe and sound.” Not a single shot to cut off the drug trade was fi red, Betancourt said afterward. It was a more forceful blow against FARC, analysts said, than the government could ever have delivered with a missile. How did they do it? A “mole”—a secret government agent— had infi ltrated FARC. He had persuaded his FARC superiors to transfer the 15 hostages to the camp of the group’s new top leader, Alfonso Cano. 534 CHAPTER 5 Latin America 75162_C5L3_p534-549_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 534 11/14/09 10:31 AM The hostages thought they were going to be part of a prisoner VocabularyVoca bulary exchange. The rebels tied the hostages’ hands and feet. They took the hostages to a camp supposedly belonging to a “friendly” •graft nongovernmental organization (NGO). When the hostages •narcotic saw what looked like more guerrillas at the NGO camp, their •extradition hearts sank. •forfeiture But the “guerrillas” turned out to be Colombian Army commandos in disguise. As the commandos tied up the rebel leaders, one of the pilots called out to the hostages: “We are with the army. You are free.” LESSON 3 ■ Cartels and the Growing Drug Trade 535 75162_C5L3_p534-549_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 535 11/14/09 10:31 AM The Key Factors That Drive and Sustain the Drug Trade The drug trade is a dangerous, criminal business. But it is a business. Looking at it that way will help you understand better how the illegal trade works. fastfastFACTFACT The Importance of a Good Climate for Growing Coca and Marijuana Classical economics teaches that every country should do what it does best. Unfortunately, much of Latin America is well suited for growing coca—from which cocaine is made—or marijuana, or both. Marijuana plants thrive under the intense sun of places like Mexico. Coca fl ourishes in the Andes Mountains. How Widespread Poverty Contributes to the Drug Trade Widespread poverty makes coca and marijuana irresistibly attractive to farmers as cash crops. Not unlike sugar in the colonial period, they are relatively lightweight, high-value commodities. They are well worth the cost of shipping to markets in North America and elsewhere. Farmers can feed their families much more easily on the earnings from a small plot if it’s planted in marijuana or coca than if they raised wheat or corn. In strictly business terms, such farmers are seeking the best return on their investment. Lack of opportunity feeds the drug trade in another way. In crowded Latin American cities with few job choices, many people take work as a lookout or messenger for a drug merchant. In these communities the richest and most “successful” businessmen are often drug lords. People who are poor and looking for work have a hard time resisting the wages drug lords are willing to pay. Why Being Close to the United States Matters Classical economics also teaches that if demand is great, suppliers will enter the market to meet that demand. There is, unfortunately, great demand for illegal drugs in the United States. In an economic sense, demand for drugs means not just the desire for them, but desire backed with money to pay for them. Latin American countries have their own problems with drug use among their citizens. But being so close to such a large market of potential US customers is an important factor in the Latin American drug trade. 536 CHAPTER 5 Latin America 75162_C5L3_p534-549_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 536 11/14/09 10:32 AM LatinLatin AmericaAmerica 537 11/14/09 10:32 AM Cartels and the Growing Drug Trade ■ LESSON 3 How Sea, Land, and Air Access Makes Smuggling Drugs Easier runs for nearly 2,000 miles and is one of the most frequently The US-Mexican border Agreement, Trade the North American Free in the world. NAFTA, frontiers crossed has only tightened the connections between the two countries since it took effect. And that in turn the opportunities for smuggling. has only increased Some drugs come into the United States by water—in small craft making their the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico and making landfall on the way through into car fenders and other Florida coast. Others get into America by land—stuffed ingenious hiding places as smugglers try to get their payloads past US Immigration cers. Some people, called drug mules, simply carry offi and Customs Enforcement the Southwestern deserts into the United States. Other their illegal loads across They often use small planes that evade detection smugglers bring drugs in by air. by radars at the edge of US territorial waters. During President Ronald Reagan’s administration, his wife, Nancy, promoted promoted administration, his wife, Nancy, Ronald Reagan’s During President widespread an antidrug campaign with the slogan “Just say no!” It drew criticism as too simplistic. But its underlying logic was sound: The market for drugs would vanish if Americans ceased to demand them. 75162_C5L3_p534-549_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 537 How Weak Local Governments and Widespread Corruption Impact the Drug Trade As you read in Lesson 2, the drug trade can bring so much money into an area that it overwhelms the local economy and corrupts local governments. Pablo Escobar Gaviria, who controlled the Colombian drug trade in the 1980s, used the phrase “plata o plomo” to describe the choice he offered those who got in his way: “silver or lead.” They could accept a bribe or face his bullets. It’s believed that Escobar ordered the killings of hundreds if not thousands of politicians, judges, and policemen. You might say the way weak local governments and widespread corruption impact the drug trade is by enabling it to continue. 538 CHAPTER 5 Latin America 75162_C5L3_p534-549_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 538 11/14/09 10:32 AM LatinLatin AmericaAmerica 539 11/14/09 10:32 AM Cartels and the Growing Drug Trade ■ LESSON 3 . comes to the drug trade. rst region in the world—there have in the world—there rst region How the Drug Trade Undermines Local How the Drug Trade Governments and Damages Economies In his speech, Caputo told of his experience as an election monitor in an unnamed Latin American country. ckers buying votes He saw drug traffi to install their own mayors in certain a city’s ckers control towns. If traffi mayor and town council, he said, they need not fear the law holding them to account. In fact, with their own politicians in place, the drug kings can then also engage ingraft— the illegal use of power to get more and property money, power, How Violence, Bribery, to Corruption Lead and Graft in Government and Business “Our American hemisphere is the “Our American hemisphere fi been no others—to bring together and poverty, such democracy, he said. inequality,” special This triangle of factors requires attention, Caputo suggested. Poverty makes a society fragile, he said. This fragility opens doors for the drug open trade. And once the doors are then the weaknesses of Latin American young— democracies—still relatively to defend against the make it hard power. drug lords’ In a speech a few years ago, Dante Caputo, secretary for political affairs for the In a speech a few years ago, Dante Caputo, secretary for political affairs cking as a form of American States (OAS), described drug traffi Organization crime that ultimately amounts to an attack on democratic power. of organized his listeners of Latin He reminded special vulnerabilities America’s when it 75162_C5L3_p534-549_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 539 Drug lords are no longer interested in just selling drugs, Caputo warned. They want power, too—at a local level fi rst, but ultimately at a national level. “In some of our countries,” he added, “they are knocking on the doors of the central government.” Carlos Lehder Rivas, a Medellín Cartel leader in Colombia, is an example of a drug lord who tried to become a political power. US authorities eventually prosecuted him and got him convicted. But before that, Lehder bought interests in local Colombian radio stations and newspapers.
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