From Smugglers to Warlords: Twentieth Century Colombian Drug Traffickers

Abstract

This article analyzes the characteristics and pursuits of various criminal organizations that, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, have been the principal organizations responsible for drug trafficking in Colombia. This work studies the features that mark the small groups of criminals who initiated and consolidated drug trafficking in the first six decades of the last century, to the organizations responsible for the boom of the 1970s, to the huge drug cartels that led the business in the 1980s to the first half of the 1990s, and the traquetos that directed the illegal traffic in drugs in Colombia from that point on. In addition, it analyzes the consequences that these organizations have had in Colombian political life, the responses of the State to confront these organizations, and the effects that these criminal groups have had on the levels and characteristics of the violence that has afflicted this Andean country.