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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
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colombia
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colombia
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756 total results foundAuthor: Navarrete-Frias, Carolina Title: Illegal Drugs and Human Rights of Peasants and Indigenous Communities: The Case of Colombia Summary: This study analyses the problem of illegal drugs and human rights abuses in Colombia, paying special attention to the effects of the illegal drugs industry on indigenous and peasant communities and to their responses to the industry's development. Details: Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2005. 49p. Source: Management of Social Transformations; Policy Papers No. 15 Year: 2005 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 116260 |
Author: Mesnard, Alice Title: Migration, Violence and Welfare Programmes in Rural Colombia Summary: This paper studies migration decisions of very poor households in an environment of high level of violence. Details: London: Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2009. 42p. Source: IFS Working Paper W09/19 Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Migration Shelf Number: 117378 |
Author: San Pedro, Paula Title: Sexual Violence in Colombia: Instrument of War Summary: Sexual violence has been employed as a weapon of war by all of the armed groups involved in the half-century-old Colombia conflict. State military forces, paramilitaries and guerrila groups have used sexual violence with the goal of terrorizing communities, using women as instruments to achieve their military objectives. This paper calls for the European Union, and particularly the United Kingdom, to pressure the Colombia government to fulfil its responsibility of protecting the civilian population by putting an end to this situation and punishing those responsible. Details: Washington, DC: Oxfam International, 2009. 32p. Source: Oxfam Briefing Paper Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Rape (Colombia) Shelf Number: 116310 |
Author: Donati, Sandro Title: Dossier Colombia: Production and Smuggling of Cocaine Summary: This report on the production and smuggling of cocaine in Colombia calls into question the success of Plan Colombia. It does this by comparing figures and statistics offered by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes with those of other field researchers. Details: Turin, Italy: Flare, 2009. 16p. Source: Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Control Shelf Number: 116488 |
Author: Poveda, Alexander Cotte Title: Poverty, Armed Conflict and Human Rights: An Analysis of the Objective Causes of Violence in Colombia Summary: This work analyses the influence of economic variables, poverty and armed conflict on violence in Colombia. For this purpose, a time series method is used to analyse economic and social data through which different long-term coefficients are estimated in order to determine the effects of these variables on violence in Colombia from 1950 to 2006. Socioeconomic characteristics, poverty and variables associated with armed conflict affect the dynamics of violence, and moreover, there are various political variables that have a notable influence upon the determinants of violence in Colombia. More precisely, variables associated with a lack of state presence in some regions and educational aspects are determinant factors that influence the incidence of violence in the country. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Universidad de la Salle, Investigation Group on Violence, Institutions and Economic Development, 2010. 50p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking (Colombia) Shelf Number: 118567 |
Author: Reidy, Aisling Title: Paramilitaries' Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia Summary: Between 2003 and 2006 the Colombia government implemented a demobilization process for 37 armed groups that made up the brutal, mafia-like, paramilitary coalition known as the AUC. The government claimed success, as more than 30,000 persons went through demobilization ceremonies and entered reintegration programs. But almost immediately afterwards, new groups cropped up all over the country, taking the reins of the criminal operations that the AUC leadership previously ran. Today, these successor groups are engaging in frequent and serious abuses against civilians, including massacres, killings, forced displacement, rapes, threats, and extortion. This report documents the extent to which the emergence of the successor groups is related to the government's failure to effectively demobilize main AUC leaders and fighters. It describes the groups' brutal abuses against civilians, particularly in Medellin, the Uraba region, and the states of Meta and Narino. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2010. 113p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Human Rights (Colombia) Shelf Number: 117328 |
Author: Mejia, Alberto Title: Colombia's National Security Strategy, A New 'Coin' Approach Summary: This study analyzes the impact of the Government of Colombia's new National Security Strategy over the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) long term strategic plans. For more than five decades Colombia has suffered the terrible spiral of violence. A broad mix of criminal actors representing the far left or right of the political spectrum, supported by narcotics trafficking, have endangered the country's process of democratic consolidation. This terrible path brought death, economic depravition and social unrest. During this time, political parties ranging from socialist liberals to conservatives tried to achieve peace and stability. However, none of them managed to reach a successful solution to these problems, because of their lack of strategic leadership to bring the country out of failure. Details: Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College, 2008. 36p. Source: Internet Resource; Strategy Research Project Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Enforcement (Colombia) Shelf Number: 118779 |
Author: Meza, Ricardo Vargas Title: The Security Approach to the Drugs Problem: Perpetuating Drugs and Conflict in Colombia Summary: The drugs problem in Colombia is intertwined with structural factors at the social, economic, institutional and cultural levels. Moreover, its relationship to the armed conflict has had serious consequences for the socio-economic conditions of peasant and indigenous communities affected by the production of raw materials used to produce cocaine. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2009. 8p. Source: Internet Resource; Drug Policy Briefing No. 31 Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 119212 |
Author: Gordon, Gretchen Title: Truth Behind Bars: Colombian Paramilitary leaders in U.S. Custody Summary: Colombian drug lords extradited to the United States must be held accountable for their role in the mass atrocities that have devastated their country. This report calls on the U.S. government to give Colombian authorities access to these extradited drug lords for their own criminal investigations. By supporting Colombia’s human rights probes, the U.S. may help bring an end to that country’s cycle of violence. Details: Berkeley, CA: International Human Rights Law Clinic, 2010. 28p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking (Colombia) Shelf Number: 119535 |
Author: Colak, Alexandra Abello Title: Civil Society and Security Transformation in Medellin: Challenges and Opportunities Summary: Medellin, the second biggest city in Colombia, experienced an impressive transformation after 2002 when a combination of national and local initiatives succeeded in dramatically reducing acute levels of violence. After being the most violent city in the world, Medellin became a successful case of urban security transformation. The aim of this research was to explore the role played by civil society in that process. However, not long before this project began, the security situation started to deteriorate in the poor communities of Medellin. The vacuum of power created by the extradition of a demobilized paramilitary leader had triggered wars between gangs and criminal groups. This made it necessary to explore not only the limitations of the recent security transformation, which is now in question, but also the way this outbreak of violence is affecting communities and the role that civil society can play in this context. In the first section this document presents an overview of the insecurity context of Medellin prior to the transformation started in 2002. The second section discusses the problems with the role that civil society is asked to play within current frameworks for security transformation, such as Security Sector Reform (SSR) and current models of democratic security governance in Latin America. Details: Santiago, Chile: Global Consortium on Security Transformation, 2010. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: New Voices Series, no. 2: Available at: http://www.securitytransformation.org/gc_publications.php Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 119680 |
Author: Title: Improving Security Policy in Colombia Summary: Colombia’s new government has to improve security policy to tackle the guerrilla tactics of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as well as their broadened participation in drug trafficking and newly forged alliances with other illegal armed groups. Details: Brussels; Bogota, Colombia: International Crisis Group, 2010. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Briefing No. 23: Accessed September 1, 2010 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/B23%20Improving%20Security%20Policy%20in%20Colombia.ashx Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 119714 |
Author: Cordeweners, Tom Title: Violence in Bogota, Colombia? A Rich Man's Problem? Summary: In this thesis, I will discuss how violence affected the lives of upper-middle class habitants of Bogotá, Colombia. For this, I will use the information that I obtained during four months of fieldwork. In Colombia, guerrilla movements, paramilitary organisations, drug cartels, youth gangs and common criminals all use violence to protect their interests. Economic violence is the sort of violence that most members of the upper-middle class encounter in a direct way. However, different forms of political violence also have certain consequences for Bogotá’s upper-middle class. Most people take personal measures and protect their houses in order to prevent being victim of a violent crime. Although some upper-middle class inhabitants cooperate with neighbours, the police or other state institutions, this is not the way most people deal with fear and insecurity. The security policies of both the national and the local government are generally seen as effective. However, most members of the uppermiddle class are not satisfied with the way the police tries to improve security. As we shall see, this is one of the reasons for the fact that Bogotá’s upper-middle class calls in the help of private security companies to make their environment safer. Details: Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2008. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Thesis: Accessed September 7, 2010 at: http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/student-theses/2008-0912-200805/UUindex.html Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Fear of Crime Shelf Number: 119760 |
Author: Haugaard, Lisa Title: Far Worse than Watergate: Widening Scandal Regarding Colombia's Intelligence Agency Summary: This report reveals the inside story about a wiretapping scandal in Colombia. It documents how the Colombian government’s intelligence agency not only spied upon major players in Colombia’s democracy—from Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges to presidential candidates, from journalists and publishers to human rights defenders, unions and faith-based organizations, from international organizations to U.S. and European human rights groups—but also carried out dirty tricks, and even death threats, to undermine their legitimate, democratic activities. Details: Washington, DC: Latin America Working Group Education Fund; U.S. Office on Colombia; Center for International Policy; Washington Office on Latin America, 2010. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 21, 2010 at: Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 119841 |
Author: Title: Colombia: President Santos's Conflict Resolution Opportunity Summary: President Juan Manuel Santos, in office since 7 August 2010, has an opportunity to end Colombia’s generations of armed conflict by building on but adjusting and substantially broadening the strategy followed for eight years by his predecessor. Alvaro Uribe’s predominantly military approach – the “democratic security policy” – did produce important security gains, but Colombia remains plagued by new illegal armed groups (NIAGs) and other criminal actors. By concentrating mainly on fighting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), it neglected other sources of violence and, most importantly, failed to address underlying causes of the conflict. Santos, who was elected with the largest majority in history, should use his political capital to implement a more integrated conflict resolution strategy that advances institutional and structural reforms needed to address illegality and impunity, expand access to services and tackle issues of land and victims’ rights. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2010. 30p. Source: Internet Resource; Latin America Report No. 34; Accessed October 15, 2010 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/34%20Colombia%20-%20President%20Santoss%20Conflict%20Resolution%20Opportunity.ashx Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Violence Shelf Number: 119980 |
Author: Aguirre, Katherine Title: Assessing the Effect of Policy Interventions on Small Arms Demand in Bogota, Colombia Summary: In Bogotá, some 50,000 people died in firearm-related events between 1979 and 2009. This constitutes roughly 8% of the total number of deaths, by natural or external causes, registered in the Colombian capital. While the impact of firearms in Bogotá is smaller than in Colombia as a whole, where approximately 11% of deaths have been attributed to firearms, Bogotá contributed 10% of all firearms deaths in Colombia over the period 1979 to 2009. In Bogotá as in the rest of Colombia, homicides are the primary event through which firearms deaths occur (more than 90% of cases). In 2009, there were over 15,000 homicides registered in Colombia. Despite an impressive reduction since 2002 (26.8%), and this figure being the lowest in more than 20 years, the homicide rate in Colombia continues to rank as one of the highest in the world, if not the highest. Improvements in the city of Bogotá have contributed substantially to the overall reduction in homicides. The city has experienced an impressive reduction of homicide violence since its peak in 1993, when the number of homicides rose from 3,000 in 1992 to almost 4,500, a 33% increase. According to the National Police, the figure of 2009 of Bogotá was 1,327 a reduction of around 70% with respect to the 1993 level. The current homicide rate of 18 per 100,000 inhabitants is still quite high, but contrasts with the rate of 1993 of 80 per 100.000. The contribution of Bogotá to the total number of homicides of the country has not declined at the same speed as the level of homicides. For the 2007, the Ministry of Defence says that the capital contribute with 32.7 per cent in the decrease of the homicides in the whole country. Violence in Colombia is a result of two interconnected complex social phenomena. The first is the prevalence of entrenched criminal organisations, mainly involved in the production and transport of illegal narcotics. The second is the three-sided armed conflict between the government, guerrilla groups and paramilitary groups. The situation in Bogotá is influenced more by common urban delinquency by conflict dynamics. In this document, we assess the market associated with the criminal use of firearms. Recent academic studies highlighted demand for firearms for violent use. This assessment will distinguish demand for firearms along two main axes: the markets in which they can be obtained (legal and illegal markets) and how individuals use them (criminally and non-criminally). Specifically, we will explore the impact that active antigun policies and other security interventions, established in the mid-1990s, had on reducing firearm-related homicides in Bogotá. After reviewing the general context, we will introduce the policies that have been implemented by local administrations during the period in which the homicide rate fell drastically. We then use a variety a statistical methods to assess the impact of gun-carrying and violence reduction interventions on homicide in Bogotá. Details: Bogota, Colombia: CERAC - Centro de Recursos para el Analisis de Conflictos, 2009. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Documentos de CERAC, No. 14: Accessed October 19, 2010 at: http://www.cerac.org.co/pdf/CERAC_WP_14_DemandBogotaFinal.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Gun Control Shelf Number: 120022 |
Author: Gaviria, Alejandro Title: Assessing the Link Between Adolescent Fertility and Urban Crime Summary: We use data of neighborhoods of Bogotá to assess the causal relation between their adolescent fertility and their homicide rates. We find that neighborhoods with high adolescent fertility rates, and that have low secondary enrollment and high crime rates at the moment the children of their teen mothers become teenagers, are more likely to have higher homicide rates in the future, when those children reach their peak crime ages, estimated to be between 18 to 26 years old in violent cities of Colombia. We did not find evidence of a positive effect on crime when the adolescent fertility rates are either isolated, or only coupled with low school enrollment, or high crime rates. We also find that increases in the secondary school enrollment always reduce the homicide rate. The results are robust to various specifications, including measurement error corrections, and the modeling of the spatial autocorrelation of homicides. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Borradores de Economica, 2010. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 594: Accessed February 9, 2011 at: http://www.banrep.gov.co/docum/ftp/borra594.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Rates Shelf Number: 120733 |
Author: Gaviria, Alejandro Title: The Cost of Avoiding Crime: The Case of Bogota Summary: We use hedonic price models to estimate the value households are willing to pay to avoid violent crime in the city of Bogotá. We find that households living in the highest socioeconomic level (stratum 6) pay up to 7.2% of their house values in order to prevent average homicide rates from increasing in one standard deviation. Households in stratum 5 pay up to 2.4% of their house values to prevent homicide rates from increasing. The results indicate the willingness to pay for security by households in Bogotá, and additionally, reveal that a pure public good like security, ends up creating urban private markets that auction security. These markets imply different levels of access to public goods among the population, and actually, the exclusion of the poorest. We find as well evidence of negative capitalization of the rate of attacks against life, and positive capitalization of the presence of police authority. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Borradores de Economia, 2008. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 208: Accessed February 9, 2011 at: http://www.banrep.gov.co/docum/ftp/borra508.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicide Shelf Number: 120734 |
Author: Llorente, Maria Victoria Title: Case Study: Reduction of Crime in Bogota: A Decade of Citizen's Security Policies Summary: The reduction of crime and, above all, of homicide in the city of Bogotá over the last decade represents an exemplary experience, not only due to the magnitude of the drop in the city’s crime rates, but also due to the novelty of the discourse and management of security-related issues on the part of the municipal administration. The Bogota case illustrates the development of a citizens’ security policy in which strategies of different characters are applied, such as the control of risk factors like alcohol consumption and firearm possession, the strengthening of the city’s policing capacity, initiatives related to cultural changes that would tend to increase respect for life and for the self-regulation of citizens’ behavior, interventions in deteriorated urban spaces etc. This combination of strategies and their results in terms of reducing crime and the feeling of insecurity in the city turn this experience into a good example of the various possibilities that exist to deal with the phenomena of urban criminality and of violence in particular. This case also allows one to consider the effectiveness of some interventions, as well as the process of evaluating the results of the policies implemented. This document explains the development of this experience from the mid-1990s. The first part presents how the city’s main social and security indicators evolved over the course of the period in question. The second and third parts outline the security and coexistence policies adopted during the administrations of the last three mayors, considering in particular the hypotheses that inspired them and their approach, the main measures put in place and the costs incurred by the municipal administration to implement them. Finally, the fourth part looks at the impact of these policies, as well as the practical lessons that may be extracted from them with regards to the planning of public policies for crime and violence prevention and to the evaluation of results. Details: Washington, DC: World Bank, Water, Disaster Management, and Urgan Development Group - Latin America and Caribbean Region, 2005. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 8, 2011 at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTLACREGTOPURBDEV/Resources/841042-1219076931513/5301922-1250717140763/Bogota.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Prevention Partnerships Shelf Number: 121284 |
