Instability in Colombia
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That Colombia is a nation mired in seemingly endless instability and protracted war is a solemn fact known all too well to contemporary students of Latin American development. As surely as the causes of this enduring dilemma are up for debate, so too the remedies remain elusive. Two astute examinations of the Colombian system will be compared and contrasted in this essay. The first, written in 2002 by Nazih Richani and entitled ôSystems of Violence: The Political Economy of War and Peace in Colombia,ö tackles the very nature of protracted conflict in the modern world, with a special emphasis on understanding the economy of the war system and its machinations. The second contribution, ôColombian Labyrinth: The Synergy of Drugs and Insurgency and Its Implications for Regional Stability,ö was written by RAND researchers Angel Rabasa and Peter Chalk in 2001; in it, the authors examine the sources of instability in Colombia with an eye toward United States national security, ultimately concluding that in the years to come, the US will need to broaden its focus in Colombia in order to dedicate significant time to confronting insurgency, and not merely rampant drug trafficking (as it has done in the past). Both pieces are concise and convincing, and each makes similar observations about the state of affairs in Colombia today. Where they differ is in their respective vantage; where Richani strives to dissect the delicate relations of power that create and sustain protracted
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and exporter of cocaine, and that the vast majority of that cocaine (70 percent) is shipped off to the United States (11). Cocaine finds its way into the US in a myriad of ways, and ôUS authorities admit that they have only limited operational intelligence on the groups that now dominate the drug trade in Colombia" (15). By 1999, it was estimated that several hundred small cartels were operating throughout Colombia in ôatomized fashionö (17); the result has been a spate of cocaine-oriented economic opportunities, high rates of drug-related violence and crime, interfactional fighting between cartels, rampant political corruption, and the exploitation of porous borders with neighboring territories (16-18).
It is not difficult to perceive why it is the drug trade that has so occupied American foreign policy with respect to Colombia. However, Rabasa and Chalk make clear also the origins and development of guerrilla factions, emphasizing what has become ôthe most prevalent form of armed activity in the countryÆs civil conflicts since colonial times" (23). The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a major guerrilla group in Colombia, has achieved a staggering degree of organization and sophistication that has successful
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2344
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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