Drugs: A War Nobody Wins

 

 

DRUGS: A WAR NOBODY WINS

 

Barely ten years before Pablo Escobar turned himself into one of the richest man all over the world, Colombia left behind "La Violencia", a political conflict which caused more than 200.000 victims. But Colombians were wrong when they thought their country could reach a long term peace because the war on drugs, which started with Escobar's activities, caused even more dead persons during the last four decades than "La Violencia".

 

Today Colombian drug cartels are responsible for more than 60% of the world wide cocaine production and whenever authorities capture a capo like they did with Don Mario in 2009 then there's immediately a successor taking his place.

 

In some rural areas drug gangs are cooperating with each others like the FARC guerrilla does with paramilitary groups in the Bajo Cauca called region.

 

In other areas they are spreading land mines, fighting against another cartel in order to keep territorial control - just like the ELN guerrilla does in Samaniego.

 

But whatever drug gangs or cartels do, it's always the same people suffering the consequences: the campesinos or farmers and the natives like the Nukak Makú at the Guaviare region where FARC guerrilla started a couple of years ago invading the native's land in order to start growing coca. The indigenous tribe had to leave the ancestral region and almost 300 of its members are living right now at a refugee camp outside San Jose del Guaviare.