Author: Cardenas, Mauricio Title: Does Crime Lower Growth? Evidence from Colombia Summary: Many analysts consider that lack of security is a major obstacle to growth in Colombia. This paper identifies a structural downturn in economic growth — of nearly two percentage points per year — as a result of the increase in illicit crops and crime rates after 1980. A decline in total factor productivity has been the key channel linking crime and economic growth. Political upheavals and high levels of inequality and poverty motivated the adoption of a new constitution in 1991. The constitution mandated additional fiscal expenditures to curb social tensions. Major progress has been made in terms of public safety and, to a lesser extent, in the provision of health and education. However, long‐run growth will continue to be constrained by inadequate transport infrastructure and low international trade volumes. Details: Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 30: Accessed April 28, 2011 at: http://www.growthcommission.org/storage/cgdev/documents/gcwp030web.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Economics and Crime (Colombia) Shelf Number: 121559 |
Author: Roth, Francoise Title: Using Quantitative Data to Assess Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia: Challenges and Opportunities Summary: Via Resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008) and 1889 (2009), the United Nations Security Council has strongly promoted the collection of data about wartime sexual violence and other issues related to gender equality in situations of armed conflict. The resolutions do not fully appreciate the size of the task laid out. Sexual violence, in wartime or in peacetime, is among the most notoriously difficult forms of violence to measure. A data mandate that does not point the way toward data quality leaves policy-makers in the dark as they seek to prevent or mitigate sexual violence, to punish perpetrators, or to make reparations to victims. Worse, poor-quality data on sexual violence may give a false impression of specificity and reliability, leading to incorrect policy assessments, misallocation of resources, and other outcomes that are assuredly not in line with the United Nations’ goals on this issue. This report addresses the challenges of sexual violence measurement in a specific context: Colombia’s ongoing internal armed conflict. After discussing in depth the difficulties faced by researchers attempting to measure sexual violence around the world, the report addresses several Colombian data collection efforts more specifically. Both governmental and non-governmental data sources are considered; more importantly, the authors outline several key cultural and political issues affecting sexual violence data collection in Colombia. In particular, the research team found, sexual violence reporting procedures in Colombia are fragmented and incomplete. Sexual violence is frequently viewed as a domestic violence or criminal justice issue; it is seldom considered as a phenomenon in its own right, or as an outcome associated with armed conflict. Details: Colombia: Corporación Punto de Vista; Palo Alto, CA: Benetech Technology Serving Humanity, 2011. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 5, 2011 at: http://www.hrdag.org/resources/publications/SV%20report%20april%2026,%202011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 121657 |
Author: Guberek, Tamy Title: Assessing Claims of Declining Lethal Violence in Colombia Summary: In this exploratory research note, we assess recent claims that violence in Colombia declined after the demobilization of paramilitaries. We show that these claims rest both on the overinterpretation of unadjusted data and on unsound causal inferences. We conclude that multiple data sources are needed to estimate the true rates of violence in Colombia after demobilization, and we suggest avenues for further research toward this end. Details: Palo Alto, CA: The Benetech Initiative, 2008. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 17, 2011 at: http://www.hrdag.org/resources/publications/CO-PN-CCJ-match-working-paper.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Rates Shelf Number: 121735 |
Author: Guberek, Tamy Title: To Count the Uncounted: An Estimation of Lethal Violence in Casanare Summary: Casanare is a large, rural department in Colombia, with 19 municipalities and a population of almost 300,000 inhabitants located in the foothills of the Andes and on the eastern plains. Multiple armed actors in the Colombian conflict have operated there, including paramilitary groups, guerillas and the Colombian military. Many people of Casanare have suffered violent deaths and disappearances. But how many people have been killed or disappeared? For reasons of policy, accountability and historical clarification, this question deserves a valid answer. The Benetech Human Rights Program has used a statistical technique called Multiple Systems Estimation to estimate the total number of killings and disappearances in Casanare between 1998-2007. This report explains why it is often difficult to calculate an accurate accounting of the killed and missing, and why it is important to make sure these people are accounted for accurately. We then explain a methodology we have developed to estimate both the number of the known victims, and the number of victims who have never been counted. Any accounting of lethal violence will be incorrect if we assume that any one dataset or combination of datasets contains a comprehensive count of killings and disappearances. Registries of violent acts kept by governmental and non-governmental institutions contain some, but not all, of the records of lethal violence. Organizations collecting this data may only have access to certain subsets of a population or geographic areas. Some reports of violent acts may be easier to locate than others and the resulting datasets will be biased toward those cases. How can we overcome these difficulties? Correct answers about the number of killings and disappearances rely on statistical estimation to overcome the complex, incomplete patterns of reporting. Getting the numbers right is extremely important: appropriate estimates can help account for unnamed, unreported victims in the historical record and guide the development of policies to respond to past violence. Using biased or incomplete figures, on the other hand, risks losing all trace of the existence of some victims and generates ongoing trauma for society. Victims who remain undocumented by any dataset become invisible, removed not only from their lives and the lives of their loved ones, but from historical memory. Since we consider individual datasets to be incomplete, we prefer to use all available lists or datasets of killings and disappearances to generate statistical estimates. The estimation procedure used to calculate the magnitude of killings and disappearances for Casanare is called Multiple Systems Estimation (MSE). MSE requires analysts to carefully review all known incidents in multiple lists, in order to determine whether some cases, either within one list or across lists, refer to the same victim. Matching cases that appear on more than one list allows statisticians to model the process by which violent acts are reported and to estimate the number of uncounted cases. MSE then uses the number of unique observations on each list in combination with the number of overlaps to estimate the total number of victims. Using a scientifically rigorous, transparent method to “count the uncounted” means that the results are less vulnerable to claims of partiality or bias. The work presented in this paper builds on a previous study which estimated missing people in Casanare. We chose to continue our research in Casanare for three reasons: 1) The line between killings and disappearances is often indistinct. Some people who are disappeared are presumed to be dead. In order to understand the magnitude of lethal violence affecting Casanare, we decided to analyze killings and disappearances side by side. In all of the following analysis, we present results for killings and disappearances together so that readers can draw a comparison between the pattern and magnitude of the two lethal acts. 2) Since the release of our 2007 report on missing people in Casanare, we have made important methodological improvements to our implementation of MSE. These advances allow us to include all of the available datasets and capture more precisely the range of uncertainty in the estimates. 3) We are integrating into this analysis new data shared with the Benetech Human Rights Program since the 2007 report. In this study, we have used information about victims of killings and disappearances provided by 15 datasets. These 15 sources of data come from state agencies – including government, security, forensic and judicial bodies – and from civil society organizations. Using this data and our methodological developments, we estimate that there were between 3,944 and 9,983 killings in Casanare from 2000-2007. In the period from 1998-2005, we estimate that there were between 1,270 and 5,552 disappearances in Casanare. We present and discuss these estimates in more detail in Section 2. In Section 3, we describe the reported data and how it was processed for use in the analysis. We also show how descriptive summaries of individual datasets may be misleading. In Section 4, we draw some general conclusions. In Section 5, we outline areas where we plan to focus our future work. Lastly, we offer the methodological developments in technical detail in an appendix. Details: Palo Alto, CA: Benetech Human Rights Program, 2010. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 17, 2011 at: http://www.hrdag.org/resources/publications/results-paper.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Disappearanced Shelf Number: 120640 |
Author: Ruiz, German Andres Quimbayo Title: Crops for Illicit Use and Ecocide. Are Illicit Crops Really the Main Cause oe Damage to the Ecosystem in Colombia? Summary: According to the Colombian government, cocaine consumers are unaware of the ecological disaster caused by production of the alkaloid. If they knew that cocaine is perpetrating ecocide in the country that leads on world production of the drug – Colombia – they would stop consuming it. Based on this premise, the government has organised an information campaign called Shared Responsibility, which uses pictures and statistics to tell people about the destruction caused by coca and cocaine production in the country. The campaign, which has the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), amongst others, has mainly taken the form of a travelling exhibition that has visited different countries in Europe. As a heading on its website, the campaign states that “The first source of air pollution in the Colombian jungle is smoke from the burning of trees to grow coca.” This indicates – right from the start and without any supporting analysis whatsoever – who the campaign believes is mainly to blame for the catastrophe: the small farmer who grows coca. For decades, Colombia has been implementing supply-side strategies that aim to solve the problem of coca and cocaine production. These strategies have been ineffective and counter-productive. They have failed to reduce production, caused humanitarian crises and worsened the armed conflict that has afflicted the country for so long. In response to the failure of policies to reduce the supply, the government has started to insist that consumer countries need to strengthen policies to curb the demand. This is where the Shared Responsibility campaign seeks to play a role. Again without any analysis whatsoever, it focuses on the other scapegoat in this affair: the consumer. And so the small farmer and the consumer are portrayed as sharing responsibility for ecocide. This ignores the complexity of a problem that is global in scope and involves numerous different players on both the legal and the illegal sides. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2008. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 28 Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction(Colombia) Shelf Number: 121494 |
Author: Title: War and Drugs in Colombia Summary: Drugs finance the left-wing insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the far-right United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) to a large degree, and thus are an integral part of Colombia's conflict. But while the state must confront drug trafficking forcefully, President Alvaro Uribe's claim that the conflict pits a democracy against merely "narco-terrorists" who must be met by all-out war does not do justice to the complexity of the decades-old struggle. Fighting drugs and drug trafficking is a necessary but not sufficient condition for moving Colombia toward peace. The view that anti-drug and anti-insurgency policies are indistinguishable reduces the chances either will succeed and hinders the search for a sustainable peace. More crops have been sprayed under President Uribe than ever before in Colombia, effectively reducing coca cultivation from more than 100,000 hectares in late 2002 to some 86,000 hectares at the end of 2003. Hundreds of small basic coca processing facilities as well as more sophisticated cocaine laboratories have been destroyed by the police and army. However, cocaine street prices in the U.S. have not increased and consumption remains high despite a 17 per cent increase in cocaine seizures in Europe and a substantial increase in cocaine consumption in new markets like Brazil. Aerial spraying is not likely to keep pace with the geographic mobility and increasing productivity of illicit crops. The interdiction of drug and chemical precursor shipments is very difficult, not least because of the porosity of Colombia's borders, and alternative development programs have been insufficient. The finances of the armed groups do not appear to have been hit hard, and everything indicates that they can keep the war going for years. While fighting drugs is clearly crucial, peace must remain Colombia's policy priority. The paramilitary AUC evolved from serving the drug barons of the 1980s and early 1990s as hired guns into a national federation of war lords in charge of an ever larger chunk of the drug business. Fighting the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) and FARC in part linked with state agents, the AUC committed atrocious crimes against civilians they stigmatised as guerrilla supporters. At the beginning of 2005 and after eighteen months of negotiations, the Uribe administration has demobilised some 3,000 paramilitary fighters, including the notorious AUC chief Salavtore Mancuso, who is wanted, along with a number of other paramilitary leaders, in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. Nevertheless, the paramilitary drug networks appear to remain in place, with the bulk of their illegal assets, particularly in rural Colombia, unaffected. The government has failed to establish promising peace talks with the ELN, the insurgent group with the most tenuous drug links. Nor has it significantly weakened the FARC -- whose ties to drugs are deep -- despite much intensified security efforts and a major military offensive (Plan Patriota) begun in 2003. The FARC retains a strong presence in most coca and poppy growing regions and participates actively, along with the AUC and the new generation of "baby drug cartels", in the narcotics business. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2005. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin American Report No. 11: Accessed July 21, 2011 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/11_war_and_drugs_in_colombia.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 107689 |
Author: Torre, Luis V. de la Title: Drug-Trafficking and Police Corruption: A Comparison of Colombia and Mexico Summary: Police officers working in countries plagued by drug trafficking are often offered a choice between "plata o plomo" ("silver or lead"). Given this option, it is not surprising that levels of police corruption are high in these nation-states. Significantly, however, levels of police corruption do differ radically between those countries where the levels of drug production and trafficking are similar. This thesis examines the case of Mexico, where corruption has been historically high and has increased in recent times; and the case of Colombia, where levels of police corruption have been relatively low and might even be said to be on the decline. Specialists in police reform and anticorruption typically look at administrative factors such as ethics, salary levels, the purging of corrupt officials, and the recruiting and training of clean officers as essential elements in the prevention of police corruption. While these factors explain some of the differences in levels of corruption, this thesis fills an important gap in the existing literature by moving beyond these conventional explanations. In particular, it introduces a country-specific approach to drug-related police corruption, including factors such as the organizational structure of the police force (centralized or decentralized), the legacy of the political criminal nexus in the country concerned, and both the size and ideology of the drug trafficking organizations involved. Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2008. 141p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed July 22, 2011 at: http://dodreports.com/pdf/ada483659.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 122144 |
