Colombian Crime Research Paper

There are many facets of Colombian crime that have shaped this South American nation. The first three things that come to mind when thinking about Colombian crime are relatively obvious: drug cartels, terrorism and corrupt politics. As a non-Colombian looking at these three major areas of crime one could receive a poor view of the nation of Colombia due to some of their flaws. The first thing to consider is the most obvious, the Colombian drug cartels. Colombia, like most of South America, has become synonymous with the drug cartels that operate within the country. However Colombia was definitively the most well known producer of cocaine in South America thanks to some of the major cartel leaders such as Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder.
Escobar was successfully able to simultaneously appeal to the commoners of Colombia, and maintain his status as the de facto ruler of the cocaine trade. “...at the height of his powers, was said to control more than 80 percent of the world's supply of cocaine” (Pablo Escobar (1949--1993) 1). In addition to controlling massive amounts of cocaine, Escobar was able to abuse the corrupt government of Colombia to his favor. The most notable example of Pablo Escobar abusing the government is when he built his own prison. His so-called prison, which was dubbed “The Cathedral” was part of Escobar’s terms of surrender. The Cathedral ended up being an extravagant prison that catered to Escobar’s every desire and included amenities such a jacuzzi, gymnasium and even a visit from the Colombian national soccer team. To top it all off, all of this was all sanctioned by the Colombian Bureau of Prisons (Campagna
Ocho Mil was the case number that was assigned to the investigation of President Ernesto Samper by the Colombian Attorney General, Gustavo de Greiff. These charges arose because Ernesto Samper allegedly funded his campaign with drug money from the Cali Cartel. This political scandal eventually became known to be the Colombian version of the Watergate scandal that occurred in United States (Frank 1). Starting around 1998 Colombia began to pass multiple anti-corruption laws that did a multitude of things. One of the first laws that was passed simply criminalized many acts that were associated with corruption. Acts such as extortion, passive and active bribery, money laundering, and abuse of office. These became criminal acts that were now more easily punishable by law. However despite legislative change in the Colombian government drug money still managed to find a way into the economy (Colombian Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives