The Role Of Drug Trafficking In Colombia

A large portion of FARC’s profits now come from drug trafficking; however, they weren’t major drug traffickers when Plan Colombia was first implemented. Peter Dale Scott, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and author of several books on this topic, noted that the Colombian government estimated in 2001 that paramilitary groups controlled 40% of the cocaine exports; whereas the FARC controlled only 2.5%. The FARC had been more involved in the “taxing” of the drug trade, but they have since significantly increased their role in production by forcing farmers to grow cocaine. Economics and geopolitics are the clear reasons why the U.S. government implemented such a flawed drug policy which targets the FARC while turning a blind eye to the attacks committed by right-wing paramilitary groups.
As a result, U.S. corporate interests in Colombia have benefitted from these counternarcotics programs. BP, Exxon, and Occidental lobbied heavily for this program, although Occidental arguably benefited the most from the program. In 2003 and 2004, Congress set aside $98 million and $110 million respectively in federal funds for a U.S. trained Colombian Special Forces brigade to protect Occidental’s Caño Limón pipeline. The 480-mile Caño Limón pipeline had been a prime target for the FARC when Plan Colombia was implemented and those conditions remain today as there were literally 130 violent attacks at the pipeline committed by the FARC in 2014