Author: Title: Cutting the Links Between Crime and Local Politics: Colombia's 2011 Elections Summary: Deeply entrenched connections between criminal and political actors are a major obstacle to conflict resolution in Colombia. Illegal armed groups seek to consolidate and expand their holds over local governments in the October 2011 governorship, mayoral, departmental assembly and municipal council elections. The national government appears more willing and better prepared than in the past to curb the influence of illegal actors on the elections, but the challenges remain huge. The high number of killed prospective candidates bodes ill for the campaign, suggesting that the decade-old trend of decreasing electoral violence could be reversed. There are substantial risks that a variety of additional means, including intimidation and illegal money, will be used to influence outcomes. The government must rigorously implement additional measures to protect candidates and shield the electoral process against criminal infiltration, corruption and fraud. Failure to mitigate these risks would mean in many places four more years of poor local governance, high levels of corruption and enduring violence. Decentralisation in the 1980s and 1990s greatly increased the tasks and the resources of local government, but in many municipalities, capabilities failed to keep pace. This mismatch made local governments increasingly attractive targets for both guerrillas and paramilitaries. Violence against candidates, local office holders and political and social activists soared. With a largely hostile attitude to local governments, guerrillas have mainly concentrated on sabotaging and disturbing the electoral process. By contrast, paramilitary groups, particularly after the formation of a national structure under the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), used their links with economic and political elites to infiltrate local governments and capture public resources. That peaked in the 2003 local elections. Since then, and particularly after the official demobilisation of these groups in 2006, the influence politicians linked to paramilitaries enjoyed has weakened but not disappeared. The October elections are the first test of how democratic institutions under the government of President Juan Manuel Santos cope with the growing power of new illegal armed groups and paramilitary successors (NIAGs), now acknowledged as the country’s biggest security threat. These organisations, which the government calls BACRIM (criminal gangs), are unlikely to have a unified stance towards the elections. Some will be content with minimal relations to local politics to guarantee their impunity, access to information and freedom of action. But NIAGs are rapidly evolving into larger, more robust criminal networks, so some could develop a more ambitious political agenda. Several advocates of land restitution for the victims of Colombia’s long-running armed conflict already have been assassinated, suggesting that this major Santos initiative is likely to be met by alliances between criminals and some segments of local economic elites, in defence of the status quo. Meanwhile, frequent attacks against prospective candidates and civilians suggest that the weakened FARC wants to prove it is not a spent force. Colombia is better prepared than in the past to take on these challenges. Impunity is decreasing, as judicial investigations into links between politicians and paramilitaries have resulted in the conviction of some two dozen members of Congress. Investigations and indictments are now moving down to the local government level, albeit slowly and unevenly. In July 2011, the government signed into law a far-ranging political reform, paving the way for the imposition of penalties on parties that endorse candidates with links to illegal armed groups or face investigation for drug trafficking and crimes against humanity. Election financing rules and anti-corruption norms have also been stiffened, although shortcomings in the legal framework remain. Over the long term, these changes should favour more competitive and cleaner local elections, but in the short term, their impact will, for a number of reasons, be limited. The approval of the political reform law less than four months ahead of the elections has heightened uncertainty, and time is running short to apply some of the innovations. More broadly, political parties remain weak, and there are doubts whether they can even effectively determine their own nominees in all cases. Meaningful competition is unlikely to emerge in regions where the political and economic environment is heavily biased towards elites formerly linked to paramilitaries. Clientelism continues to be a drag on local politics, while links between criminals and politicians are frequently difficult to expose because of deep-seated popular mistrust of unresponsive local authorities. Guaranteeing the conditions for free, fair and competitive elections remains the dominant immediate challenge for the government. But more needs to be done to protect local government from the influence of illegal armed groups over the long term. The National Electoral Council (CNE) must be strengthened and become more independent. Congress needs to update and simplify Colombia’s diverse electoral rules. Political parties must establish stronger internal structures and develop a culture of accountability. These changes will ultimately be insufficient, however, if local government continues to lack the institutional capacities to guarantee democratic, clean and efficient management of its affairs. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2011. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 37: Accessed July 26, 2011 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/37%20Cutting%20the%20Links%20Between%20Crime%20and%20Local%20Politics%20Colombias%202011%20Elections.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 122156 |
Author: Ojeda, Susana Title: Alternative Development from the Perspective of Colombia Farmers Summary: Alternative Development programmes have been widely discussed from the point of view of experts, technocrats, politicians and academics, with advocates and detractors debating whether such programmes contribute to decreasing the cultivation of llegal crops. However, little is known about the opinions of the people targeted by these programmes and the implications that they have for their daily lives. This analysis hopes to play a role in correcting this imbalance by analysing alternative development programmes carried out in Colombia during the government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) from the perspective of Colombian farmers. Highlighting concerns of the farmers and making several reccommendations which include: •The farmers need to have permanent access to the state institutions that would allow them to fully develop their rights as citizens in areas of rural and environmental development, road infrastructure, education, and health. The state must be consistent in its implementation of rural development programmes that cover the whole country, and must stop giving paternalistic handouts. •There must be an end to the imposition of projects drawn up in the offices of those in power and by the international aid community, that do not take into account local knowledge and needs. The call for effective and real participation by farming communities must be taken into account in the drawing up of rural development projects. •Work with the communities must be based on their skills and traditions, and must be supported by their social networks. In this way the communities will be empowered and will be able to carry out projects that have a positive impact. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2011. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefing No. 36: Accessed August 1, 2011 at: http://www.idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/brief36.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Policy Shelf Number: 122243 |
Author: Amnesty International Title: 'This Is What We Demand, Justice!’ Impunity for Sexual Violence Against Women in Colombia's Armed Conflict Summary: sexual violence is endemic to colombia’s long-running armed conflict. Mmembers of all the warring parties – paramilitary groups, guerrilla groups and the colombian security forces – have sexually abused and exploited women and girls. They have done so for a variety of reasons – to exploit them as sexual slaves, to sow terror within communities, to wreak revenge on an adversary, and to silence women leaders. Rape and sexual violence are not the only forms of gender-based violence women experience. however, they fall into a special category for one fundamental reason: they are the most invisible of human rights abuses. survivors rarely report such crimes and, when they do, their abusers are almost never brought to justice. This is a human rights scandal that re-victimizes survivors of sexual violence. It vividly reveals the deeply entrenched impunity that has for so long shielded from justice human rights abusers of all kinds in colombia. At the heart of this report are the voices of survivors of sexual violence in Colombia’s bloody conflict, women and girls who have for so long been silenced, overlooked and ignored. the message they gave in sharing their stories with amnesty international was both clear and compelling. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2011. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2011 at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/018/2011/en/d4396a83-c078-46f0-96ff-94f6d667b6bc/amr230182011en.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Rape Shelf Number: 122903 |
Author: Vargas Meza, Ricardo Title: USAID’s Alternative Development policy in Colombia Summary: Development as practised by USAID and the Colombia government was always guided more by security rather than development considerations. This report examines the key aspects of USAID's alternative development policy and its implementation in Colombia during the last decade. Key Points • Alternative development must not be part of a militarised security strategy, which is the predominant approach in Colombia. Instead of simply attempting to reduce the area planted with illicit crops, Alternative Development programmes should operate within the framework of a rural and regional development plan. • Alternative Development programmes must foster social processes in which the community participates and is empowered throughout the entire project cycle, from formulation to evaluation. • Before intervening in conflict zones, such as drug crop-growing areas or transit corridors, international cooperation agencies should carry out detailed assessments of factors such as: changes in land tenure structures as a result of the armed conflict; existence of emerging powers related to drug trafficking, paramilitaries or other armed actors; situation of legitimate community organisations (Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities), among others. • International cooperation agencies should analyse in depth the role of Alternative Development, examining the process of territorial control by organised criminal groups. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2011. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 38: Accessed November 1, 2011 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/brief38.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Control Shelf Number: 123201 |
Author: Title: Moving Beyond Easy Wins: Colombia’s Borders Summary: Improved relations between Colombia and its neighbours have not alleviated the plight of border communities. For fifteen years, porous borders that offer strategic advantages to illegal armed groups and facilitate extensive illicit economies have exposed them to an intense armed conflict that is made worse by the widespread absence of public institutions. The warfare triggered a humanitarian emergency and worsened relations especially with Ecuador and Venezuela, the most affected neighbours. Spurring development in the periphery and reconstructing diplomatic ties are priorities for President Juan Manuel Santos. A little over a year into his term, his new policies have paid undoubted diplomatic and some security dividends. But the hard part is still ahead. Efforts to improve the humanitarian situation and build civilian state capacity must be scaled up, tasks that, amid what is again a partially worsening conflict, have been neglected. Otherwise, pacifying the troubled border regions will remain a chimera, and their dynamics will continue to fuel Colombia’s conflict. Border regions were drawn into the armed conflict by the mid-1990s, when they became main theatres of operations for illegal armed groups, often financed by drug trafficking. A crackdown under Álvaro Uribe, Santos’s predecessor, brought only elusive gains there. The illegal armed groups have been pushed deeper into the periphery but not defeated. Coca cultivation and drug trafficking remain significant. Violence has come down in most regions, but remains higher along the borders than in the nation as a whole, and security has begun to deteriorate in some zones, as New Illegal Armed Groups and paramilitary successors (NIAGs) extend their operations, and guerrillas gain new strength. The Uribe approach also carried high diplomatic costs. Relations with the neighbours became toxic over a 2008 Colombian airstrike on a camp of the main rebel group, FARC, located just inside Ecuador and over allegations that Venezuela was harbouring guerrillas. Fixing the border problems has been a priority for Santos. He has moved quickly to restore diplomatic relations with Ecuador and Venezuela, and bilateral platforms are in an early stage of either being revived or created. There is a strong political commitment on all sides to preserve the restored friendships, despite the continuing presence of illegal armed groups in both neighbouring countries. Security cooperation is improving. The Colombian Congress has passed a constitutional reform to redistribute royalties from oil and mining concessions, a measure that should increase funds for public investment in many peripheral regions that currently do not benefit from that bonanza. In an effort to produce tangible results fast, the foreign ministry is leading implementation of projects aimed at boosting social and economic development in border municipalities. The Santos agenda represents a substantial policy shift, but as the conflict continues unabated in the border regions and has increasing repercussions on Venezuelan and Ecuadorian soil, problems remain. Three sets of issues need to be tackled. First, more must be done to increase the civilian state presence in the destitute border areas. Militarisation of the borders has failed to deliver durable security gains, and efforts by security forces to increase their standing with local communities continue to stumble over human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law. With dynamics along their borders increasingly resembling the situation in Colombia, similar problems are fast emerging in Ecuador and Venezuela. The security forces of all three countries must play by the book and focus more on citizen security, and their civilian authorities must take the lead in providing services. Secondly, more effective responses to the severe humanitarian problems are needed. Colombia continues to struggle to attend to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other victims of the conflict, a large number of whom cross the borders in search of protection. But protecting them has not been a priority in Venezuela, leaving an estimated 200,000 highly vulnerable. This contrasts with the response in Ecuador, which has recognised and provided documentation to some 54,000 Colombian refugees. But Ecuador has tightened its policy since January 2011, exposing such individuals to new risks. Governments are hesitant to give more weight to a potentially divisive issue in bilateral relations, but looking the other way will only make matters worse over the long run. Thirdly, efficient forums to solve problems jointly and promote border development are still lacking. This partly reflects the neighbours’ reluctance to acknowledge any responsibility for a conflict they consider a domestic matter of Colombia but that in fact is sustained by transnational criminal networks and is increasingly creating victims on all sides of the borders. The high diplomatic volatility has also been damaging efforts to institutionalise cooperation that needs to be grounded in buy-in and participation of local authorities, civil society and the private sector. In a region where the next diplomatic crisis is often not far away, the current improved political climate offers the governments a chance to boost civilian state presence, improve the humanitarian situation and put relations on a more sustainable footing. They should seize it. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2011. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 40: Accessed November 4, 2011 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/40%20Moving%20Beyond%20Easy%20Wins%20---%20Colombias%20Borders.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Border Security Shelf Number: 123224 |
Author: Scheye, Eric Title: Local Justice and Security Programming in Selected Neighborhoods in Colombia Summary: This report initiates the second phase of a large, three-step, Clingendale Institute research project into the role of local justice and security providers and non-state actors in the delivery of justice and security as public goods and services. Specifically, the report examines how, in Colombia, local justice and safety networks deliver services to citizens when a significant percentage of the population in a given community do not have confidence in the country’s centralized state agencies (national police service; judiciary and the courts) and/or where the services provided by those centralized agencies are scarce and have limited effectiveness for those living in that community. The report outlines a series of practical entry points and programmatic alternatives that donors can consider, from which a concrete and operational justice and security program (s) could be designed. Furthermore, it is suggested that in the short- to intermediate- term, donors may have few options but to support initiatives that work with these local neighbourhood providers. Details: The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael" 2011. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 29, 2011 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/publications/2011/20110415_cru_publication_escheye.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime (Colombia) Shelf Number: 123488 |
Author: Torres, Cesar Title: Alternative Justice, Reconciliation and Colombia's Disarmed Paramilitaries: Beginning the Discussion Summary: Colombia is currently implementing a controversial process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of paramilitary fighters into local communities. The Colombian justice system is not equipped with sufficient technical, financial or human resources to examine the criminal record of all of the estimated 30,000 paramilitaries who are part of this process. The legal status of almost 19,000 of these paramilitaries has not been defined. Within this group of 19,000 there are some individuals who have perhaps committed what could be categorized as lesser crimes during the conflict. In other countries undertaking DDR processes, alternative justice mechanisms have been used to bring to justice and facilitate the reintegration of this category of demobilized excombatants. The Colombian Constitution and laws recognize the existence of alternative justice methods as socially‐accepted practices of conflict resolution at the community level. However, for a variety of complex reasons, the potential to leverage these alternative justice practices to deal with the DDR overload has received very little attention in Colombia to date. This project undertook an initial exploration of some of the constraints and opportunities –‐political, social, legal and security ‐‐ that would need to be considered if alternative justice mechanisms were to be used to address some of the less serious conflict‐related crimes committed by paramilitaries. The research used a mixed‐methods approach including key informant interviews and focus group consultations in Colombia, to gather information and opinions on the prospects for alternative justice processes as an adjunct to the DDR effort. The preliminary findings show that alternative justice is not well understood among certain sectors in Colombia and that stakeholder perceptions are divided around its potential to address issues of truth‐telling, justice and reparation for victims. The study illuminates in particular, the need for deeper research on the legal viability for using alternative justice, the preparedness of alternative justice operators to address conflict‐related crimes, and the risks involved for victims, family members, demobilized paramilitaries, judicial operators and other individuals involved in community‐based justice. Details: Ottawa, ON, Canada: The SecDev Group, 2010. Source: Internet Resource: Final Project Technical Report, 105088: Accessed on December 8, 2011 at: http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/10625/45207/2/131672.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Paramilitaries Shelf Number: 123505 |
Author: Vallejo, Catalina Title: Iron fist politics in Colombia: A panorama of destruction Summary: During the last decade many Latin American countries have resorted to mano dura (iron fist) politics and militarisation to combat crime, drugs and subversion. The high number of killed, injured and displaced persons in Colombia is a testimony of the failure of the iron fist policy with regard to in a crucial aspect of security: developing cultures of respect. When making policy in response to illegal groups’ violence, does using the same violent strategy allow for constructive social engagement? Does it break cycles of violence? While the villains’ death makes for a peaceful ending in comic books, in Latin America it reproduces violence. It is urgent to reimagine heroism and restore “enemies” their human dignity. Details: Bergen, Norway: CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), 2011. 4p. Source: CMI Brief, Volume 11 No. 1: Internet Resource: Accessed on January 31, 2012 at http://www.cmi.no/publications/file/4364-iron-fist-politics-in-colombia.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 123886 |
Author: Kemper, Yvonne Title: No One To Trust: Children and Armed Conflict in Colombia Summary: Colombia’s civilians have been pulled into a decades-long civil war among the government’s forces, paramilitary groups and their successors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the People’s Liberation Army (ELN). During the conflict, girls and boys have been subjected to forced recruitment, rape and sexual violence, killing and maiming, and have been seriously affected by attacks against schools and the denial of humanitarian assistance, according to the 2011 UN Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in Colombia. More than half of an estimated 3.9 – 5.3 million internally displaced people in Colombia are under 18, rendering them even more vulnerable to the threats that caused them to flee their homes in the first place. Details: New York: Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, Women's Refugee Commission, 2012. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2012 at: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/Watchlist_NoOnetoTrustChildrenandArmedConflictinColombia.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 124812 |
