Colombia Drug Trade Essay

The rivalry between the Cali cartel and the Medellin cartel lasted until Pablo Escobar’s death in 1993, and even after. The President at the time, Cesar Gaviria, had a tough antidrug stance and tirelessly pursued Escobar. He was sentenced to prison, but he was not to be extradited and was allowed to serve his time in his own personal prison. This gave Pablo the notion that he was still able to conduct business as usual. As his empire was crumbling, Escobar had members of the rival Cali cartel brought to his personal prison and he killed them in 1992. President Gaviria then ordered the army to detain Escobar for extradition to the United States. After this happened, Pablo went on the run and was eventually killed in a standoff with Colombian

These were the Norte del Valle cartel , which was based out of the north valley of Colombia, and the North Coast cartel, which operated in northern Colombia and controlled most Caribbean drug trade.The drug trade in Colombia lost its prominence, but it was still an obstacle for Colombia.

Although drug enforcement in Colombia has made positive changes since the end of the Pablo Escobar era, the modernization of the drug laws in this country is still forthcoming. The policies against drugs in Colombia were heavily influenced by the international laws against drugs. Colombia was especially influenced by those laws created by the United States since it is Latin America’s neighbor to the North. The United States has been trying to suppress Colombian cocaine production and trafficking since the Ronald Reagan era. One way that America largely influenced Colombia is by initiating a reform strategy for the country called, “Plan Colombia”. It was meant to stabilize the government and ended up halting drug production, stopping guerilla groups, lowering violence and helping strengthen the military. In fact, Plan Colombia also made Colombia one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid. Though, when it was revealed