Colombia’s Reality: Beyond the Fast Glance, Research Paper Example

No matter how paradoxical it may sound, but steadily growing GDP, vast amount of natural resources, and diversified cultural heritage is not always a proof of a country’s well-being. While taking a fast glance at Colombia’s economical, political and social situation it may seem that the country has everything it needs to flourish and to offer its people wonderful living conditions. But a deeper investigation will show another spectrum of the country’s living. This paper will explore such painful issues of the reality in which Colombian people have to live as kidnapping, constant civil conflicts, political rebels, and drug cartels.

Colombia is a constitutional republic in northwestern South America with a population of 44,928,970 people, which makes it the 29^th most populous country in the world and the 2^nd most populous in South America (CIA, 2009). An independent country of Colombia emerged in 1830 as the result of the collapse of Gran Colombia. For more than 50 years the nation was attempting to establish different forms of political and governmental order, and eventually it came to be known as the Republic of Colombia in 1886. Those political and social problems that will be discussed in this paper started in 1960s when an armed conflict between the governmental forces, left-wing insurgents and right-wing paramilitaries occurred. Nowadays, this conflict continues to shake the country’s political, economical and social life.

After the end of La Valencia (blood conflict between 1940s and 1950s) a number of guerilla organizations were created which continue to fight with the official government of Colombia. The most violent and terroristic among them is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This organization was established on the basis of the Colombian Communist Party in the 1960s. It is largely involved in kidnapping, drug trade, and armed struggle. CBS News states that the FARC is responsible for the major part of kidnappings that occur in Colombia (2008). For the most part, the key targets of these kidnappings are wealthy businessmen and landowners, international and domestic officials, policemen and military men, and also international tourists and entrepreneurs. The FARC is also responsible for a great number of deaths among civilian population of the country. The organization launches a lot of attacks on towns and sites that they consider to be of military importance, as the result hundreds of indigenous inhabitants die. For instance, in 2002 the FARC conducted the attack on a church in Bojaya which resulted in the death of 119 civilians; and in 2005 the organization conducted a series of gas cylinder attacks on the town of Toribio which left two thousand people without their homes. In the report of the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights (2005) it was stated that “FARC-EP continued to commit grave breaches [of human rights] such as murders of protected persons, torture and hostage taking, which affected many civilians, including women, returnees, boys and girls, and ethnic groups.”

In 2002 Alvaro Uribe was elected as the president of Colombia and since then a tremendous campaign aimed at a strategic withdrawal of the FARC was launched. This campaign is based on the increased military and police actions against the members of the guerilla groups and these actions resulted in the capture or removal of a wide number of the FARC’s fighters and commanders of various levels. Another accomplishment of the campaign is the release of a number of hostages in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Giving its evaluation of this campaign against the FARC, BBC News states that the series of military successes against the FARC rebels in 2008 as well as the freeing of hostages has boosted “hopes that an end to the decades-long conflict might be in sight.” In her report Daniel Schweimler says that due to the election of Alvaro Uribe and implementation of his campaign against the FARC the number of murders has decreased to 15,000 in 2005 from 36,000 murders in a couple of previous years (BBC News, 2006). Nevertheless, peace talks with the leaders of the rebel organization of the FARC have absolutely collapsed much before then, in 2002.

On the other hand, peace and well-being of Colombian people is constantly threatened by other illegal organizations that fight against the official government. Those are represented by the right wing paramilitary groups, major one among which is the Self-Defense Units of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC). Along with the FARC, the AUC is responsible for the constant violation of the rights of Colombian citizens, participation in drug production and processing, and kidnapping. According to the Human Rights Watch, paramilitary groups (AUC in particular) are responsible for 70-75% of identifiable political murders in Colombia (2002).

Once again with the election of Alvaro Uribe as the President of Colombia in 2002 there started a process of negotiations with the paramilitary groups aimed at their demobilization. There were a number of controversial issues, therefore this process of demobilization lasted for several years, but eventually it was concluded by the end of 2006. However, even though the AUC was fully demobilized there remain some military groups that were organized from the former combatants of the paramilitary troops.

But guerilla extremist organizations and paramilitary groups are not the single factor that contributes to the flourishing of social tensions, insecurity and violence in Colombia. Drug trade is both the reason for and consequence of the raise of criminal groups around the country. Colombia is an illicit producer of a great number of drugs, supplying them to the international drug markets. It is “world’s leading coca cultivator with 167,000 hectares in coca cultivation in 2007, a 6% increase over 2006, producing a potential of 535 mt of pure cocaine; the world’s largest producer of coca derivatives; important supplier of heroine to the US market” (CIA, 2008). Such a thriving of illegal drug industry doesn’t only affect political and economical systems of the country, its international relations, but it also has a negative impact on the development of a domestic drug problem. An addiction to various sorts of drugs is vastly common among the population of Colombia, especially among the Colombian youths (Livingstone, 2004).

