CHAPTER
VIII
THE
DRUG PROBLEM
Drugs are one of the toughest problems
of contemporary times and for this reason it is not a coincidence
that this problem has become a topic of the most important international
meetings and that it has been taken to the United Nations due to the
implications it has in the international arena. Within the process
of drugs, which includes production, transformation, transportation,
consumption, money laundering and associated activities, such as trafficking
in chemical agents and arms it has come to the point where they have
formed truly multinational crime organizations. All of this, of course,
has attracted the interest of the international community given that
it is a problem posing great difficulties for a country to overcome.
We are far from the situation described in the
Records of Colombia´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 1963 in
which it states that the matter was discussed in the Third Committee,
which
"…briefly took up the matter of international
control of drugs, an issue which the United Nations then assigned
to the Central Permanent Committee for Opium. The deep rooted use
of alcohol which so strongly affects the weak economic groups in any
society and particularly in Latin America, shows a certain degree
of social similarity with the addiction caused by drugs, which although
well presented with respect to questions of international trade, could
derive useful lessons aimed at moderating the social consequences
of alcoholism, especially among the poor working class; and therefore
it is advisable to take up the problem of toxicomania in our environment
given that the principal economic resources are oriented toward the
East and Europe".
Twenty years later the situation was Colombia
has been deeply altered. The marijuana crops have grown incredibly
and powerful groups of delinquents became strengthened by the trafficking
of this product and of cocaine. Confrontation between the State and
these criminal groups had caused a violent response by the latter
which was manifested in actions against members of the judicial branch
and specifically the assassination of the Minister of Justice, Rodrigo
Lara Bonilla, on April 30, 1984. These were serious, but internal
problems that became more and more complicated as Colombia was singled
out in the international realm as the cause of a plight that was extending
throughout the world. From then on, Colombia had to seek the attention
of international fora, and among them the highest bodies of the United
Nations, to show how the country was a victim of the effects of drug
trafficking, how it had declared war on the State´s institutions,
particularly the judicial branch in the form of judges, magistrates,
ministers, prosecutors, presidential candidates, police and soldiers
that fell victims to narcotraffic. But above all, Colombia needed
to make the international community understand that this was a type
of criminality with vast reach, with international ramifications and
that actions to combat it could be undertaken in a Manichean way,
pointing at Colombia as the only guilty party. The answer had to be
multiple and international. As of that moment, Colombia insistently
posed the question of narcotraffic in the United Nations, through
its Ambassadors, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Presidents. Let
us see: In his speech before the General Assembly on September 25,
1984, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Ramírez Ocampo,
devoted an important segment of this address to the topic in a chapter
called "Drug trafficking against peace". He reminded the
Assembly that on August 10th in the city of Quito, the Presidents
of Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia and the VicePresidents
of Nicaragua and Panama declared trafficking and the use of drugs
a threat to the health of their people, placing conditions on their
development and becoming a "constant danger of subversion".
For these reasons it was necessary for the United Nations to hold
a specialized international conference and declare narcotraffic to
be a universal crime. It manifested that in order to combat narcotraffic
actions had to be developed on a world scale and an aid fund created
for the producer countries "…which at great costs are determined
to eradicate it".
The speech made by Minister Ramírez Ocampo
the following year on September 23, 1985 had a tone of pessimism and
upbraiding due to lack of international interest in the topic:
"…we recently saw with surprise that
developed countries abstained from supporting the proposal of the
Secretary General to extend an invitation to a meeting of plenipotentiaries
to deal with the topic of drug traffic, under the doubtful guise of
its financial cost. We would like to clearly establish that our position
with respect to this is to support any initiative taken in this area,
because drug traffic constitutes an attack on man´s integrity".
A few days after the Minister´s presentation,
a guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá,
the seat of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the State Council.
