People are different in many different ways, we perceive things differently, interpret and view things differently. You might as well think Colombia is known mainly because of its cocaine and drug exports all around the world, but there’s more beyond that. Colombia for many years has been battling to get out of the drug market. We’re still facing, but still, many sequels have to be cured ---the political and military problems, and the cartels are still making our handsome Colombia a not secure place. Two sequels--- that we want to close forever. 

Colombia as we know today has one of the biggest drug empires in the world. Between the years of 1993 to 1999 Colombia was the number 1 coca and cocaine producer in the world, and one of the major exporters of heroin. 

It’s easy to expect a bad government system in Colombia as all sorts of narcotrafficking is banned apart from the personal dose of marihuana, hashish, and cocaine. This law was majorly pressed by the last president Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. The government of Colombia has had many struggles over the years with the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (Farc), and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Both guerrillas have contributed to the political and economic aspects of the country. For example, in the years of Pablo Emilio Escobar (Most known drug lord in the world), Las Farc wanted to overtake the Colombian government in order to establish their own rules which at the end, of course, all they wanted to do was generate laws for them to have rights  over the land of the farmers and make it theirs in order to be able to plant more marihuana. In the end, it obviously didn’t work out. During some very serious public speeches, the president from Colombia Álbaro Uribe, predicted that if the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia would have taken any sort of political power, the increase of narco-trafficking would have been immense.

As mentioned previously, the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia wanted to have full dominance of the land of the farmers. And since their political goals didn’t work the expected way, they would have to find another source of power to accomplish their goal. Since that moment and on, Las Farc started to threaten the farmers, by giving three choices: They work for them and their land will remain under their name, they give up the land, and leave for good, or, they execute them. 

As we can imagine, the consequences of this activity started to grow stronger and stronger. The government, for instance, started to generate the extradition treaty for those paramilitaries united with Las Farc. And as a result of this, Las Farc began a “war” against the government which got many important political figures killed. And just as the waters were starting the calm, a new bomb exploded--- Las Farc and ELN united which meant they would have a stronger military.  

As the land was being ‘stolen’ from the farmers, the cocaine and marihuana intake increased by a lot. It also means that less land was being used for the coffee, bananas, and other goods that make up Colombia’s economy. The president Álvaro Uribe, demanded that if a land of coca plantation was discovered, they should immediately fumigate all the land, which in the end resulted in a non-fertile land. And this, of course, led to a massive decrease in arable land in Colombia. But this had no noticeable problems. (though it led to long-term problems) In 2010, Colombia produced 410 metric tones which are about twice the weight of a blue whale. (

And as to increase the tones  Pablo Escobar came to light, which was the beginning of the Cartel de Medellin. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, The cartel of Medellín earned an estimated $420 million a week and making its leader one of the wealthiest people in the world. Escobar’s lavish lifestyle included luxuries such as modern houses, planes, and other innovative materials. When the police had an arrest warrant for Escobar, he eventually started paying millions of dollars to many politics, which in the end resulted in other cartels thinking they could do the same. 

The president of Colombia was trying to work with the extradition treat for all those who were accused of narco-trafficking, and soon, the cartels responded by an increase of bombs and murders of important people. All these threats from the cartels were described as being a coup against the state. But it was more than that, it included citizens as hundreds of people unconsciously died due to the attacks towards the government.

As mentioned before, the National police from Colombia have all the power over the lands that have been confiscated by the Nation Police. But not only this, but they also have the order to fumigate those with a product that would instantly make the soil infertile. Although many lands have been taken from the cartels, we can’t really say this has decreased the production, because, in reality, it has somehow increased 

According to the UNODC report, the coca production acreage in Colombia last year was the highest ever recorded level, increasing by 25,000 hectares from 2016; just seeing how things are developing at a high-rate year by year, Colombia will keep producing this illegal product and others as well. Something this is causing as we know is constant fights between the own producers or cartels, and many political and military problems around the country.