FARC and drug trafficking
For more than 50 years, with more than 220.000 dead, the oldest guerrillas in the world declares war to the Colombian State. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia emerged in 1964 as a communist insurgent group that sought a fair society. They symbolized the nonconformity of rural society, which had been forgotten by the Colombian government. This work will talk about the origins of this political actor and about the role that drug trafficking plays in terms of its greatest source of income. According to a recent report sent by the National Police of Colombia to Interpol, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) handle a budget of 2 every year.000 million dollars, from illicit activities, especially drug trafficking and kidnappings ”.
Origin of the FARC
At the beginning of the 30s, the "revolutionary taking of the land" by the peasants is carried out. These, defended with weapons the lands they occupied during the period of "political violence". The guerrillas arise in response to this political violence exercised by the conservative government, which culminates in 1963 and 1964 with the bombing of Marquetalia. This period is marked by the nuclei of the communist agrarian struggle that, for four years, especially in the south of the Tolima region, sowed panic in the country, with leaders as well known as Manuel Marulanda Vélez Vélez. In 1953, Lieutenant General Gustavo Roja Pinilla offers peace to the guerrillas to deliver their weapons. The guerrillas refuse this agreement and continue to grow and consolidate. Especially with the appearance, in the Latin America region, of leaders such as Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara, the guerrillas see the victory of the revolution probable.
Thus, the "independent republics" arise, with the invasion of land and the armed organization called "self-defense". They are characterized by the possession of weapons, their political and military base and by financing and indoctrination from abroad. It is in 1966 with the Second Conference of the South Block when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are officially formed. They urge the country to "the struggle of the great masses towards popular insurrection and the power of power for the people". It is observed since its inception that the fundamental element of its struggle is in an agrarian reform that could benefit the peasants. However, in the next part of the work it is analyzed how they go from being an insurgent group to being a group that is financed by illegal activities, moving away from the initial objective by which they were created.
FARC and drug trafficking
As for the role of the FARC within drug trafficking we must highlight the eighties. During the sixties and seventy the income of the Farc were insufficient to continue their revolutionary activities, so during this period the armed conflict was not so intense. It was with the entrance of drug trafficking when violence in the Colombian territory increased. Drug traffickers who were in the areas occupied by the guerrillas financed its activities in exchange for the protection of their political and economic interests.
In the origins of the relationship of the guerrillas with drug trafficking appears the concept of "weight", which is a tax that the guerrillas charge the peasants for the cultivation of coca in exchange for protecting them from paramilitary groups. This tax marks the difference between rich guerrillas and poor guerrillas. The former flaunted their possessions, moving away from the vision of the poor, worker and worker of the field, as was initially. Authors such as Bejarano and Pizarro recognize that, from FARC financing sources, 48% would provide drug trafficking, 36% fruit of extortion, 8% derived from kidnapping, 6% product of cattle theft, plus a remaining 2% of various activities.
During the peace agreement drug trafficking was an essential issue, it was necessary to solve the financing of the war with illicit income from the drug, especially coca crops. It is important to note that Colombia is characterized by a high concentration of land ownership, informal property of the land, vulnerability of the small peasant, institutional weakness and poverty pronounced in the agricultural sector. These are economic factors that favor illicit activity related to drugs. In the peace agreement they try to eradicate these properties with illicit crops, but more flexible measures related to producing peasants. As can be concluded, all these factors lead to the existence of an illegal economy. Although the guerrillas disappear from coca crop areas, peasants who are already involved can replace the guerrillas in their work.
As a testimony of this situation in which the relationship of the guerrillas with drug trafficking is recognized we find that of a police general: “Do not think that the ELN does not depend on drug trafficking. It does the same as the FARC. The nuance, however, is that the ELN has always tried to handle the cocaleras bases in another way, much more respectful, and integrating them into their structure, understanding that they are necessary projects of inclusion and that leads to the fact that the Eln has more basis and support in terms of social and political organization. Notice, there has never been talk of extraditation an ELN commander, and to a large extent that is why. It is very different from some FARC that are much more violent and that, when they impose on the ELN they predominate in their actions, although in many occasions the ELN tries to transar to support its basis of legitimation ”.