As a product of this attack by the guerrillas and the response by
the army to recover the Palace, it was completely destroyed by a fire
and half of the Magistrates of the Court died, as well as tens of
others. Under the weight of this impact, the representative of Colombia
in the Third Commission of the General Assembly, Emilio Lébolo,
gave another speech on drug traffic, particularly about its violent
effects in Colombia. He began by quoting a sentence by the assassinated
Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, to the effect that eradication
of drug traffic was everyone´s responsibility. He stated that
the support of the Colombian Government for a project to come to an
agreement to combat drug traffic, as well as the initiative of the
Secretary General to convene a UN conference on the control of undue
use of drugs and how Colombia had expressed that narcotraffic must
be considered a crime against humanity. He asserted that Colombia,
"is the country that has made the greatest efforts to struggle
against drug trafficking. Thanks to the action undertaken in this
area, between January 1, 1984 and June 30, 1985 enormous amounts of
drug were seized, many individuals captured and some of them extradited".
With respect to the violence in Colombia, he recalled that it was
developing a peace plan to integrate insurgent groups, but showed
how the M19, the group that had launched violent action against the
Palace of Justice,
"…has not respected the peace agreements
and has assumed the objective of perturbing civil order and destroying
institutions with the aid of the international Mafia of drug trafficking…It
becomes clear that Colombian institutions have been threatened by
terrorism and drug traffickers. Colombia shall not flag however, in
pursuing the two objectives formulated for pacifying the country and
eliminating drug traffic".
Shortly after taking office, President Virgilio
Barco (1986-1990), spoke to the General Assembly for the first time
and gave some consideration to drug trafficking. He recalled the efforts
made by Colombia, at great economic cost and an elevated number of
human lives, and emphasized another aspect of the problem, namely
consumption which is basically located in developed countries. President
Barco stated:
"In order for this struggle to be successful,
it is essential that countries that register the greatest level of
consumption of these degrading substances, put coordinated programs
into practice to penalize and discourage consumption and trading in
these types of drugs. Here, as well as on other solidary battlefields
against delinquency, it is imperative to achieve an understanding
and coordination among all civilized nations".
In the Third Committee of the General Assembly
in 1986, Ambassador Jaime Castro insisted on the international aspects
of narcotraffic and the need for this to be treated as an international
crime. According to him, it was necessary to achieve complementarity
among countries to combat it parallely on all fronts, "that is,
the production, traffic and consumption". Likewise, an overview
of the analysis of the problem would benefit from a global approach
which would take into account social, economic, cultural and political
aspects that strengthen narcotraffic and narcodependency. He recalled
that the United Nations had two exceptional manners for adopting definitions
and policies regarding drugs; the proposal for the International Convention
against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance
Trafficking and the International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit
Traffic (ICDAIT) to be held in 1987. He showed that the framework
of the United Nations is suitable for treating these matters, because
"…the problem has an universal dimension. Up until a few
years ago, only a few countries were interested in it and drugs were
concentrated in some regions, but today they affect about two thirds
of UN Members States".
In the month of June, 1987 the Conference on
Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Traffic was held in Vienna, and its emphasis
was on global solutions. The Convention against Illicit Traffic in
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was approved. In the General
Assembly's Third Committee of that year, the results of the Vienna
Conference were analyzed an as a result emphasis was given to global
solutions. Many delegations acknowledge that their countries were
affected by problems of drug addiction and narcotraffic, among them
several African delegations. Countries of the Pacific, especially
New Zealand and Fiji expressed their alarm at the growing use their
territories as places for drug transit. The Soviet Union also recognized
its growing problem. "Only the United States appeared stubbornly
reluctant to recognize their status of consumer and the responsibilities
derived therefrom".
The Permanent Ambassador of Colombia, Enrique
Peñalosa in speaking at the 1987 General Assembly noted that
after the World Conference of Vienna, rhetoric had been replaced by
recognition of responsibility we all have in combating drug addiction
an narcotraffic. He showed the social costs that this struggle being
waged against narcotraffic implied for Colombia; that resources had
to be oriented toward that front instead of being invested in social
areas and fighting against poverty. But above all, he recalled that
consumption is a fundamental part of the process and stated:
"…we continue to be worried about
the psychological association of the drug problem exclusively with
production and traffic, given that consumption is the great generator
of the problem and all the efforts that are made to decrease it will
contribute more effectively to the struggle on which we have embarked,
than all efforts at controlling production and transportation".