Author: Roth, Francoise Title: Using Quantitative Data to Assess Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia: Challenges and Opportunities Summary: This report addresses the challenges of sexual violence measurement in a specific context: Colombia's ongoing internal armed conflict. After discussing in depth the difficulties faced by researchers attempting to measure sexual violence around the world, the report addresses several Colombian data collection efforts more specifically. Both governmental and non-governmental data sources are considered; more importantly, the authors outline several key cultural and political issues affecting sexual violence data collection in Colombia. In particular, the research team found, sexual violence reporting procedures in Colombia are fragmented and incomplete. Sexual violence is frequently viewed as a domestic violence or criminal justice issues; it is seldom considered as a phenomenon in its own right, or as an outcome associated with armed conflict. Details: Corporación Punto de Vista; Palo Alto, CA: Benetech, 2011. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2012 at: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/CPV_UsingQuantitativeDatatoAssessConflictRelatedSexualViolenceinColombia.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 124813 |
Author: Acevedo, Beatriz Title: Ten Years of Plan Colombia: An Analytic Assessment Summary: Over the last decade Plan Colombia has been the principal strategy addressing the complex dynamics of illicit drugs production within that country. It is based on the assumption that a reduction in the illicit drugs market worldwide can be tackled by focusing on supply control measures. Plan Colombia was originally proposed as a peace programme, but soon became a military strategy aimed at weakening the link between illicit drugs and insurgency. The results of this approach in terms of the decline of illegal armies, particularly guerrilla groups, may be considered as a success. In relation to coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking, however, the results show otherwise. The latest United Nations World Drug Report estimates that there has been a 27% increase in the area cultivated with coca in the period 2006-2007(UNODC, 2008), and Colombia remains one of the major producers of cocaine in the world (See Graph and Table 1). This contradiction leads to a number of questions about the effectiveness of a predominantly military approach in tackling the drugs problem and the real impact of the supply control strategy on the international market of illicit drugs. This briefing paper consequently aims to present a critical assessment of Plan Colombia over the past ten years. It is argued that the strategy has failed to address the structural causes of illicit drugs cultivation: poverty, lack of opportunities and on-going conflict. In particular it discusses how the current emphasis on fumigation has a negative impact on the fragile and strategic eco-system of the Amazonian region, as well as potential health problems for people who live in these areas. Moreover, it is also suggested that a militaristic approach to drug trafficking seems to contribute to the development of what can be called the ‘markets of violence.’ These are reflected in the increasing power of warlords, the growth of diverse business associated with security and protection and disputes amongst illegal armies for control of activities related to illegal drugs. Finally, it is argued that while the power of guerrilla groups2 - particularly the 40-year-old FARC group that controls some phases of the drug trafficking business - may be in decline, this situation needs to be analysed as part of their lack of political coherence and popular support. Indeed, as is discussed here, increased attention should be given to the developing power of paramilitary groups3 within Colombian politics and the emergence of a phenomenon that has become to be known as ‘para-politics’. Details: Oxford, UK: Beckley Foundation, Drug Policy Programme, 2008. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Briefing Paper Sixteen: Accessed April 11, 2012 at: http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/pdf/BriefingPaper_16.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 124922 |
Author: Reyes, Luis Carlos Title: Estimating the Causal Effect of Forced Eradication on Coca Cultivation in Colombian Municipalities Summary: 1 Estimating the Causal Effect of Forced Eradication on Coca Cultivation in Colombian Municipalities Luis Carlos Reyes1 Michigan State University Department of Economics East Lansing, MI 49544 reyesher@msu.edu January 26, 2011 Abstract Coca eradication has been aggressively pursued by the Colombian government to reduce the amount of land that agricultural households in the Andean country devote to this illegal crop. However, little work has been done to assess the causal effect of the policy on land allocation decisions. I use a six year panel of observations covering the entire country for the years 2001- 2006 to estimate this effect at the municipality level, exploiting exogenous sources of variation in eradication and taking an IV approach to estimation. The instruments are derived from changes in the expected cost of coca eradication as crews get far from the zone where Antinarcotics Police helicopters can protect them from the illegal armed groups that try to shoot them down. IV estimation shows that the causal effect of a one percent increase in eradication is slightly less than a one percent increase in coca cultivation. Details: Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2011. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 33478: Accessed May 3, 2012 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/33478/ Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Coca Eradication Shelf Number: 125134 |
Author: Duncan, Gustavo Title: Crime and Power: The Filter of Social Order Summary: In this paper I advance an explanation of the social origins of cocaine trafficking in Colombia in which two thresholds are distinguish. The first threshold occurs when the knowledge and the willingness for a specific criminal activity reproduce faster than the enforcement capacity of the authorities, and the second one, at a more advanced stage of diffusion of crime in society, when the state is forced to consider the political demands of criminal organizations. This explanation aims to explore an aspect of crime that is usually neglected by the specialized literature: the role of crime in the political structure and eventually in the process of state making. My argument here is that in order to acquire political power crime has to experience a process of diffusion into the social order to the extent of redefining the relationships, the values, and the hierarchies of a large part of the society. Details: APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, 2010. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2012 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1644540 Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 125143 |
Author: Title: Dismantling Colombia's New Illegal Armed Groups: Lessons from a Surrender Summary: The surrender of the Popular Revolutionary Anti-Terrorist Army of Colombia (ERPAC) in December 2011 risks going down as a failure. Only a fraction of the group took part; leaders may be getting away with short prison sentences; and the underlying criminal and corrupt structures will likely remain untouched. The impact on conflict dynamics in the group’s eastern-plains stronghold has been limited. As worrying, the lack of transparency, including of international oversight, has damaged the credibility of the process, leaving the impression that an illegal armed group has again outwitted state institutions to the detriment of the public and particularly of the victims. The authorities need to draw the right conclusions from the process. Otherwise, the lack of appropriate instruments to manage collective surrenders will continue to hamper efforts to combat groups such as ERPAC that have grown into one of the country’s top security challenges. The surrender of 272 members – slightly more than a third of ERPAC’s total armed strength – was the first time a New Illegal Armed Group (NIAG) with roots in the demobilised paramilitaries had chosen to give up its weapons. Pressure to surrender had been building, externally and within the group, since police killed its founder, alias “Cuchillo”, in December 2010. The former mid-level paramilitary leader had made ERPAC the dominant illegal armed force in parts of Meta, Guaviare and Vichada departments, with a key role in drug trafficking and other organised criminal activities. But with substantial links to the regional and local political elite as well as to parts of the security forces, ERPAC was always more than an ordinary criminal outfit. It exercised strict social control in its strongholds, including through targeted killing of community leaders, and was responsible for displacements, child recruitment and sexual violence. ERPAC members currently face criminal proceedings before ordinary courts. They may seek benefits provided for by the criminal justice system such as the reduction of sentences in return for accepting charges. But they are not eligible for the benefits of the government’s demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) program. This is because the government considers groups such as ERPAC criminal organisations (BACRIMs in the Spanish acronym) and not part of the internal armed conflict. For the same reason, NIAG members are also not eligible for consideration under transitional justice measures such as the 2005 Justice and Peace Law (JPL). A wholesale extension of DDR and transitional justice mechanisms to NIAGs would be unwarranted, but the exclusive reliance on the ordinary criminal law to try their members has its downsides. First, it leaves victims without legal guarantees and benefits extended to the victims of the guerrillas and the paramilitaries; a March 2012 Constitutional Court ruling might, however, open the door for some NIAG victims to be covered by the new 2011 Victims Law. Secondly, it leaves former fighters without a clear perspective of civilian reintegration, thus increasing risks they will take up arms again. Serious crimes committed by NIAGs need to be fully investigated and prosecuted, but a more expansive approach to dismantling these groups is also required where there is a sufficient link to the armed conflict. Contrary to government hopes, the ERPAC process revealed the limits of its surrender strategy, rather than vindicating it. The attorney general’s office had little choice but to free most of the fighters almost immediately, as only nineteen leaders were originally subjects of an arrest warrant. This obliged prosecutors and the police to recapture ERPAC members one by one, an onerous, still incomplete task. The public outrage was understandable, but more damaging is that the process will likely fail both to punish those responsible for serious crimes and to have a structural impact on ERPAC’s business activities as well as its corrupt links with politicians and security forces. Potential information from rank-and-file members on ERPAC operations appears not to have been fully exploited. Leaders do not face a credible threat of serious criminal charges and thus have little incentive to collaborate seriously with the judicial system. But the problem goes further. The government’s sharp conceptual distinction between parts of the conflict and organised crime groups – upon which the logic of the surrender was built – poorly reflects on-the-ground complexities. Groups such as ERPAC do not fully replicate the paramilitaries, but they cannot and should not be considered in isolation from the broader context of the internal armed conflict. This means that dismantling the NIAGs involves more than investigating and punishing individual criminals. It also requires dismantling corrupt networks, guaranteeing victims’ rights and preventing rearmament. Given its current weakness, reconciling such disparate interests overburdens the judicial system. The Santos administration deliberately left the field to the attorney general’s office, but the shortcomings revealed in the ERPAC experience have highlighted the need for an explicit surrender policy that goes beyond individual criminal prosecution and has active government leadership. After the Uribe administration long downplayed the NIAG threat, President Santos has taken a stronger stand, though results have remained elusive. Combating NIAGs is a complex challenge, involving multiple government agencies and cutting across several policies. But without an explicit surrender policy, the government’s anti-NIAG strategy will continue to fall short. Such a policy could also have benefits beyond future exercises with NIAGs. A more credible and encompassing approach to tackling NIAGs might become a crucial part of guarantees for the new peace talks with the guerrillas that the government is slowly preparing the ground for. RECOMMENDATIONS To facilitate collective surrenders of NIAGs in a manner that ensures their complete dismantlement, including front structures and corrupt networks, guarantees the protection of victims’ rights and prevents rearmament, while avoiding impunity To the Government of Colombia and the Attorney General and other Judicial System Authorities: 1. Ensure police and judicial institutions have the resources, capacity and career-incentives to investigate and prosecute the full spectrum of NIAG crimes, including serious offences equivalent to grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL), and the corrupt networks behind the groups. 2. Strengthen incentives for rank-and-file NIAG members to surrender and cooperate in revealing information about operations, superiors and enabling networks by clarifying whether and how the “opportunity principle” – which permits the attorney general’s office to suspend or desist from prosecution in a given case that does not involve grave violation of human rights and IHL – applies to them. 3. Improve the civilian perspective for former NIAGs members by introducing basic reintegration benefits, subject to strict criteria of eligibility, judicial records and behaviour. 4. Clarify the handling of young NIAG members, who should be eligible to enter the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF) program for child soldiers, despite the government’s classification of NIAGs as criminal organisations rather than part of the armed conflict. 5. Improve institutional guarantees for NIAG victims by an extensive and pro-victim interpretation of Law 1448 (2011), and if this proves ineffective, consider introducing legislation to ensure equal treatment for them. 6. Strengthen victims’ rights to truth by introducing an administrative program similar in design to Law 1424 (2010), under which NIAG rank-and-file members would receive legal benefits in return for contributing to the establishment of non-legal truth and historical memory; individuals responsible for serious offences should not be eligible for such a program. 7. Increase the credibility and accountability of surrender processes by inviting international organisations, in particular the Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia of the Organisation of American States (Mapp-OAS), to monitor and accompany them. Details: Bogota; Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2012. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report N°41: Accessed July 17, 2012 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/41-dismantling-colombias-new-illegal-armed-groups-lessons-from-a-surrender Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Groups (Colombia) Shelf Number: 125653 |
Author: Guzman, Daniel Title: Unobserved Union Violence: Statistical Estimates of the Total Number of Trade Unionists Killed in Colombia, 1999-2008 Summary: Anti-union assassinations may be one of the best documented violations in Colombia. Unions keep track of who has been killed in their community; companies and public institutions know when their employees are no longer alive. Special interest groups have formed to pay even closer attention to violence across unions, labor sectors, years and municipalities. The National Union School (Escuela Nacional Sindical in Spanish) is one such group: they have recorded violence against trade unions since 1986. Human rights groups, such as the non-governmental (NGO) Colombian Commission of Jurists, monitor the killing of unionists in addition to other victims and other violations. The government’s human rights office, led by the Vice President, began pooling together data on Colombia’s anti-union violence in 1999. Yet, even with so many monitors keeping track of the violence experienced by this group, we estimate in this study that in some places and times, as much as 30% of all the killings are not recorded by any of these datasets. Many have attempted to answer the apparently simple question: “how many trade unionists have been killed in Colombia?” Unions, human rights groups and the Colombian government debate the “right” answer. More recently, the political stakes of the answer increased when governments in North America and Europe linked their consideration of free trade agreements with Colombia to the question of whether violence against unionists has been improving or not. As part of the answer, some groups suggest lists of killings. For example, the ENS published a report in 2007 entitled “2.515 o esa siniestra facilidad para olvidar,” emphasizing their recorded death toll through that date [Montoya, 2007]. Their most recent published count is 2,857 union workers killed in the 25 years between 1986-2010 [Escuela Nacional Sindical, 2011]; a recent news article presents a different number, 2,819 unionized workers killed, for the same period [El Espectador, 2011]. Beyond counts, others try to suggest a pattern across time. For example, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights cites 26 union assassinations in 2010 as an increase from the 25 reported in 2009. The ENS disputes those yearly numbers with a higher count on their website - 28 assassinations in 2009 and 51 in 2010. The controversy around this apparently simple question suggests that there may be more killings that are unknown to some of the monitoring organizations. The debate becomes more complicated when researchers attempt to provide explanations about why the killings occur (or why they do not occur), occasionally with politically-charged interpretations. In 2009, for example, a study argued that union violence in Colombia is neither systematic nor targeted, an argument that many have disputed [Mej´ıa and Uribe, 2009]. The Achilles’ heel of all these claims is that the data are incomplete. All of the existing datasets document some killings, but none of the databases include all trade union homicides. Faced with tremendous political pressure to provide statistics – and to defend them – analysts tend to explain differences between their figures and other analysts’ counts as follows. Some analysts claim that competing numbers are inflated because they include deaths of trade unionists killed for non-union-related motives. Other analysts claim that the rival numbers are deflated because they categorically exclude some of the victims. The datasets used in this study included cases of killings against unionists related to their union activity - organizations that contributed data to this study carefully selected cases of killings of unionists which were viewed to be directly related to their union activity, other kinds of killings such as common crime or crimes of passion are not included. However, even with this common definition of what constitutes a ‘case’ we find some disagreement between groups about whether or not a homicide is related to union activity. As a result, we conducted analyses examining the sensitivity of the results and conclusions presented here to differing decisions regarding the inclusion or exclusion of homicides in the datasets used in this report. For more details see Appendices B and C. Although there is general agreement that even with a particular definition, none of the databases includes all of the victims, researchers have yet to sufficiently address this limitation. We have two purposes with this study. The first is to offer statistical estimates of unknown, unreported trade unionists killed. We use a statistical method called Multiple Systems Estimation, explained in detail in Appendix A. By combining an estimate of the number of deaths not recorded in any source with the number of known, recorded deaths, this analysis offers estimated totals for all unionists killed in Colombia between 1999 and 2008. Second, we are concerned that underregistration (deaths not recorded by any source) has not been sufficiently understood in previous studies which aim to measure anti-union violence3, human rights violations4 or war deaths5. In this report, we demonstrate the interpretative problems that result from ignoring underregistration. We show that underregistration of union killings is not constant across the dimensions we are trying to understand including time, space, and type of union. The variation in levels of undercounting is important because it can alter the interpretations we make when comparing across these dimensions. Details: Palo Alto, CA: Benetech, Human Rights Data Analysis Group, 2012. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 13, 2012 at: https://www.hrdag.org/resources/publications/uv-estimates-paper.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Anti-Union Violence Shelf Number: 126003 |