As Jerónimo Ríos Sierra mentions, drug trafficking "denatures" to the guerrillas and complicates the completion and eradication of illegal activities. Initially, they denied any relationship with marijuana or coca, because they understood that they distorted the "guerrilla spirit". As always, it is difficult to determine whether a group is motivated by their ideology or the benefits it could obtain from other activities that deviate from its main trajectory.
In the end, the FARC ended up putting power to survive financially, to the main objective of complaint before an unfair society, which represses and excludes from politics the peasants oppressed by the great landowners. As mentioned earlier, drug trafficking activity begins with the Gramma Tax, but then it is involved in other activities such as the purchase of coca paste, smuggling, the creation of laboratories called “crystallized” and the sale of the final product at both national and international level. The rebels, although in a limited way, have had commercial relations with the posters of Tijuana and Sinaloa in Mexico and the one known as "Fernandinho" in Brazil, which informed the Colombian authorities that the FARC had helped him export more than 200 tons of cocaine, charging a tax of $ 500 per kilogram and 15.000 $ for each drug flight. Another example is in a letter found on a FARC computer where a plan to sell coca directly to Mexican posters was described. The letter proposed to sell 100.000 kilograms of cocaine. This allows us to reflect on the change of the FARC of activism as a small insurgent local group, to opportunism, such as a group that can increase its activity when noticing the advantages that illicit activities can offer.
However, like any rural group, money shone for its absence. Thus, they begin with the taxes on coca paste, on marijuana growers in areas of influence of the FARC and with the collection of quotas for each flight that came out of the area controlled by the rebels. This is that the guerrillas defend the land of these growers in exchange for a tax payment. This allows the group to consolidate its presence in the lower class and increase its social base. But violence in the country also increased, which caused the flight of more than five million Colombians, the highest number immediately after Sudan and Syria. The justification of the group was always that they were fighting for a reform of land ownership and for the improvement of the economic conditions of the poorest Colombians. This inequality generates a discontent that causes many peasants to join the rebel group, where they find something to hold on. FARC increases from 6.000 members in 1982 to 20.000 During the 2000s, according to former Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón.
Although they make up a higher risk, the operations that were carried out outside the borders provided more benefits to the guerrillas. They can triple the benefit of each kilo instead of having to sell it to Colombia’s laboratories. It is logical to think that if there is a demand for illegal narcotics, there will continue to be production of these and will also find the way to reach the United States, Europe and beyond. Therefore, in 2013, an agreement with the government where both parties are committed to contributing to change is reached in Havana. Three main points are covered: the eradication of coca and the replacement of these crops, public health and drug use and a solution to drug production and trafficking.
After signing this treaty, the two parties face the problem of victims of war, the complete disarmament of the group and the punishments of the members accused of war crimes, the justice that will be applied during the transition. If this was really implemented, it would be a milestone. It would mean the disarmament of the largest rebel group that has been fighting against the Government since 1964 and the end of the last insurgent group with such a broad national presence.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, although clandestine economies are very difficult to measure, but by some sources and by others it is confirmed that the FARC had very high income. On the one hand, former Minister Pinzón speaks of 6-7 billion dollars; On the other hand, the data estimated by the Attorney General’s Office are 1.1 billion dollars. However, León Valencia, director of the Peace Foundation and Reconciliation in Bogotá, expresses that these estimates are very exaggerated, that the income is much lower, due to the cost of feeding, dressing and assembling a rebel. This is what is said during the work: how the FARC are carried away by an illegal world that can provide financing in large quantities. The income from drugs and other illicit activities has even more deteriorated the image of the FARC. The problem presented by having so much power is that instead of convincing local communities that their cause is fair, they can use force to convince them to support the cause.
Leave feedback