The universal, globalizing nature of each link
of the phenomenon was emphasized before the General Assembly of the
same year by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julio Londoño
Paredes, who pointed out that the crusade against drugs was a matter
for mankind that could not be carried successfully by one country
of group of States; that what was needed was "a concerted international
effort that would cover the phenomenon integrally, in its different
phases of production, consumption and control of resources derived
from this solvent traffic".
Colombia´s position had evolved in accordance
with new understanding of the drug phenomenon. Each time it became
clearer, and almost nobody refuted that narcotraffic was an international
phenomenon composed of various phases in which different persons or
groups of State were involved and that, as in all aspects of market
economy, consumption and production are elements of the same equation.
Likewise, it was realized that the drug business was not limited to
that product, since alongside traffic in arms an other elements flourished.
Therefore, the talk that tended to locate the cause or those responsible
in a single country or region, or a single phase of the process has
been overcome. Colombia, a country which has experienced a situation
of different types of violence since tens of years ago, was very much
aware of this link between the drug business and arms dealing. The
speech by Minister Londoño Paredes during the General Assembly
of 1988, devoted some words to clarifying these aspects of the drug
business and linking it to terrorism and arms dealing. He stated that
the fragile process of development of Third World countries must confront
a stack of problems among which were:
"…the situation faced with the presence
of destabilizing phenomena such as narcotraffic and terrorism. One
of our great worries in this respect is the way how members of these
groups obtain resources to combat legality and democratic institutions.
The aberrant and absurd arms traffic, which takes place without any
effective control in all corners of the world, serves to introduce
disturbing elements with grave consequences for the countries that
must bear these phenomena or for those popular democratic governments
that are intended to be destabilized by means of intervention by others
in their internal affairs. The universal hypocrisy becomes evident
when this subject is analyzed, given that on occasions the same ones
that pretend to be defenders of peace and safety, are those supplying
arms to those struggling against them in other parts of the world.
Frequently, certain arms manufactures stimulate the commercial aspects
of this traffic and the entired world, without exceptions, is the
victim of an absurdity that is based fundamentally on economic interests
and in private greed."
On September 29, 1989, President Virgilio Barco
addressed the General Assembly in his speech entitled "The International
Struggle against Narcotraffic is not a War of Words". And truly
is was not. The Colombian Government was vertically pitted against
the drug cartels and the latter had unleashed a war against the state
with attacks, massacres, assassination of judges and politicians and
with terrorist actions. On that occasion, President Barco received
a standing ovations at the General Assembly in recognition of this
courage in confronting narcotraffic and its terrorist expressions.
Just as he stated, the world community was being attacked by and international
criminal organization that had no country and for which no law exist.
If the community of nations failed to act as a united front against
this plight, the use of drugs and violence paired by it would advance
even further. "… I am sure that Colombia will defeat drug
traffickers. But if this effort is not accompanied by a global commitment,
final victory will not be reached". For Colombia it was not a
war of worlds and many Colombians, including the Liberal Party presidential
candidate, Luis Carlos Galán, had been assassinated due to
his firm commitment against drug traffic. Phenomena such as drug traffic
and terrorism, affect countries individually, but also constitute
a powerful enemy that extends beyond borders. For this reason, the
struggle must be international, and for that purpose President Barco
proposed the following points:
1-It is essential to effectively attack the demand for illicit drugs
and the profit they produce. Regardless of how much production is
attacked, the business will continue if there is no action against
the demand. "That´s what happened with marijuana. When
it became too costly for traffickers to operate in Colombia, due to
the effectiveness of public forces, tradesmen of this vice moved their
crops to California, Hawaii and many other regions. The only law that
traffickers do not violate is the law of supply and demand".
