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Colombia Narcotics Control and Interdiction
The activities of Colombian narcotics traffickers
represented
a serious internal security problem. During the 1980s,
government
officials that had been murdered for their efforts to
carry out
their responsibilities under the country's narcotics laws
included
a minister of justice, an attorney general, a dozen
Supreme Court
judges, and a former head of the Antinarcotics Police. In
addition,
scores of police personnel and lower-court justices had
been
murdered by the narcotics traffickers' hired assassins
(sicarios). By early 1988, the narcotics
traffickers had
organized their own death squad, The Extraditables. The
Extraditables issued threats against or murdered persons
seen as
abetting the government's attempt to comply with
outstanding United
States extradition warrants. The corruption spawned as a
by-product
of the lucrative trafficking operations had threatened, if
not
irreparably damaged, the integrity of the Colombian
judicial
system. Major traffickers often could obtain release by
making
substantial cash payments to the magistrates responsible
for their
cases.
Although some limited drug interdiction efforts
occurred under
the Misael Pastrana Borrero (1970-74) and Alfonso López
Michelsen
(1974-78) administrations, President Turbay implemented
the first
major campaign against narcotics trafficking. In November
1978,
Turbay declared a state of siege and dispatched the
military to
quell the surge in drug-related activities then taking
place in the
Guajira Peninsula
(see Drugs and Society
, ch. 2). Over the
next
sixteen months, a 12,000-man army brigade destroyed
marijuana
fields in the countryside and arrested traffickers while
the navy
blockaded the coastline and confiscated narcotics
shipments heading
to the United States. The campaign ended in March 1980
because of
growing concerns that it was disrupting the region's
economy and
exposing the armed forces to the corrupting influence of
payments
from narcotics traffickers. Turbay removed the military
from the
Guajira Peninsula and replaced them with 6,000 members of
the
National Police. During the Turbay administration,
Colombia also
agreed to a treaty authorizing the extradition to the
United States
of narcotics traffickers accused of crimes in that
country.
Finally, Turbay established the Judicial Police to assist
in the
investigation of narcotics-related crimes
(see The National Police and Law Enforcement Authorities
, this ch.).
Upon assuming the presidency in 1982, Betancur adopted
a
somewhat softer drug policy than had his predecessor.
Betancur
objected to the extradition treaty on nationalist grounds
and also
refused to allow the aerial spraying of paraquat on
marijuana
fields. At the same time, however, Betancur's minister of
justice,
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, aggressively pursued traffickers and
authorized raids on the Medellín Cartel's principal
cocaineprocessing complexes. In April 1984, Lara Bonilla was
assassinated,
apparently in reprisal for the successful raid the
previous month
on the massive Tranquilandia complex. The murder of the
minister of
justice shocked Colombians and galvanized Betancur into
action.
Declaring a "war without quarter" against traffickers,
Betancur
invoked his state of siege powers, extradited thirteen
drug dealers
to the United States, and committed substantial resources
to
massive antinarcotics operations by the police.
During its first two years in office, the Barco
administration
was rocked by a series of narcotics-related incidents. In
rulings
in December 1986 and June 1987, the Supreme Court
essentially
gutted the extradition treaty with the United States
(see The Judiciary;
Relations with the United States
, ch. 4). Prior
to the
second ruling, however, the government extradited drug
kingpin
Carlos Lehder Rivas. In December 1986, a hit squad of the
Medellín
Cartel traveled to Budapest and seriously wounded Enrique
Parejo
González, Colombia's ambassador to Hungary and Lara
Bonilla's
successor as minister of justice during the Betancur
administration. The following January, gunmen employed by
the
cartel assassinated Attorney General Carlos Mauro Hoyos
Jiménez and
kidnapped Andrés Pastrana, PC candidate for mayor of
Bogotá and son
of former President Pastrana.
In response, in January 1988 Barco decreed a series of
measures
collectively known as the Statute for the Defense of
Democracy. The
statute, which was partly modeled on antiterrorist
measures adopted
in West Germany, Italy, and Britain, expanded the security
forces'
jurisdiction under a state of siege declaration and
lengthened
prison sentences for those convicted of terrorist acts.
Returning
to a policy of the Turbay administration, Barco
recommitted
military forces to the interdiction effort. Despite
concerns in the
armed forces' hierarchy about the potential corrupting
influence of
the drug lords, Barco felt compelled to order the military
into
action because of widespread public concerns over police
effectiveness.
Data as of December 1988
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