Author: Mejia, Daniel Title: The War on Illegal Drug Production and Trafficking: An Economic Evaluation of Plan Colombia Summary: This paper provides a thorough economic evaluation of the anti-drug policies implemented in Colombia between 2000 and 2006 under the so-called Plan Colombia. The paper develops a game theory model of the war against illegal drugs in producer countries. We explicitly model illegal drug markets, which allows us to account for the feedback effects between policies and market outcomes that are potentially important when evaluating large scale policy interventions such as Plan Colombia. We use available data for the war on cocaine production and trafficking as well as outcomes from the cocaine markets to calibrate the parameters of the model. Using the results from the calibration we estimate important measures of the costs, effectiveness, and efficiency of the war on drugs in Colombia. Finally we carry out simulations in order to assess the impact of increases in the U.S. budget allocated to Plan Colombia, and find that a three-fold increase in the U.S. budget allocated to the war on drugs in Colombia would decrease the amount of cocaine that successfully reaches consumer countries by about 17%. Details: Brighton, UK: Households in Conflict Network, The Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, 2008. 57p. Source: HiCN Working Paper 53: Internet Resource: Accessed August 28, 2012 at http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/wp53.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict (Colombia) Shelf Number: 126125 |
Author: Oppenheim, Ben A. Title: Learning How (Not) to Fire a Gun: Combatant Training and Civilian Victimization Summary: What is the relationship between the type of training combatants receive upon recruitment into an armed group and their propensity to abuse civilians in civil war? Does military training or political training prevent or exacerbate the victimization of civilians by armed non-state actors? While the literature on civilian victimization has expanded rapidly, few studies have examined the correlation between abuse of civilians and the modes of training that illegal armed actors receive. Using a simple formal model, we develop hypotheses regarding this connection and argue that while military training should not decrease the probability that a combatant engages in civilian abuse, political training should. We test these hypotheses using a new survey consisting of a representative sample of approximately 1,500 demobilized combatants from the Colombian conflict, which we match with department-level data on civilian casualties. The empirical analysis confirms our hypotheses about the connection between training and civilian abuse and the results are robust to adding a full set of controls both at the department and at the individual level. Details: Brighton, UK: Households in Conflict Network, The Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, 2011. 35p. Source: HiCN Working Paper 110: Internet Resource: Accessed August 28, 2012 at http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/wp110.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict (Colombia) Shelf Number: 126126 |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Title: Colombia: Coca cultivation survey 2011 Summary: The Global Programme of Illicit Crops Monitoring of UNODC has been supporting the Colombian Government in the implementation and improvement of the Coca Cultivation Monitoring System since 1999. As from 2001, annual censuses have been carried out, covering the entire Colombian territory; this report expounds the results of the coca census for 2011. The methodology used by the Project is based on the interpretation of satellite images of medium resolution and field verification. This verification is used for the editing of the interpretation in the office and for the calculation of the extension of coca cultivation. For the areas without information in the images due to cloudiness or other factors, the corrections are estimated based on trend criteria. The historical series was adjusted considering that coca crops in Colombia are smaller and smaller over time; the data in 2011 and 2010 include the adjustment of small fields that give continuity to the historical series. The results of the census show that on 31 December 2011 Colombia had 64,000 hectares cultivated with coca, distributed in 23 of the 32 departments of the country. This represents a stability relation (+3%) with respect to the 62,000 hectares detected in 2010. 14 out of the 23 departments affected show a tendency to reduction; however, the increase in 4 departments compensate for that trend. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2012. 114p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 28, 2012 at http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Colombia/Colombia_Coca_cultivation_survey_2011.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Coca Eradication (Colombia) Shelf Number: 126161 |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Colombia: Hidden from Justice. Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, A Follow-Up Report Summary: Conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in Colombia has long been a largely hidden human rights tragedy. Members of all parties to the conflict – paramilitaries, the security forces and guerrilla groups – have been responsible for these crimes, and almost all have evaded justice. This was the picture painted in Amnesty International’s September 2011 report, “This is what we demand. Justice!”: Impunity for sexual violence against women in Colombia’s armed conflict. Following publication of that report, the authorities in Colombia made a number of commitments to comply with their national and international legal obligations to end all forms of sexual violence, including those committed in the context of the conflict, and to bring those responsible for such crimes to justice. This report details what progress has been made over the past year and what still remains to be done. It ends by calling on the government to intensify its efforts to ensure the rights of women and girls in Colombia to freedom from violence and to justice. amnesty.org Details: London: Amnesty International, 2012. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 5, 2012 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/031/2012/en/8779cba6-f18f-4f06-9007-4cb337fcd1bd/amr230312012en.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 126565 |
Author: Ritterbusch, Amy E. Title: A Youth Vision of the City: The Socio-Spatial Lives and Exclusion of Street Girls in Bogota, Colombia Summary: This dissertation documents the everyday lives and spaces of a population of youth typically constructed as out of place, and the broader urban context in which they are rendered as such. Thirty-three female and transgender street youth participated in the development of this youth-based participatory action research (YPAR) project utilizing geo-ethnographic methods, auto-photography, and archival research throughout a six-phase, eighteen-month research process in Bogotá, Colombia. This dissertation details the participatory writing process that enabled the YPAR research team to destabilize dominant representations of both street girls and urban space and the participatory mapping process that enabled the development of a youth vision of the city through cartographic images. The maps display individual and aggregate spatial data indicating trends within and making comparisons between three subgroups of the research population according to nine spatial variables. These spatial data, coupled with photographic and ethnographic data, substantiate that street girls’ mobilities and activity spaces intersect with and are altered by state-sponsored urban renewal projects and paramilitary-led social cleansing killings, both efforts to clean up Bogotá by purging the city center of deviant populations and places. Advancing an ethical approach to conducting research with excluded populations, this dissertation argues for the enactment of critical field praxis and care ethics within a YPAR framework to incorporate young people as principal research actors rather than merely voices represented in adultist academic discourse. Interjection of considerations of space, gender, and participation into the study of street youth produce new ways of envisioning the city and the role of young people in research. Instead of seeing the city from a panoptic view, Bogotá is revealed through the eyes of street youth who participated in the construction and feminist visualization of a new cartography and counter-map of the city grounded in embodied, situated praxis. This dissertation presents a socially responsible approach to conducting action-research with high-risk youth by documenting how street girls reclaim their right to the city on paper and in practice; through maps of their everyday exclusion in Bogotá followed by activism to fight against it. Details: Miami, FL: Florida International University, 2011. 242p. Source: FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, Paper 432: Internet Resource: Accessed October 22, 2012 at http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/432 Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Analysis Shelf Number: 126765 |
Author: Micolta, Patricia Title: Illicit Interest Groups: The Political Impact of The Medellin Drug Trafficking Organizations in Colombia Summary: Although drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) exist and have an effect on health, crime, economies, and politics, little research has explored these entities as political organizations. Legal interest groups and movements have been found to influence domestic and international politics because they operate within legal parameters. Illicit groups, such as DTOs, have rarely been accounted for—especially in the literature on interest groups—though they play a measurable role in affecting domestic and international politics in similar ways. Using an interest group model, this dissertation analyzed DTOs as illicit interest groups (IIGs) to explain their political influence. The analysis included a study of group formation, development, and demise that examined IIG motivation, organization, and policy impact. The data for the study drew from primary and secondary sources, which include interviews with former DTO members and government officials, government documents, journalistic accounts, memoirs, and academic research. To illustrate the interest group model, the study examined Medellin-based DTO leaders, popularly known as the "Medellin Cartel." In particular, the study focused on the external factors that gave rise to DTOs in Colombia and how Medellin DTOs reacted to the implementation of counternarcotics efforts. The discussion was framed by the implementation of the 1979 Extradition Treaty negotiated between Colombia and the United States. The treaty was significant because as drug trafficking became the principal bilateral issue in the 1980s; extradition became a major method of combating the illicit drug business. The study's findings suggested that Medellin DTO leaders had a one-issue agenda and used a variety of political strategies to influence public opinion and all three branches of government—the judicial, the legislative, and the executive—in an effort to invalidate the 1979 Extradition Treaty. The changes in the life cycle of the 1979 Extradition Treaty correlated with changes in the political power of Medellin-based DTOs vis-à-vis the Colombian government, and international forces such as the U.S. government's push for tougher counternarcotics efforts. Details: Miami, FL: Florida International University, 2012. 290p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 25, 2012 at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1732&context=etd Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Control Shelf Number: 126806 |
Author: Hudson, Andrew Title: Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia: In the Dock and Under the Gun Summary: In a criminal justice system plagued by impunity, the tenacity with which Colombian prosecutors pursue human rights defenders for supposed crimes is striking. While corruption and arbitrary actions are a systemic problem throughout the judicial system, those who peacefully promote human rights are singled out for particular intimidation through baseless investigations and prosecutions. Unfounded charges are often widely publicized, undermining the credibility of defenders and marking them as targets for physical attack, often by paramilitary groups. While defenders are not alone in being subjected to false investigations, their persecution is distinctive due to the nature of the charges and the methods of collecting, and falsifying, evidence. They are usually accused of rebellion and membership in a guerrilla organization. By the time defenders are illegally detained, they have often been investigated in secret for many months or even years. Two of the hallmarks distinctive to defenders’ cases are the use of false testimony from ex-combatants and of inadmissible intelligence files. Charges are typically based on spurious allegations by ex-guerrillas whose testimony has been coerced or coached by regional prosecutors. Armed with such erroneous evidence, which is objectively inadequate to initiate an investigation, prosecutors and others publicly pre-judge the defendants, stigmatizing defenders as terrorists. Because defenders are singled out for this type of persecution, solutions that focus specifically on defenders are needed. The steadfast investigation of spurious criminal complaints against defenders stands in stark contrast to the failure to investigate attacks, threats, and other forms of intimidation perpetrated against them or against civilians more generally. The Colombian state also fails to prosecute or otherwise discipline judicial officials who instigate such specious prosecutions. Human rights defenders in Colombia play a legitimate and essential role in protecting basic rights and strengthening democratic institutions. Charges against them are often politically motivated and intended primarily to discredit and stigmatize them individually and as a class. Unfounded criminal charges are damaging in many ways: The stigmatization of defenders as terrorist sympathizers places them at considerable risk of reprisal and death threats by paramilitaries or others; The proceedings force defenders to expend time and resources defending themselves, diminishing their capacity to perform productive human rights work; The charges discredit defenders and tarnish their reputations as legitimate human rights activists; and The threat of political prosecution has a chilling effect, encouraging defenders to practice selfcensorship and limit their activities. In relation to Colombia, the U.N. Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders has stated that such “proceedings are part of a strategy to silence human rights defenders.”3 Despite increasing attention to the issue, in the absence of a detailed study, some Colombian officials refuse to acknowledge that there is a widespread problem. Human Rights First has spent more than a year researching and documenting 32 cases of unfounded prosecutions against defenders. Analysis of primary materials such as interviews with defenders, defense briefs, prosecutors’ resolutions, and judicial sentences reveal the spurious nature of these criminal investigations. For the first time, this report reveals a positive development: prosecutors and judges all over Colombia are recognizing the existence of malicious prosecutions against defenders. However, it is not enough to identify the problem or to mitigate its effects after damage has been done. There must be fundamental changes in the justice system. As a major supporter of judicial reform in Colombia, the United States can play a constructive role in combating malicious prosecutions of human rights defenders. It is clearly in the interests of the United States to have a vibrant civil society in Colombia, which can freely express ideas and strengthen respect for the rule of law. Based on an analysis of 32 cases and extensive interviews with government officials and human rights defenders, Human Rights First makes concluding recommendations. Details: New York: Human Rights First, 2009. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 1, 2012 at: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/090211-HRD-colombia-eng.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: False Accusations Shelf Number: 127048 |
Author: Samper, Jota (Jose) Title: Urban Resilience in Situations of Chronic Violence Case Study of Medellín, Colombia Summary: The guiding question for this case study on urban resilience in situations of violence is how connections between individuals, communities and the state (Evans 1996) affect conditions for resilience. It is territorially focused on the informal settlements in Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city, where various violence entrepreneurs have produced acts of violence that at times have made the city one of the most dangerous in the world. Non-state as well as state armed actors have enacted violence, but together individuals, communities and the public authorities are coping with fluctuating conditions of insecurity by fostering positive resilience to strengthen communities and foster connections with the state. Together this has contributed to violence reductions, or at least pressures against the actors of violence. The qualitative research for the report is based on semi-structured interviews with community members, state officials, academics and armed and formerlyarmed actors. The author also conducted participant observation in community meetings in two districts of Medellín (Comunas 5 & 6, and Comuna 13) that have negotiated long histories of violence. Out of more than six decades of violence there has emerged a sophisticated group of resilient community organizations that have managed to cope with attacks by both illegal armed actors in their communities and by excessive force on the part of the state. Positive interactions between the state and these community organizations have contributed to the production of innovative resilience strategies and the adaptation of these strategies within a larger institutional scale and framework implemented by the state. The report is divided into four sections. The first provides an overview of the conditions of violence in Medellín. In particular, it focuses on how spatial conditions play a fundamental role in the intensification of insecurity in some parts of the city. It highlights the importance of urban informality—physically and socially—as causal factors in understanding the complexity and multiplicity of armed actors that historically used informal territories as urban battlefields (J. J. Betancur 2007b; Roldán 2003; Samper 2010). The second section presents a short overview of some of the security strategies that the city government has implemented in Medellín. It focuses specifically on two non-traditional security strategies—investments in urban infrastructure, especially in improving access to the informal settlements, and participatory budgeting—which unexpectedly enhanced security externalities. It concentrates on those strategies because they closed the physical and social distance between the informal communities and formal state structures, a distance that for as long as sixty years has been in the form of isolation (Davis 1999). The third and fourth sections are centered on resilience. The third reveals how community efforts to preserve conditions of security are the result of coping strategies with different armed actors (both non-state and state) within the context of complex informal governance structures embedded in informal settlements. These organizations are often extremely fragile, as measured by the constant attacks on the lives of their leaders, but their survival proves their resilience and of how they pose a real (or perceived) menace to illegal armed groups. The fourth section explores how interactions between state security agents and community organizations provide broader scopes of resilience than would be possible if both were working separately. These interactions between community efforts and state interventions point to the fact that in Medellín connections between the state and civil society have produced two crucial outcomes in terms of resilience: (1) they provide the state with a testing ground for new security strategies that can be implemented in the larger metropolitan area, thus extending conditions of resilience throughout the city; and (2) they enhance the power of existing community governance institutions in ways that provide community organizations with the legitimacy to contest the excesses of state-induced violence. Finally, the report concludes with an understanding that these state-community synergies are not static but rather dynamic as they result from the externalities of ongoing programs, with each cycle of community-state interaction producing new and enhanced resilience mechanisms. Details: Cambridge, MA: Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 7, 2012 at: http://www.urcvproject.org/uploads/Medellin_URCV.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Urban Areas Shelf Number: 127139 |
