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Names such as Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, José Santacruz Londoño, Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela and Pablo Escobar are still topical in the Colombian imagination, as they were at the head of the cartels that motivated all the traffics of drug in the past.
Next Sunday, December 2, marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Pablo Escobar by the Medellin police. Many still seek their fortune and the authorities are fighting against this scourge that continues over the years. growing
According to recent figures released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, illicit cultivation in Colombia has increased by 17 per cent over 2016, from 146,000 to 171,000 hectares.
Globalization, more technology, lack of clear policies and US pressure are factors that experts believe Liberal vanguard, they configure the phenomenon after Escobar's death in 1993.
Posters to organizations
Mauricio Jaramillo, political badyst, believes that "in the 90s, not only with the death of Pablo Escobar, the idea of drug trafficking cartels was trying to influence politics, but also the whole war that this traffic had declared to the state, which included the killing of candidates, officials and police, all that ended and we went to other types of wars, we also pbaded posters to micro-trafficking and to organizations where everything is much more fragmented, there is some sort of location that makes tracking more difficult. "
We must remember that Escobar tried to reach Congress, which he partially achieved with one of the substitutions.
He also explained that "at that time, the structure was more upright and that today there is a more horizontal structure in which middle managers have more opportunities to climb up and down." At the time of the posters, we had the figures of the mafia like Pablo Escobar. Today, they are numerous and work more in the logic of a network and not of a vertical organization with such a marked hierarchy ".
For his part, Luis Fernando Ramírez, Vice Chancellor of the University of La Salle, said that "from the point of view of business, there is no question of big drug barons in Colombia, but that the company has been dispersed among small and medium-sized enterprises.
In the end, he describes: "These are middlemen who buy the packaged product and transport it to its destination, but the economic capacity of current drug traffickers is much lower than that of the time of Rodríguez Orejuela, Gacha and Pablo Escobar, who was very powerful, to the point of facing the state ".
More productivity
Despite the government's efforts to stop illicit cultivation for decades, the situation in Colombia continues to worsen.
On this aspect, the deputy chancellor of the University of La Salle declared that "25 years after the death of Escobar, the industry continues and is a growing industry that has innovated technologically because, today now, a coca bush gives a bigger production, they give three harvests a year when there were two before. "
That's to say "value for money is better than in the 90s," he said.
American policies
Colombia is a country that has benefited from the support of the United States in its fight against drug trafficking, but according to the experts consulted, these policies are not quite good.
In this regard, Luis Carlos Reyes, director and co-founder of the Tax Observatory of the University of Javeriana, states that "the policies of the United States and Colombia have been rather innocuous and that is the problem; to say that they are dedicated or trying to ban and persecute coca growers, but when there is a demand, the only thing that does is increase the price without reducing consumption. "
In addition, "one of the most interesting things you can see is that the price of cocaine in the United States is much lower than when Pablo Escobar died. loss of lives and billions of pesos, what have we achieved with all this? "
He adds, "A whole poor country is making efforts to protect the health of people in a rich country who decide to use drugs that are dangerous to their health." The truth is a sacrifice that not only does not seem to be worthwhile, but does not even work. "
In the same vein, Jaramillo notes that "US policy has had positive effects, as today Colombia has armed forces and modernized police, to some extent led by the United States, which is positive, but has also had a disastrous effect, that Colombia has adopted a prohibitionist paradigm at very high levels of irrationality and has remained in the debate on flexibilization against drugs. "
The beginnings in drug trafficking
Pablo Escobar Gaviria – or "El Patron", is known for a good part of his adult life – was born on December 1, 1949 in Rionegro, 40 kilometers from Medellín, Antioquia.
In 1972, when he was barely 22 years old, he had already made himself known in Medellín for his flirting with crime. That year, he had already created a group of thugs renowned for stealing cars and selling contraband goods.
In 1974, he began shipping cocaine shipments to the United States. In 1976, he built his own cocaine processing labs. In the same year, he founded the Medellín Cartel, a criminal organization run by him, with such an infrastructure encompbading the three stages of the drug world: production, transportation and sales.
Other famous drug traffickers
– José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, aka "El Mexicano", was released by the police in Tolú.
– Carlos Lehder Rivas, nicknamed "Crazy", was one of the main partners of Escobar. His capture in February 1987 marks the first extradition of a cartel member to the United States.
– Gustavo de Jesus Gaviria Rivero, aka "Leon", was the first cousin of Pablo Escobar, as well as his right arm and his faithful companion since the beginning of their cocaine trafficking.
– Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, is the youngest member of the three brothers Ochoa (with Juan David and Jorge, founders of the cartel).
– Dandenis Muñoz Mosquera, aka "La Quica", was one of the criminals of Escobar. In 1991, he was arrested in New York (USA) for his involvement in the Avianca bombing.
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