2- Illegal drugs are not innocuous, whether consumed in slums or at
rich parties and this is a message we must insist on.
3- There must be taken against the international arms market which
is linked to the drug trade, "last year Colombia presented a
resolution to the United Nations, making a call for restrictions to
be imposed on the sale of arms, but unfortunately it was not possible
to reach a consensus among the Member States on this matter. We cannot
continue to wait passively while this death trade progresses. Adoption
of special measures to reduce and control the sale of arms to drug
dealers and terrorists is essential".
5- Colombia is very much concerned about the activity of foreign mercenaries
who have aided narcoterrorists in Colombia and the international community
must condemn this mortal association between narcotraffic, terrorism
and mercenaries.
6- International cooperation is essential in achieving control over
money laundering since the drug cartels depend on the international
financial system in relation to transfer of earnings.
7- All countries must quickly ratify the Vienna Convention.
8- Colombia proposes two international initiatives: a- To convoke
a special session of the General Assembly aimed at discussing all
aspects of the drug problem and b) To establish a ministerial level
International Task Team on the Drug Problem in order to coordinate
international action.
In furtherance of the Colombian proposal, the
"Extraordinary Assembly on International Cooperation against
Production, Supply, Demand, Traffic and Distribution of Illicit Narcotics
and Psychotropic Substances" was held in New York from February
20th to 23rd, 1990. On behalf of the Colombian Government, the debate
was opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julio Londoño
Paredes, with an expression of his gratitude to the Assembly for its
positive acceptance of the proposal put forth by President Barco with
respect to the summons to the extraordinary session being held. He
stated that the decade of the 80´s had been focused exclusively
on a small number of developing countries, which simultaneously witnessed
the shrinkage of their income and deterioration of their economies
due to the discriminatory and unjust treatment given their export
products. He refuted the idea that action against narcotraffic must
be limited only to aspects of production, since "the decisive
and even heroic struggle by some countries in the repression of traffic
and processing of narcotics would serve no purpose, if at the same
time no action is taken against the exportation of chemical input
products; if consumption is not repressed and discouraged, if the
transportation of inputs and basic products for their manufacture
is not guarded against, if there on adequate control over the production
of raw material, if there is no effective actions against the corrupt
civil authorities and officers, military agents and police which in
some countries benefit the transportation of narcotics and inputs
with their actions or omissions, if there is no legal action against
the goods and prevention of money laundering form these activities,
if there is not full cooperation among the States that are involved
in the struggle and if there is no just and fair treatment for the
economies of the developing countries most affected by production
and processing".
International cooperation must imply actions
aimed at strengthening our economies, coming from industrialized countries
to eliminate customs barriers and the subsidies that affect our basic
export products. The United States, "…the number one consumer
of narcotics in the world, has acknowledged the immense responsibility
it bears in this struggle which until a short time ago assigned one
country or a small group of producer or processor countries".
As a consequence it has been recognize that the drug traffic problem
is universal, as the negative effects on the Andean country economies
has also been recognized.
As a result of this meeting, the Assembly approved
by consensus the "Political Declaration and World Action Program"
(A/S-17/AC.1/L3) aimed at adopting multidisciplinary and global scope
strategies, including measures to eliminate the illicit demand for
drugs, illicit crops and illicit traffic of drugs and to prevent abusive
use of financial and banking systems. Likewise, an Action Plan was
adopted for consumer countries to establish programs oriented at decreasing
demand and for producer countries to combat supply of these substances,
taking into account the social and economic effects that said policy
could cause. Likewise, the Plan was addressed at coordinating efforts
by all governments in this field.
In September, 1989, Great Britain attempted to
raise the topic of drug trafficking at the formal sessions of the
Security Council. For this purpose, it prepared a resolution proposal
"Draft Security Council Resolution on the effect of International
Drug Trafficking on International Peace and Security" according
to which the ability of international drug cartels to intimidate and
corrupt officials by the use of force, including death, constitutes
a serious threat to the States and to regional and international peace.
The Colombian Delegation objected to the inclusion
of this topic on the Security Council agenda and proposed the topic
be with in the General Assembly as on previous occasions, given that
notwithstanding its importance, it was something that did not place
international peace and security in danger. On the other hand, leaving
a topic such as this in the hands of the Security Council could imply
an attack on the sovereignty of other States indicated as part of
the problem and the justification for sending foreign troops to control
the production and distribution of narcotics. Colombia then promoted
a resolution proposal to hold a special session of the General Assembly
on "International Cooperation against Production, Supply and
Demand, Traffic and Distribution of Illicit Drugs", which was
accepted by the CAUCUS, which is a group of non-aligned countries,
members of the Security Council that meets informally.
Less than two months after the inauguration of
Cesar Gaviria, as President of Colombia (1990-1994), he addressed
the General Assembly, on September 26, 1990. César Gaviria
had reached the Presidency after a bloody presidential campaign in
which three presidential pre-candidates were assassinated and another
seriously wounded, the latter Ernesto Samper, who succeeded Gaviria
in the Presidency. Drug traffickers, in response to the persecution
against them deployed by the State and the war President Barco had
declared against them, had turned to terrorism and even demential
actions, such as the sabotage of a commercial airline. For this reason,
when President Gaviria addressed the Assembly he listed all those
events which Colombian society had been a victim of and which had
turned "…Colombia into the Nation that had, undoubtedly,
paid the highest price in this struggle". He made allusions to
the struggle that the majority of the cocaine captured and destroyed
in the world had been by Colombian authorities. But he asserted that,
as long as the developed world did not decrease its demand for drugs
there would always be more laboratories and the drug mafias would
be ever and ever richer.
"…in line with the inexorable logic
of the market, the consumption of drugs grows towards other countries
and regions, as can be seen in Europe and parts of Asia. We do not
want to think about the consequences it would have for Colombia and
for the dynamics of this problem were high income countries like Japan
or European nations to develop a demand for drugs similar to that
experienced in North America".
The fight against drug traffic can be the sole
responsibility of one country. Colombia "has received reiterated
expressions of solidarity but truly effective actions have been few
and far between". For this reason it is necessary for all manifestations
in this area to be put into deeds. Colombia is awaiting the presentation
of the preferential trade regime for signatory countries of the Cartagena
Declaration, Known as the "Andean Initiative" and its approval
by the Congress of the United States, just as it awaits cooperation
initiatives from Japan and the ASEAN countries.
The ideas expressed in the report of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs in 1991, on treatment of the drug problem is a
confirmation of President Gaviria's claim made in his address the
previous year about the need for effective action and not simple rhetoric.
The Memorial says: "It is surprising to point out the slight
relevance awarded the topic of drug traffic in the General Debate,
except by a few Caribbeans who made allusion to that problem; developed
countries did not include it on their international agenda".
Possibly, so much rhetoric on cooperation to
confront to confront the drug traffic problem and the slight collaboration
and lack of understanding from certain countries motivated President
Cesar Gaviria to use more assertive language, even to denounce, when
whe spoke for a second time before de UN General Assembly. In his
address on September 21, 1992, he stated that Colombia was victim
of the uncontrollable appetite for drugs and that it paid an immense
tax in blood and the lack of welfare for its population in the struggle
against drug traffic in which its judges were assassinated. He pointed
out that the bribes that corrupted prison authorities and penal officers
of the country came out of the pockets of drug addicts that consumed
drugs in the world's principal capital cities. For this reason, it
was painful for Colombia to see that,
"…those who dare to point an accusing
finger at a courageous and sacrificing people are precisely those
that casually look the other way when drugs are consumed beside them
or when it is a matter of money laundering, arms traffic, illegal
export of chemical inputs or drug distribution networks in streets
and cities".