Author: Meza, Ricardo Vargas Title: Drugs and the Peace Process in Colombia Summary: It is significant that the drug issue has been included in the agenda of Colombia’s peace process. The illegal drug economy cuts across the country’s internal conflict to a greater or lesser degree. One of the reasons why the lives of most of Colombia’s rural population have deteriorated is resistance to land reform, underpinned in part by drug-trafficking interests. A rural policy to tackle this situation is key to solving the problem of illegal drugs in Colombia. This policy brief offers a brief analysis of the drug question within the framework of the peace talks, together with recommendations and proposals. Details: Oslo: NOREF (Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre), 2012. 4p. Source: NOREF Policy Brief: Internet Resource: Accessed January 13, 2013 at http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/46cbe4d4cf4550886744d45fbaa97c27.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking (Colombia) Shelf Number: 127276 |
Author: Armenta, Amira Title: The Illicit Drugs Market in the Colombian Agrarian Context: Why the issue of illicit cultivation is highly relevant to the peace process Summary: The repeated appearance of coca producing zones is related to the unequal distribution of wealth in Colombia, and to the dynamic of land concentration which continues expelling peasants who migrate to new settlement areas. Colombia must re-examine and fix the existing relationship between policies of force and alternative development programmes, and should decide whether eradication is still a valid prior condition for alternative development. Institutional mechanisms of participation should be created for communities and integrated with local and regional development processes. Colombia needs to establish limits to its agricultural frontier. The cost-benefits of alternative development investment in remote areas are poor, because infrastructure is bad and services are basic. Consequently, it would be advisable to discourage settlement in those areas, which usually have fragile ecosystems suitable for preservation. The Land Restitution Law makes restitution claims difficult for poor displaced families. A genuine and fair restitution policy would constitute one important step in consolidating a future peace. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2013. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 40: Accessed March 8, 2013 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/brief40_0.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Law Enforcement Shelf Number: 127904 |
Author: Lamb, Robert Dale Title: Microdynamics of Illegitimacy and Complex Urban Violence in Medellin, Colombia Summary: For most of the past 25 years, Medellin, Colombia, has been an extreme case of complex, urban violence, involving not just drug cartels and state security forces, but also street gangs, urban guerrillas, community militias, paramilitaries, and other nonstate armed actors who have controlled micro-territories in the city's densely populated slums in ever-shifting alliances. Before 2002, Medellin's homicide rate was among the highest in the world, but after the guerrillas and militias were defeated in 2003, a major paramilitary alliance disarmed and a period of peace known as the "Medellin Miracle" began. Policy makers facing complex violence elsewhere were interested in finding out how that had happened so quickly. The research presented here is a case study of violence in Medellin over five periods since 1984 and at two levels of analysis: the city as a whole, and a sector called Caicedo La Sierra. The objectives were to describe and explain the patterns of violence, and determine whether legitimacy played any role, as the literature on social stability suggested it might. Multilevel, multidimensional frameworks for violence and legitimacy were developed to organize data collection and analysis. The study found that most decreases in violence at all levels of analysis were explained by increases in territorial control. Increases in collective (organized) violence resulted from a process of "illegitimation," in which an intolerably unpredictable living environment sparked internal opposition to local rulers and raised the costs of territorial control, increasing their vulnerability to rivals. As this violence weakened social order and the rule of law, interpersonal-communal (unorganized) violence increased. Over time, the "true believers" in armed political and social movements became marginalized or corrupted; most organized violence today is motivated by money. These findings imply that state actors, facing resurgent violence, can keep their tenuous control over the hillside slums (and other "ungoverned" areas) if they can avoid illegitimizing themselves. Their priority, therefore, should be to establish a tolerable, predictable daily living environment for local residents and businesses: other anti-violence programs will fail without strong, permanent, and respectful governance structures. Details: College Park, MD: University of Maryland, 2010. 657p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 6, 2013 at: http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/10242 Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Gangs Shelf Number: 128671 |
Author: Gómez Isa, Felipe Title: Justice, Truth and Reparation in the Colombian Peace Process Summary: A key challenge facing the Colombian peace process is how to secure peace while simultaneously guaranteeing victims’ rights. In July 2012 the Colombian Congress adopted the Legal Framework for Peace, a package of transitional justice mechanisms designed to facilitate negotiations, prevent impunity for serious war-related crimes and provide guarantees to victims. Under the Framework the principles of prioritisation and selection are to be applied to the bringing of criminal proceedings, i.e. for deciding in which situations and according to which criteria some offences may be prioritised over others and even whether criminal investigations might focus solely on the main perpetrators of war-related crimes. This is the minimum threshold that should be demanded of both the Colombian state (especially the armed forces) and the FARC Secretariat. The Framework also makes provision for a truth commission to investigate the extremely serious crimes committed in Colombia and leaves in the state’s hands a number of important instruments that allow a flexible approach to be taken regarding the punishment of crimes committed by armed actors. The granting of such benefits will be subject to those being demobilised making significant contributions to achieving lasting peace and securing truth and reparation for victims. Details: Oslo: The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), 2013. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2013 at: http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/5e7c839d7cf77846086b6065c72d13c5.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Reparation Shelf Number: 128753 |
Author: Franco, Liliana Bernal Title: Urban Violence and Humanitarian Action in Medellin Summary: Colombia has long experienced acute forms of political violence in and at the periphery of its major cities. Humanitarian agencies have also for decades protected civilians in order to minimize suffering within armed conflicts. Yet in recent years, humanitarian organizations have started to engage in settings that are neither war nor peace. These environments feature complex forms of politically - and economically- motivated violence. The city of Medellin (Colombia), in particular, is the paradigmatic example of such an environment where different types of violence come together in complex ways. Details: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: HASOW (Humanitarian Action in Situations other than War: 2013. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper 5: Accessed June 21, 2013 at: http://www.hasow.org/uploads/trabalhos/104/doc/496869705.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 129121 |
Author: de Mello, Joao M. P. Title: The Pharmacological Channel Revisited: Alcohol Sales Restrictions and Crime in Bogota Summary: Our goal in this paper is twofold: First, evaluate the impact on crime of the restriction of late-night alcohol sales in Bogota; and second, quantify the causal effect of problematic alcohol consumption on different crime categories. Using a control group strategy, we explore time-series and cross-block variation in the restriction to measure its causal effects on several crime categories. We find that the restriction reduced deaths and injuries in car accidents and batteries, compatible with the pharmacological impact of alcohol consumption on crime (Goldstein, 1985). Our results are stronger in areas where the restriction was actually binding (e.g., in blocks with presence of liquor stores) and are highly heterogeneous depending on the number of liquor stores that were restricted at the block level. Finally, we measure the impact of the restriction on alcohol consumption (the first-stage, or mechanism), and quantify the causal pharmacological impact of alcohol consumption on crime using the restriction as an instrument for problematic alcohol consumption (the second stage). We find that alcohol consumption causes deaths and injuries in car accidents and batteries. More precisely, our results indicate that a one standard deviation (s.d.) increase in problematic alcohol consumption increases deaths in car accidents by 0.51 s.d., injuries in car accidents by 0.82 s.d., and batteries by 1.27 s.d. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes-Facultad de Economia-CEDE, 2013. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Documentos CEDE No. 20: Accessed October 30, 2013 at: http://economia.uniandes.edu.co/investigaciones_y_publicaciones/CEDE/Publicaciones/documentos_cede/2013/The_Pharmacological_Channel_Revisited_Alcohol_Sales_Restrictions_and_Crime_in_Bogota Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Alcohol Abuse Shelf Number: 131510 |
Author: Ibanez, Ana Maria Title: Crime, Punishment, and Schooling Decisions: Evidence from Colombia Adolescents Summary: This paper uses a natural policy experiment to estimate how changes in the costs of engaging in criminal activity may influence adolescents' decisions in crime participation and school attendance. The study finds that, after an exogenous decrease in the severity of judicial punishment imposed on Colombian adolescents, crime rates in Colombian municipalities increased. This effect appears to be larger in municipalities with a higher proportion of adolescents between 14 and 15 years of age. The study provides suggestive evidence that one possible transmission channel for this effect is a decrease in the effort of the police force to capture teenage suspects. The study also finds that the probability that boys of this same age group attend school decreased following the change in the juvenile justice system. This effect is stronger for boys from homes where the heads of household are less educated. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, Institutions for Development, 2013. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: IDB Working Paper Series No. IDB-WP-413: Accessed November 1, 2013 at: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=37854137 Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Education and Crime (Colombia) Shelf Number: 131581 |
Author: Botero Degiovannni, Hernan Title: The Effects of Drug Enforcement on Violence in Colombia 1999-2010: A Spatial Econometric Approach Summary: In this paper paper, I use Meja and Restrepo's (2011) strategy to disentangle the causal relationship between drug enforcement and violence. To test this relationship, I use information on Colombian municipalities during the period 1999 2010. Due to technological reasons related to the quality of terrain, climate, and locational characteristics of the Colombian territory, cocaine production is more productive at low altitudes. Using the altitude of each municipality and distance from capital cities as sources of exogenous variation, I estimate the effect of drug enforcement on violence in Colombia. To control for a possible omitted-variable bias in the estimations, I run a Panel Data Spatial Durbin Model (SDM). Additionally, I construct a set of indices with comparable units of measure which allows me to determine which percentage of the Colombian violence data is explained by drug enforcement. The results indicate that the Colombian government's enforcement activities increased in 0:98% the homicide rate and in 1:24% the displacement rate and the war among drug dealers increased in 4:00% the homicide rate and 0:16% the displacement rate in the period 1999 - 2010. Details: Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2013. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 49459: Accessed May 6, 2014 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/49459/1/MPRA_paper_49459.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Enforcement Shelf Number: 132255 |
Author: Haugaard, Lisa Title: Blunt Instrument: The United States' Punitive Fumigation Program in Colombia Summary: The conditions attached to the FY2002 foreign operations law governing the US-funded aerial spraying program to eradicate coca production in Colombia require that procedures be available to evaluate claims by local citizens that their health was harmed or their legal crops were damaged by aerial fumigation, and that fair compensation be paid to valid claims. According to the State Department's report released in September 2002, entitled "Report on Issues Related to the Aerial Eradication of Illicit Coca in Colombia," while a procedure for verification exists, not a single farmer has received compensation, and only one case has so far been approved for compensation. The compensation system for legal crops exists on paper, but not in practice. The report details no such procedure for evaluating health claims. Citizens' only recourse is their right to take legal action against Colombian government agencies. The conditions also require that alternative development be developed in departments scheduled for fumigation and implemented in departments where fumigation has taken place. The State Department report interprets this provision to mean a single alternative development project in a given geographic department (i.e., province or state) of Colombia satisfies the requirement, permitting fumigation to take place anywhere in that department. Thus the report did not provide a serious treatment of this provision. The fact that in 2002, USAID claims to have supported only 4500 hectares of licit crops while in the same year, the US Embassy goal is to spray 150,000 hectares, is one of several rough comparisons that reveal that the aerial fumigation program far outpaces alternative development. Indeed, alternative development programs are only designed to cover a small subset of the farmers affected by fumigation Details: Washington, DC: Latin American Working Group, 2002. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 12, 2014 at: http://www.lawg.org/storage/documents/blunt%20instrument%20(pdf) Year: 2002 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Control (Colombia) Shelf Number: 132335 |
Author: Dube, Oeindrila Title: Bases, Bullets, and Ballots: The Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Political Conflict in Colombia Summary: States facing internal conflict often receive military assistance from the United States, but the relationship between such assistance and state capacity is not well known. In this working paper, post-doctoral fellow Oeindrila Dube and co-author Suresh Naidu offer new research on the links between military assistance and political violence. They find that increased U.S. military aid to Colombia, a haven for narcotics trafficking long-plagued by guerrilla warfare, increases paramilitary violence but has no effect on guerilla violence. With significant implications for U.S. policy in weak and conflict-ridden states, the evidence indicates that the effectiveness of military aid, which is intended to bolster the weak state against violent groups, is undercut by collusion between the military and illegal armed groups. Further, the authors expose that this collusion means that foreign assistance directly enables illegal groups to perpetuate political violence and undermine democratic institutions, such as electoral participation. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, 2010. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 197: Accessed May 14, 2014 at: http://www.cgdev.org/publication/bases-bullets-and-ballots-effect-us-military-aid-political-conflict-colombia-working Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Military Aid Shelf Number: 132346 |
Author: Andreu-Guzman, Federico Title: Criminal Justice and Forced Displacement in Colombia Summary: The crime of forced displacement has been a widespread practice in Colombia's internal armed conflict for several decades. However, forced displacement cannot be reduced to an inherent or unintended effect of the conflict. The armed actors in the Colombian armed conflict - the army and its paramilitary groups, on one hand, and the guerrilla groups, on the other - have used the practice of forced displacement of civilian populations as part of their military strategies to take control of or maintain a presence in certain territories. This paper examines how the criminal justice system in Colombia addresses the forced internal displacement of civilians. Details: New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2012. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 11, 2014 at https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Brookings-Displacement-Criminal-Justice-Colombia-CaseStudy-2012-English.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict (Colombia) Shelf Number: 132437 |
Author: Garcia, Juan Felipe Title: Police Reform, Training and Crime: Experimental Evidence from Colombia's Plan Cuadrantes Summary: The Plan Nacional de Vigilancia Comunitaria por Cuadrantes (PNVCC) is a new police patrolling program introduced in the eight major cities of Colombia in 2010 by the National Police. The strategy divides the largest cities into small geographical areas (cuadrantes), assigns six policemen to each, establishes a new patrolling protocol involving more community contact, and holds officers accountable for crime in their assigned area. The plan warranted a comprehensive training program for over 9,000 police officers aimed at improving interpersonal skills and implementation of the new patrolling protocols. By staggering the training schedule between three randomly chosen cohorts of police stations, we generate experimental variation in the exposure to training and in the effective implementation of the new police protocols induced by the Plan Cuadrantes. Comparing the 4 months immediately after training with the same months from the previous year, we find a significant reduction in several types of crime attributable to the training program, ranging from around .13 of a standard deviation for homicides to .18 of a standard deviation for brawls. These impacts are driven by very large effects in high crime areas and very small -or zero- effects in low crime neighborhoods. Once we take into account the high spatial concentration of crime, the estimated effects account for an overall reduction in the number of homicides of about 22%. We suggest that the training program affected crime by increasing the patrol police's sense of accountability to the population and also possibly through higher police motivation. Large efficiency gains in public service provision may be attainable with relatively inexpensive interventions that bring public servants closer to their clients. Details: Caracas, Venezuela: CAF Development Bank of Latin America, 2013. 31p. Source: CAF Working Papers: Internet Resource: Accessed June 11, 2014 at http://www.caf.com/media/4243/police_reform_training_crime_experimental_evidence_colombia.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Reduction Shelf Number: 132438 |
