Drug Violence in Colombia By: Haneen Hussein and Yasmine Kerkiz

 Colombia is a very beautiful country.  It is the 4 th largest country in South America.  It has lots of oil reserves.  It is one of the major producers of gold, silver, emerald, platinum, and coal.  Colombia used to care more about ideas and making things  However, now Colombia only cares about making money by selling drugs, violence, and kidnapping.(1) Colombia

 In the 1970’s a boom in marijuana along Colombia’s Atlantic Coast created “a class of newly rich traffickers” that supply the United States.  Then in the late 1970’s this expanded to exporting cocaine. It was led by a small number of “powerful drug kingpins”.  Drug lords got political influence using threats, briber, etc.  In the 1980’s the Medellin Cartel wage d war on the Colombian government killing hundreds of judges, police investigators, journalists, and public people. (2) Intro. (what is it?)

 Rogriquez Gacha, Carlos Lehder, and their leader Pablo Escobar were marijuana smugglers, that smuggled marijuana into the United States. The first two men were arrested and jailed, while their leader Pablo was hunted down and killed by the Colombian Police. (3)  The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs: it was a movement that was formed that tried to lessen the drug wars. (4) Who is involved?

 Commissioner Myles Ambrose attempted to reduce marijuana smuggling, which was brought from Colombia. He stopped every vehicle crossing the Mexican border to inspect them, in case they were carrying any illegal drugs. However, this plan didn’t succeed very much because it took a long time to check every single person and it caused chaos. (3) Cont. Who is involved?

 Mexican President Felipe Calderon was arguing that maybe if American’s took less drugs, violence could actually decrease in Colombia. This is because America is probably the world’s largest drug consumer. (5)  Some opinions on this are maybe stop many teens from taking drugs. Nearly half of American’s taking or using drugs are teenagers. (5) Opinions/arguments

 The US had tried to help in 1994 and has been able to break up the 2 largest cartels. But that did not help much because these 2 large groups were replaced with smaller ones. (2)  Many countries are trying to stop this drug violence but they are not succeeding very much. Some countries aren’t even doing anything because they are too afraid to get involved in the drug business. What is being done now?

 Crime and violence in Colombia is affecting millions of peoples lives in Latin America. The rise in crime and violence has made the economic and social developments difficult in Latin America. Not only this, but it also gives Latin America a bad reputation. Also, some countries have to pay a lot of money for security of the country. (6) How does the Issue affect Latin America?

 Because of the power and violence of the drug industry the Colombians had a saying “take the bribe or take the bullet”. (2)  What is Colombia's official name? : Republic of Columbia. Hey guys, it’s not Columbia, it’s COLOMBIA.  75% of the worlds emeralds are mined in Colombia.  Colombian coffee fact: Coffee is actually considered a fruit in Colombia. Fun Facts

 (1)  (2) rug_industryhttp:// rug_industry  (3) ss/inside/colombian.htmlhttp:// ss/inside/colombian.html  (4)  (5) americans-take-less-drugs-would-violence-decrease-in- colombia.htmlhttp://colombiareports.com/opinion/elyssa-pachico/11817-if- americans-take-less-drugs-would-violence-decrease-in- colombia.html  (6) Bibliography: