Frankenstein in Colombia: America's Policy Missteps and the Paramilitaries

Abstract

For the past several decades, the United States has spent billions of dollars in Colombia, heavily engaged in the so-called “War on Drugs.” Yet Colombia remains at the heart of the cocaine trade in South America. The U.S. has also attempted to help the Colombian government to reestablish its authority over vast territories under the sway of Marxist guerrilla
groups and to achieve stability. These two struggles are now intertwined. But efforts to defeat some of the established drug trafficking organizations in Colombia have only spawned newer and more violent narcotrafficking groups.