Author: International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) Title: Colombia. The War is Measured in Litres of Blood Summary: Colombia has been enduring an internal armed conflict for fifty years. In the conflict members of insurgent groups (guerrillas) have clashed with the National Army and paramilitary groups. Under these conditions, serious human rights violations and international crimes have been committed. Since November 1, 2002, Colombia is party to the Rome Statute, setting up the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to the principle of complementarity established by that statute, Colombia is obliged to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the crimes considered therein, namely, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The ICC went into operation in July 2002, when its Statute went into effect. Since ICC General Prosecutor took office in June, 2003 Colombia has been under "preliminary analysis", but this was made public only in 2006. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and one of its member organizations in Colombia, the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CAJAR), have been working in research, advocacy, and support for victims of international crimes before the ICC since 2005. According to article 15 of the Rome Statute, interested parties (victims, non-governmental organizations, etc.) may submit to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor statements indicating crimes within the Court's jurisdiction. The FIDH and the CAJAR have submitted twelve communications of this kind to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor since June 2005. During this period the FIDH and the CAJAR were engaged in dialogue with the ICC Office of the Prosecutor and they continue to do so. This communication and careful monitoring of the policy of the Prosecutor's Office with regard to the situations under preliminary analysis and particularly the situation in Colombia, has enabled the FIDH to monitor the evolution of the analysis carried out by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor. One of the observations that has emerged repeatedly during the dialogue between the FIDH and the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has been the need to identify the highest-level people responsible for the most serious crimes committed in Colombia which are under the jurisdiction of the ICC. It is appropriate to recall here that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has made the investigation and prosecution of top commanders a key element of its policy. This is the context in which the FIDH transmitted this report to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor along with two confidential attachments which identify those most responsible. The preliminary analysis is governed by article 53, paragraph 1 of the ICC Statute. In accordance with this provision, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor carries out analysis in three stages and in the following order: first, it must be determined whether crimes within the competence of the ICC have been committed; second, an analysis of admissibility is carried out, including analysis of the gravity of the phenomenon and the test of complementarity; finally, it is determined whether an investigation is in the interests of justice in the particular case. Details: Paris: FIDH, 2012. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 16, 2014 at: http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/rapp_colombie__juin_2012_anglais_def.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Prosecution Shelf Number: 132475 |
Author: Feldman, Sara Title: Safe Haven: Sheltering Displaced Persons from Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. Case Study: Colombia Summary: The Human Rights Center conducted a review of scholarly and non-governmental organization (NGO) literature on shelter services in Colombia and on the response to sexual and gender-based violence both generally and specific to internally displaced persons. This review provided information on the context of sexual and gender-based violence in Colombia, key actors, and available protection mechanisms. Fieldwork was conducted over five weeks in April and May 2012. In-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with a total of ten shelter staff and seven shelter residents from a total of eight shelters located in the cities of Bogota, Medellin, and Pasto. Interviews were audio-recorded, and files were translated, transcribed, and coded with qualitative data analysis software (Dedoose). Human Rights Center researchers also carried out twenty-eight key informant interviews with representatives from the government, UN agencies, NGOs, and faith-based organizations involved in Human Rights Center researchers examined eight shelter programs available to displaced individuals fleeing sexual and gender-based violence in three locations: Bogota, Medellin, and Pasto. Shelters included in this study were designed to serve one of three different populations: survivors of domestic violence, the displaced population generally, and displaced persons at particularly high security risk. The domestic violence shelter programs visited were funded and managed by the mayor's offices of Bogota and Medellin. Shelters serving internally displaced persons were funded by government entities, faith-based organizations, and international donors. Displacement shelters were managed by faith-based organizations and NGOs. In Bogota, shelter sites included four a'traditional safe houses": one for survivors of domestic violence, two for the general IDP population, and one for the high-risk IDP population. Researchers also visited one "hybrid" income-generating program offering hotel or apartment-based housing to displaced indigenous women. In Medellin, shelter sites included a "community host system" in which women in the Medellin area shelter survivors of domestic violence in their homes and a traditional safe house program that houses IDPs at high risk. In Pasto, Human Rights Center researchers visited one traditional safe house serving the general IDP population. The length of stay in these programs ranged from three days to four months. Shelter programs offered a variety of services both on-site and through referral, including psychosocial support, legal aid, medical care, vocational training, and employment assistance. The extent of services varied considerably from one site to another. Details: Berkeley, CA: Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 2013. 105p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 1, 2014 at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/HRC/SS_Colombia_web.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Domestic Violence Shelf Number: 132587 |
Author: Borda, Sandra Title: The Search for a Negotiated Peace in Colombia and the Fight Against Illegal Drugs Summary: The issue of illicit drugs has played a radically different role in the ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana compared with the peace process in El Caguan ten years ago. There are two differences. Firstly, while in El Caguan President Pastrana aligned himself with the war on drugs as it stood at the time through the design and implementation of Plan Colombia in order to strengthen the state's military apparatus, President Santos has adopted a more revisionist attitude by calling for a global debate intended to produce changes to the current war on drugs. And secondly, in contrast to Pastrana, Santos has chosen not to dwell on claims about the close links between the FARC's insurgent activity and the production and trafficking of illicit drugs. Additionally, the report suggests that these differences are explained by the role the U.S. played in both negotiations: while it was active and crucial in El Caguan, its absence from the Havana talks has been notable, but also rather convenient. This absence, in turn, is explained by the fact that Washington has fewer interests at stake and more limited resources for intervening, at the same time as the Colombian government no longer has an urgent need for aid. Details: Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), 2013. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 16, 2014 at: http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/8927ac64693ffbc3b7191d6b5b132d3e.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Enforcement Shelf Number: 132700 |
Author: Rozo, Sandra Title: Measuring the Local Market Effects of Violence Summary: This paper estimates the welfare effects of violence on workers and firms. My analysis proceeds in two steps. I first empirically estimate the elasticity of violence on local non-housing good prices, wages, and firm's profits, to then combine these results with a theoretical model and recover the welfare estimates. This allows decomposing the effects of violence into its direct disutility effects and its indirect effects through changes in market prices. I use Colombian data between 1995 and 2010, a period when the country faced a sharp reduction on homicide rates per 100,000 inhabitants of approximately 50%, from 65.83 to 33.97, respectively. I exploit the geographical and annual variation of homicide rates and a rich census of manufacturing firms to identify the effects of violence. I instrument violence with the interaction of U.S. international antidrug expenditures{which contributed to improve security conditions in Colombia{and a political competition index for 1946. The political competition index measures the intensity of a past violent episode known as La Violencia which historians point as the origin of the current violence spell in Colombia. My results suggest that when homicide rates increase by 1% worker's welfare falls by 0.46%, and firm's profits decrease by 0.18%. I find that 96% of the effects of violence on worker's welfare are explained by changes on market prices, which are mainly driven by changes on local non-housing living costs. My estimates imply that the 48% drop in homicide rates that occurred in Colombia between 1995 and 2010 increased firm's profits by 8.64%, and blue and white-collars worker's welfare by 13.74% and 30.35%, respectively. Details: Los Angeles: California Center for Population Research, University of California -- Los Angeles, 2014. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed August 11, 2014 at: http://papers.ccpr.ucla.edu/papers/PWP-CCPR-2014-007/PWP-CCPR-2014-007.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 132977 |
Author: Rozo, Sandra Title: On the Effectiveness of Supply Reduction Efforts in Drug Producing Countries: Evidence from Colombia Summary: In this paper we exploit a natural experiment induced by a diplomatic agreement between the governments of Colombia and Ecuador to evaluate the effectiveness of a popular anti-drug supply program (aerial spraying with herbicides) on illegal drug production. In 2008, due to the possible negative effects of aerial spraying, the Colombian government pledged to stop the spraying campaigns in a 10 kilometer band around the international frontier with Ecuador. We use this exogenous variation and 1-square-km-grid-level satellite data with the exact geographic location of coca crops to identify the effectiveness of the program using conditional difference in difference and regression discontinuity. Our results suggest that spraying campaigns have a small but significant effect on coca cultivation. Details: Los Angeles: California Center for Population Research, University of California -- Los Angeles, 2014. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: PWP-CCPR-2014-005Accessed August 11, 2014 at: http://papers.ccpr.ucla.edu/papers/PWP-CCPR-2014-005/PWP-CCPR-2014-005.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Aerial Spraying Shelf Number: 132978 |
Author: Chaowsangrat, Chaowarit Title: Violence and Forced Internal Migrants with Special Reference to the Metropolitan Area of Bogota, Colombia (1990-2002) Summary: This thesis addresses topics of violence and forced internal migrants with special reference to the metropolitan area of Bogota, Colombia between 1990 and 2002. While there is much scholarly debate by historians and political scientists about conflict between the state, guerrillas and paramilitaries in rural areas, urban violence has been relatively neglected. Violence caused many people to migrate from rural to urban areas, so that, Colombia had by 2002 more internally displaced persons than any country except Sudan. The main aims of the thesis are 1) to analyse trends in violent crime; 2) to discuss citizen security strategies that were pursued between 1990 and 2002; and 3) to examine the survival strategies of forced internal migrants in Bogota comparing them to the strategies adopted by voluntary migrants and native residents. Chapter 1 focuses on urban homicide and kidnapping. In Colombia, 40 percent of the 25,000 annual homicides were committed in the ten largest cities during the late 1990s. The problem of kidnapping is examined by analysing changes in Colombian anti-kidnapping legislation and its application and by focusing on the authors, the victims and the risk-zones involved. Chapter 2 looks at the issue of perception and fear of violent crime. The concept of risk and the subjectivity of decision-making when facing insecurity are examined. Chapter 3 investigates citizen security strategies during the administrations of Presidents Cesar Gaviria (1990-1994), Ernesto Samper (1994- 1998) and Andres Pastrana (1998-2002). Chapter 4 develops an analysis of patterns of selectivity based on the notions of forced vis-a-vis voluntary migration and economic vis-a-vis non-economic migration. A research design collecting comparative data on households with diverse migration experiences residing in three locations within the metropolitan area of Bogota is applied. Chapter 5 explores the socioeconomic characteristics of forced migrants and compares them to voluntary migrants from outside and migrants who moved within Bogota. Details: London: University College London, 2011. 472p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 22, 2014 at: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1331874/1/1331874.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 131358 |
Author: Pax Christi Netherlands Title: The Kidnap Industry in Colombia: Our Business? Summary: Today, almost one country in four around the world is affected by the crime of kidnapping. Colombia has been at the head of this sad list for a number of years. Even mass kidnappings and the kidnapping of small children have become part of this cynical form of financing a war. Taking hostage of unarmed, defenceless individuals not only paralyzes the individual victim, but also affects the psychological and economic integrity of an entire family. Moreover it creates an impossible moral dilemma for the individuals, companies and governments involved when ransom is demanded. On the one hand, paying ransom seems the only way to save the life of the victim. On the other hand, it contributes directly to the war. Pax Christi Netherlands has developed contacts over a large number of years with a wide variety of civil sectors in Colombia, especially the churches. We had to witness at close quarters many personal tragedies of the kidnapping of a loved one. The initiative to finally force an open discussion on the role of European companies and governments was suggested by various of our Colombian partners. One third of the abducted foreigners in Colombia are European, and together they account for a huge amount of ransom. While Europe is talking about the support of the European Union in dialogue and peace initiatives in Colombia, it fosters the war through ransom and extortion money at the same time. The subject is surrounded by a wall of silence. In Colombia this can be explained by sheer fear. All parties involved - Colombians and foreigners alike - have their own reasons to keep silent or to hide the reality behind smoke screens and blatant lies. This, combined with a general climate of corruption and lawlessness, is the main reason that no effective action has yet been taken in Colombia. The traditional code of silence did little to help the production of this report. Less easy to understand is why the crime of hostage taking is not denounced more explicitly in international human rights circles. This report - far from pretending to be complete - is addressed to both Colombians and Europeans when dealing with the dilemmas mentioned above. Far from condemning the decisions taken by anyone who is confronted with the crime of kidnapping, the document seeks to stimulate discussion about this growing form of terrorism. It is high time for the development of a common strategy. But above all, this initiative should be an incentive for the international community to devote more attention to kidnapping as a gross violation of human rights. Details: Utrecht: Pax Christi Netherlands, 2001. 121p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 10, 2014 at: www.paxvoorvrede.nl Year: 2001 Country: Colombia Keywords: Extortion Shelf Number: 133254 |
Author: Moor, Marianne Title: The Dark Side of Coal: Paramilitary Violence in the Mining Region of Cesar, Colombia Summary: PAX Netherlands - the Dutch section of Pax Christi International - is calling on Essent, Nuon, E.ON, Delta and Electrabel to stop buying Colombian "blood coal" from the mining companies Drummond and Prodeco. These mining companies must first contribute to the acknowledgment and compensation of the thousands of victims of paramilitary violence around their mines in the 1996-2006 period, and actively oppose the current human rights abuses. Drummond and Prodeco paid the paramilitaries and exchanged strategic information with them, according to statements from perpetrators and witnesses in the investigation report "The Dark Side of Coal", which PAX presented today, 30 June 2014, to the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen. Between 1996 and 2006 paramilitaries murdered a total of 3100 people and drove 55,000 farmers from their land. The victims have never received compensation or acknowledgment. To this day the mining companies benefit from these gross human rights abuses. Some of the land that was seized is within the companies' territory. The trade union has been systematically weakened by lethal violence; any critics have been silenced by threats. Perpetrators and witnesses say the collaboration between the coal mining companies and the paramilitaries in the Colombian department of Cesar consisted of financial and material support and the exchange of strategic information. The main focus of the investigation "The Dark Side of Coal" is Drummond. There are fewer sources for Prodeco's involvement, but the information available warrants further investigation. "The Dark Side of Coal" presents previously unreported testimonies of perpetrators and victims, and is the first systematic investigation into the abuses surrounding the coal mines in Cesar. Details: Utrecht: PAX, The Netherlands, 2014. 142p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 10, 2014 at: http://actie.paxvoorvrede.nl/actie/stop-bloedkolen/ Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Coal Mining Shelf Number: 133255 |
Author: Fowler, Brandon Title: Understanding Colombian Violence Through Geographic Information Systems and Statistical Approaches Summary: In 2002, Colombia had the highest homicide rate of any Latin American country(Berkman, 2007). The origins of this violence, however, are complex and difficult to identify. It would be sensible to argue that it cannot be explained by any one particular factor, but rather an assortment of many factors that wholly represent the social, economic, and political conditions of Colombia. By better understanding the origins of Colombian violence, policy makers can more effectively address and alleviate this prolonged issue. This study examines the geographic nature of municipal homicide rates for Colombia in 2005. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are any discernible patterns in the geographic distribution of homicide rates across Colombia at the municipal level. It also aims to determine what combination of statistically significant predictors, if any, generates acceptable regression models for predicting the distribution of homicide rates. Spatial autocorrelation methods, particularly Global and Local Morans I statistics, were used to identify the clusters of high-value homicide rates. Regression models, specifically OLS and GWR, were utilized to examine the relationships between homicide rates and an assortment of geographic factors, including Coca Cultivation Density, Presidential Election Participation Rate, Displaced Persons Rate, Standard of Living Index, Terrain Ruggedness Index, FARC Armed Actions Rate, and Public Force Armed Actions Rate. The results of this study indicate that clusters of high-value homicide rates were indeed located in the northern, southern, western, and central regions of Colombia. Among the aforementioned geographic factors, Coca Cultivation Density, Displaced Persons Rate, Standard of Living Index, Terrain Ruggedness Index, FARC Armed Actions Rate, and Public Force Armed Actions Rate all exhibited positive correlations. The variable exhibiting a negative correlation was the Presidential Election Participation Rate. Details: Bowling Green, KY: Western Kentucky University, 2013. 173p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed September 11, 2014 at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2232&context=theses Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Geographic Profiling Shelf Number: 133282 |
Author: Ardanaz, Martin Title: Mind the Gap: Bridging the Perception and Reality of Crime Rates with Information Summary: Gains from government crime-reducing programs are not always visible to the average citizen. The media overexpose crime events, but the absence of crime rarely makes the news, increasing the risk that citizen may have inaccurate perceptions of security. Through a survey experiment carried out in Bogota, Colombia, a city that experienced a substantial reduction in homicides over the last decade, as well as a noticeable drop in robberies, this paper tests the effect that communicating objective crime trends could have on such perceptions. The results show that information improves perceptions of safety and police effectiveness, and lowers distrust in the police. However, the information treatment is not able to impact those with biased priors, and tends to weaken over time. A more active and regular engagement with citizens regarding these trends is needed to bridge the gap between perception and reality. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2014. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: IDB Working Paper Series ; 530): Accessed October 1, 2014 at: http://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/6595/IFD%20WP%20Mind%20the%20Gap.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Prevention Shelf Number: 133530 |