Although in the 20^th century the Colombian government has adopted a series of prohibitions on cultivation and consumption of a variety of drugs, nonetheless the worldwide drug consumption boom of 1960s-70s contributed to the expansion of drug cartels in Colombia. Nowadays, these cartels have grown into criminal conglomerates responsible for murders, kidnappings and violence. Major ones among them are Medellin, North Coast, Cali, and Norte del Valle cartels. These cartels are very often associated with guerilla organizations that help them to produce and distribute illegal drugs. In their turn, for this help, guerilla groups receive financial support and protection from the cartels. But there also occur armed conflicts between the members of guerilla movement and cartels which very often result in the death of civilians.

Colombian government tries to undertake certain steps to fight with the drug trade. In addition, it also receives aid from the international community, especially from the United States of America. US government has developed and implemented the so called Plan Colombia which is aimed at coca eradication and fight against the guerillas and paramilitaries that participate in the production and procession of the illicit drugs. European countries also provide financial, tactical and logistical help to the Colombian government with an aim of combating the illegal drug trade. Nevertheless, despite all the attempts of the domestic government and international community, Colombia still remains the chief producer of coca with approximately 70% of the total share and dominates approximately 90% of the cocaine processing market in the world (PBS Frontline, 2007).

However, not only the government of Colombia and the international community attempt to fight against the guerillas, paramilitaries, and drug lords that flourish in the country, but the citizens of Colombia as well. No matter how frightened they might be by the constant murders, kidnappings and rapes, still the people of Colombia try to fight against all that violence that surrounds their daily lives. For instance, in July of 2007 “hundreds of thousands of Colombians staged nationwide protests against kidnappings and the civil conflict, demanding the release of some 3,000 people still being held hostage by different groups” (BBC News, 2007).

Nevertheless, despite all the accomplishments and attempts of the present leader and government of Colombia to put an end to all the violence and illegality that makes up the reality of Colombian life, the country still remains one of the most violent countries in the world, chief world producer of drugs, and the key penetration to all neighboring borders. The CIA Fact book estimates that the number of Colombian refugees and internally displaced people varies between 1.8-3.5 millions (2007). BBC News repots that in 2008 some 380,000 Colombians were forced from their homes by the continuing armed conflict (2009). According to the report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the homicide rate of Colombia is one of the highest in the world and since 2002 this number has only halved (2006). In its article on Colombia’s country profile CIA notices that in Colombia “politically-motivated blood-letting in drug-related crime has become the most common cause of death after cancer, and has fuelled kidnapping” (2009).

Nonetheless, the present government of the country “has stepped up efforts to reassert governmental control throughout the country, and now has a presence in every one of its administrative departments” (CIA, 2009). By the end of 2006 more than 31,000 of members of former paramilitary groups have been demobilized and the AUC has stopped its functioning as a formal organization. Since the start of Alvaro Uribe’s presidency in 2002 there can be observed a major decrease in the number of kidnappings – from 3,700 in 2000 to 800 in 2005; the number of guerilla combatants has been reduced from 16,900 insurgents to 8,900; and there was reported a 48% decrease in the number of homicides between 2002 and 2005.

After conducting this research on social issues in Colombia I come to the conclusion that the conditions in which the population of the country has to live are really severe and life-threatening. Therefore, it becomes evident why so many people try to flee out of the country. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the present government of the country together with its president – Alvaro Uribe – is trying to put an end to all the Colombia’s violence and terror in the most efficient manner possible. Under Uribe’s administration “towns and cities, where the majority of Colombians live, have become safer, with murders and kidnappings down” (BBC News, 2009).

References

BBC News. (2009, April 23). Colombia’s displaced ‘rises 25%’. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8014085.stm

BBC News. (2009, April 1). Country Profile: Colombia. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1212798.stm

CBS News. (2008). US Hostages Rescued from Colombian Drug Lords. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://demo.cbslocal.com/video

Central Intelligence Agency. (2009, July). The World Fact book: Colombia. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html

Human Rights Watch. (2002, October 7). Colombia: Attorney General Undermines Human Rights Investigations. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2002/10/07/colombia-attorney-general-undermines-human-rights-investigations

Livingstone, G. (2004). Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy and War. Rutgers University Press.

PBS Frontline. (2007, August). Drug Wars: The Colombian Cartels. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/business/inside/ colombian.html

Schweimler, D. (2006). Colombia’s Fight to End Violence. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5041044.stm

United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights. (2005, February). Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Situation of Human Rights in Colombia. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://www.hchr.org.co/documentoseinformes/ informes/altocomisionado/Informe2004_eng.pdf

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2006, November). Violence, Crime and Illegal Arms Trafficking in Colombia. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/Colombia_Dec06_en.pdf