We must move from words to deeds, to concrete
actions and for this reason, in his speech, President Gaviria made
the following proposals:
1- It is necessary to set goals, global and regional goals per country
on the control of drugs, "we must commit ourselves to reducing
the supply and demand for drugs by at least 50% for the year 2000,
by 70% for the year 2005 and to free humanity forever from the curse
of drugs before the year 2010".
2- It is necessary that global action be taken, for which the United
Nations must hold a conference on the illicit drug problem and arrive
at concrete commitments.
3- It is necessary to create a special international penal jurisdiction
for narcotraffic, money laundering and export of illegal chemical
inputs.
4- Available instruments must be improved for judicial cooperation
among countries and for this reason it would be very important to
have a UN Convention on Judicial Cooperation and Penal Crimes.
Within the framework of the proposals by President
Gaviria, the Colombian delegation in the General Assembly presented
a resolution proposal which became No. A/C.3/47/L.28, which was approved
by consensus. It established that the first General Assembly would
devote two days of plenary for a top level meeting to review the state
of international cooperation against production, traffic, demand and
illicit distribution of narcotics and psychotropic substances.
During the General Assembly of 1995, at which the 50th anniversary
of the United Nations was being commemorated, Rodrigo Pardo, Minister
of Foreign Affairs for President Ernesto Samper, brought up the topic
of drug trafficking again to insist on its international characteristic,
the efforts made by Colombia to combat it and the proposed that in
1997 and International Conference be held for the purpose of assessing
the results of the Convention.
"One of the world problems that requires
an effective multilateral strategy, led by the United Nations is that
of illicit drugs.
This is not the problem of a single country,
nor of a small group of nations: this is transnational crime of vast
proportions, oppressing dimensions and extremely serious dangers.
It is crime without a nationality.
We Colombians who have suffered more than anyone
the devastating effectos of drugs, who have suffered death and corruption
generated by its immense profits, are truly surprised to find that
the international community still lacks a full awareness of its dimensions
and the true nature of this problem.
This is an illegal economic activity, the dimensions
of which have been compared to those of the oil industry. It is 7
or 8 times the GDP of a nation such as Colombia, operates in dozens
of countries and has numerous related activities, such as money laundering
and rerouting of chemical inputs. These related activities generally
occur in developed countries and are just as important as the growing
of coca itself or the transformation of coca leaves into cocaine.
Much research has shown the increase in the
levels of illicit drug consumption in industrialized countries and
the opening of new markets throughout the world. World figures on
death from drug abuse have tripled since 1988 and medical emergencies
from cocaine overdoses also increased by 1,000% between 1978 and 1993.
My country has fought more successfully than
any other against the producers and traffickers of illicit drugs.
Colombia eradicated marihuana crops in the seventies, destroyed the
Medellin Cartel in the eighties and dismantled the Cali Cartel in
the nineties.
Colombia is credited with the eradication of
more than 50% of all the poppy crops destroyed on a worldwide level
and the seizure of more than one fourth of the cocaine and coca base
seized in the entire world.
The eradication of illicit crops in Colombia
must be accompanied by similar efforts at eradication of marihuana
crops in other countries, among which are included the industrialized
countries of the North.
During the first year of the Samper administration,
the policy of persecution of the drug cartels brought about results
that no other government, either in Colombia nor in any other country
had ever been able to achieve.
The world now has, thanks to these successes
achieved by Colombia, an historical opportunity to strike a hard blow
to narcotrafficking, in general. An historical opportunity which could,
however, be diluted if immediate and effective policies against money
laundering, rerouting of chemical inputs and against permissiveness
toward consumption are not adopted.
My country has proposed that a Special Segment
of ECOSOC be held in order to come to agreement on measures for international
cooperation, the adoption of an Interamerican Convention against Money
Laundering and the summoning of an international conference in 1997
to assess the results of the Vienna Convention and to make any needed
adjustments".