Author: Vargas Meza, Ricardo Title: Drugs, Armed Conflict and Peace. How does the agreement on drugs between the government and the FARC help to put an end to the armed conflict in Colombia? Summary: This policy briefing analyses the results of the partial agreement on drugs reached at the talks being held in Havana between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, and the Colombian government. analysis is based on the joint communique issued on 16 May 2014, the eve of the first round of the presidential election in Colombia. Following a brief introduction to the drugs issue in the broader framework of the peace talks, the briefing looks at how the subject of illicit crops, drug use and trafficking is dealt with in the agreement. It concludes with an assessment of the progress that the agreement represents in terms of the link between drugs and armed conflict. Key Points - The diversity of participants in the war who are involved in drug trafficking has led to a complex scenario in which the guerrilla groups are only one part of the problem. The criminal economy is able to continue operating regardless of who controls security in the producer regions. - The territorial approach that the agreement rhetorically claims to adopt is weak. It is not based on an integrated view of the territory and reduces it to the coca situation. A genuinely territorial approach would open the door to participation by rural settlers, indigenous and African-descent communities and give them a say in their territory's future. - The agreement is a ratification of the ongoing relevance of the current approach to drugs, which is based on prohibition. In this case, the objective is the total elimination of both coca and drug trafficking. To insist on "eradicating drug trafficking" is to repeat old recipes in new packaging because it leaves intact the very mechanism that makes the drug trade competitive: continued prohibition. - The agreement ignores the significant level of progress made in processes that have become stronger and currently represent a critical mass in favour of a regulation scenario. These processes include the development of harm reduction models. These models are based on the understanding that drugs must be accepted as a reality that must be lived with, while preventing or minimising the harm that drugs may cause to users. - The agreement fails to envisage a strategic approach to the problem, including the seeking of commitments from other countries to rethink the current policy on drugs. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2014. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefings Nr 42: Accessed November 25, 2014 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/dpb_42_eng_072014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 134252 |
Author: Muggah, Robert Title: Measurement Matters: Designing New Metrics for a Drug Policy that Works Summary: Supporters of progressive drug policy are committed to using scientific evidence as the basis for informed public debate and policy-making. This is more radical proposal than it first appears. It requires a fundamental shift in how governments and societies think about monitoring and measuring production, trafficking and consumption. To help advance this thinking, the following Strategic Paper proposes a new set of generic goals, targets and indicators to track the intended and unintended consequences of drug policy. Based on dozens of interviews with the world's top experts, it offers an innovative framework to align drug policy metrics with improvements in public health, safety and citizen security. The paper introduces 2 high level impacts, 6 goals, 16 targets and 86 indicators and subjects them to a preliminary reality check in Colombia. While there are challenges related to data availability and access, there are also tremendous opportunities to rethink old paradigms and design new approaches to designing, implementing and monitoring drug policy that works. Details: Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Igarape, 2015. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Strategic Paper 12: Accessed January 20, 2015 at: http://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AE-12-Measurement-mattes-07h-jan_.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Policy Shelf Number: 134421 |
Author: Isaza, Eric Wyss Title: Supporting Conflict Transformation and Victims in Colombia: An analysis of the Official Development Assistance from 2002 to 2011 and beyond Summary: This research focuses on the ODA allocated to Colombia from 2002 to 2011, as a way to understand the role of the international community in the process of conflict transformation. Using national and international data and sources, the analysis provides evidence of the approaches of different international stakeholders to assist the victims and to support the country in its journey towards peace. The results indicate that at least two thirds of the ODA addressed various conflict-related topics and that 'conflict victims' received the highest share. They also hint to different assistance and protection strategies, and show that recovery and restoration gradually became part of the cooperation agenda. Based on these findings, the paper explores the perspectives of international cooperation for the country in the coming years and proposes strategic recommendations for future external support to the transformation of its conflict. Details: Geneva: Geneva Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action, 2013. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Thesis: Accessed February 18, 2015 at: http://www.cerahgeneve.ch/files/8813/9506/6896/CERAH-dissertation-Eric-Wyss.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Guerillas Shelf Number: 134634 |
Author: Arias-R., Omar Fdo. Title: From monopsonistic insurgent groups to oligopolistic cocaine traffickers: the market of cocaine in Colombia Summary: The main purpose of this note is to model an imperfect competitive and vertically integrated market structure of production and trafficking of cocaine. We consider the particular case of Colombian cocaine market, but the results could be generalized to different scenarios. We model three main participants: farmers, producing the coca-leaf and being price-takers in its market; insurgent groups, producing paste of cocaine and being a local monopsony in the coca-leaf market; and cocaine traffickers, being an oligopoly competing a la Cournot. We find out an explicit relationship between the price of coca-leaf and paste of cocaine, with the coca-leaf elasticity of supply. An inelastic coca-leaf supply allows the insurgent groups to increase the gap between the price of coca-leaf and the price of the paste of cocaine. Additionally, the insurgent groups obtain important profits from the oligopolistic market structure of cocaine market, because the increase in the price of cocaine also increases the price of paste of cocaine, through the increase in its demand. These profits feed every step in the pyramid of cocaine production exacerbating the problem and making more difficult its solution. These remarks others important information to explain the reasons behind the ineffectiveness of some national and international policies in the war against illegal drugs. Details: Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2014. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 60000: Accessed February 18, 2015 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/60000/1/MPRA_paper_60000.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 134635 |
Author: Beltran, Isaac De Leon Title: Urban drug markets and zones of impunity in Colombia: The assumptions and the facts behind the retail drug trade and the responses to it Summary: On 1 April 2013, after visiting the Bronx, one of Bogota's main enclaves of crime and drug dealing, President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the authorities would be dismantling 24 drug outlets in 20 cities around the country in the space of 60 days. "War unleashed against Colombia's 'ollas' (drug dens)" was the headline in one of the country's leading newspapers. One year later, the national news channels broadcast images of bulldozers literally demolishing the buildings where the drug dens functioned, in joint operations by the police and the public prosecutor's office. The measure looked like a publicity coup in the midst of the election contest, but several organisations and analysts warned that it would do nothing to solve a problem that has multiple causes. Those narratives and explanations that place the local drug market alongside violence and crime - especially in urban settings - have gained strength in the last decade. This is despite the fact that drug trafficking in cities and the influence of criminal organisations in the local urban economy is nothing new. On the contrary, although the major trafficking networks have given priority to exporting the drugs produced in the country, they have also shown interest in the local market, which has allowed them to gain control of urban territory. The retail drug trade has been identified by the authorities as a strategic priority, under the hypothesis that it is one of the main triggers of violence and crime, as well as a response by the criminal organisations to their loss of influence in global markets. How valid is this argument? The interaction of local drug markets with violence and crime is complex and goes in more than one direction. Furthermore, at least in the case of Colombia's cities, it is very difficult to separate it off from other types of criminal economies. The aim of this briefing is to put to the test the starting points and assumptions underlying the definition of this 'new' threat, and provide an overview of local drug markets and their relationship with violence and crime in Colombia's cities. It will therefore analyse recent developments in criminal activity, how the criminal organisations have adapted in response to interventions by the state, and the forces involved in shaping the local drug market. In particular, it will analyse the retail drug trade in two of Colombia's cities, Cali and Barranquilla, in order to connect this illegal market to the presence of criminal organisations and high-impact crimes. These two cases will provide important evidence regarding the spatial dynamics of the retail drug trade and its implications for urban security. Finally, the main findings will be contrasted with government proposals to tackle the problem, offering some lessons learned and recommendations. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute (TNI), 2014. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Briefing Series on Drug Markets and Violence Nr 2: Accessed February 27, 2015 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/dmv2.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Addiction and Crime Shelf Number: 134725 |
Author: Gomez, Catalina Title: Crime in Colombia: More Law Enforcement or More Justice? Summary: This study considers the effect that judicial and police efficiency exercised on crime in 25 of the 33 political-administrative divisions in Colombia during the period 2000-2011. Specifically, the study seeks to determine whether the reduction of crime was the result of increases in the cost of crime as a result of the strengthening of the country's security forces, especially the National Police, or instead was due to the greater efficiency of the penal system resulting from a structural change stemming from Act 906 of 2004. To view this we propose a model of dynamic panel data that not only includes the individual and temporal effects of the variables of interest, but also allows us to understand the inertia in criminal behavior. The results indicate an inverse relationship between the number of crimes and the greater efficiency of the police and judicial action, which is consistent with the evidence reported in other international work. Robustness checks confirmed the validity of the findings. Details: Medellin, Colombia: Department of Economics, Universidad EAFIT, 2014. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Center for Research in Economics and Finance (CIEF), Working Paper No. 14-12 : Accessed April 20, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2456717 Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Trends Shelf Number: 135320 |
Author: Mejia, Daniel Title: On the Effects of Enforcement on Illegal Markets: Evidence from A Quasi-Experiment in Colombia Summary: This paper studies the effects of enforcement on illegal behavior in the context of coca cultivation in Colombia. We explore the deterrent effects of a large aerial spraying program designed to curb cocaine supply. We exploit variation induced by a diplomatic friction between the governments of Colombia and Ecuador over the possible negative effects of spraying campaigns over Ecuadorian territory. As a result of this friction, Colombia pledged to stop spraying campaigns within a 10 km band along the border with Ecuador in 2006. We estimate the effects of spraying on cultivation by regression discontinuity around the 10 km threshold and conditional differences in differences, using satellite data for 1-square-km cells. Our results suggest that spraying one additional hectare reduces coca cultivation by about 0.02 to 0.065 hectares, consistent with the view that enforcement reduces illegal behavior. However, these effects are too small to make aerial spraying a cost-effective anti-narcotic strategy. Details: Working Paper, 2014. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2480999 Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Enforcement Shelf Number: 135322 |
Author: Cortes, Carlos Title: Communications Surveillance in Colombia: The Chasm between Technological Capacity and the Legal Framework Summary: Last year, media outlets revealed that the National Police of Colombia would operationalize the Single Platform for Monitoring and Analysis (Plataforma Uinica de Monitoreo y Anailisis, or PUMA), through which it would be able to intercept "what is spoken, written or sent from e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, Line, Viber, Skype, and, in short, any type of communication undertaken via the internet." More recently, last February, Semana magazine revealed that the military was reviewing e-mails and chats of those involved in the peace talks in Havana, Cuba. In both cases, the government put its spin on the news. In the first case, the government presented PUMA as nothing more than the replacement of an older system, and stressed that it would be subject to legal controls. In the second, the Colombian president quickly announced the formation of a commission to develop the country's policy on cybersecurity and cyberdefense. Nonetheless, the underlying issues remain unsolved. What is, in the end, the technical capacity of PUMA? Is it possible to review anyone's e-mails? Can the military access someone's chat history? Is intercepting a phone call the same thing as intercepting internet traffic? Although new scandals regarding state intelligence emerge periodically in Colombia, the state never clarifies how intelligence works in practice or what controls exist for its exercise. Meanwhile, as time moves on, intelligence schemes grow more sophisticated along with our cell phones and computers. An analog rotary-dial telephone is as obsolete as "crocodile cables" used to intercept calls. Nonetheless, as the market facilitates the process of obsolescence and the incorporation of new massive technologies, it tells us little about the devices that are simultaneously developed to monitor individuals. Technological changes tend to alter long-established assumptions regarding the reach of specific rights. Privacy is arguably the right that faces the most challenges in the digital environment. Yet regulatory and jurisprudential lacunae persist in terms of how technology affects the exercise of fundamental rights. The cases of PUMA and the military's spying on peace negotiators occurred soon after Colombia's adoption of its new Intelligence Law, which, in theory, corrects previous irregularities and aligns with modern surveillance. But is this truly the case? Do we have a regulation that preserves national security without compromising citizens' privacy and freedom of expression, among other rights? The goal of this book is to examine the Colombian legal and jurisprudential framework regarding communications surveillance in light of today's technologies. Phrased in the form of a hypothesis, the purpose is to demonstrate how intelligence-related laws and jurisprudence fail to ensure that potentially affected rights remain intact. To test this hypothesis, I address several aspects of the country's Intelligence Law that I selected somewhat arbitrarily: the interception of communications, surveillance of the electromagnetic spectrum, and access to user data. This last point, which alone merits its own study, is developed as a complement to the first two. The book is divided as follows: The first chapter explains, from a technical point of view, the technologies that we use to communicate and that are used to monitor us. The second chapter explores the normative framework for communications surveillance. The third offers a comparative look at communications interception. Finally, the fourth chapter synthesizes the findings of the first three chapters in an effort to offer several conclusions. Details: Bogota: Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad, 2015. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 3: Accessed May 23, 2015 at: http://www.dejusticia.org/files/r2_actividades_recursos/fi_name_recurso.683.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Communications Shelf Number: 135766 |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: Transitional Justice and Colombia's Peace Talks Summary: In its latest report, Transitional Justice and Colombia's Peace Talks, the International Crisis Group proposes a model for transitional justice in the context of the promising negotiations between the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end decades of civil conflict. This requires that both sides confront highly sensitive issues, but a comprehensive transitional justice agreement is key to the ultimate acceptance of a peace accord by the courts, the Congress, and the Colombian people. The report's major findings and recommendations are: - Any viable transitional justice agreement will need to be acceptable well beyond just the two parties. Finding common ground among guerrillas, the government, critics of the peace talks, victims and a public largely unsympathetic to FARC would be difficult at the best of times. It will be even harder on the cusp of the 2014 electoral cycle, in which transitional justice is likely to be an explosive issue. But with courts, Congress and voters all having important roles to play in ratifying and implementing transitional justice measures, both parties have a strong incentive to agree on a deal that goes beyond their own narrow preferences. - Justice for victims of all the parties to the conflict, including the victims of state agents, is an essential part of any viable transitional justice regime. The core of Colombia's obligations under international human rights law must be respected. Responsibility for crimes should be addressed through a three-layered scheme: prosecution and punishment of those most responsible, from both sides, for the most serious crimes; an amnesty for FARC's political crimes; and an administrative procedure for FARC members not in the first two categories. Alongside these measures, the negotiating parties need to agree on the basics for a strong, inclusive and independent truth commission, renew the commitment to comprehensive reparations and set out a plan for guarantees that the abuses of the past will not be repeated. - The parties should not attempt to spell out every aspect of such a comprehensive transitional justice model themselves. Details should be left to implementing legislation. But negotiators must lay out credible and clear basic provisions to ensure victims' rights are upheld, create legal certainty for FARC members and foster the social support that can prevent a transitional justice regime - and the prospects for lasting peace - from unravelling in political and legal disputes. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2013. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 49: Accessed May 27, 2015 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/049-transitional-justice-and-colombia-s-peace-talks Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Justice Reform Shelf Number: 129822 |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Summary: Between 2002 and 2008, army brigades across Colombia routinely executed civilians. Under pressure from superiors to show "positive" results and boost body counts in their war against guerrillas, soldiers and officers abducted victims or lured them to remote locations under false pretenses - such as with promises of work - killed them, placed weapons on their lifeless bodies, and then reported them as enemy combatants killed in action. Committed on a large scale for more than half a decade, these "false positive" killings constitute one of the worst episodes of mass atrocity in the Western Hemisphere in recent decades. In September 2008, a media scandal over army troops' killings of young men and teenage boys from the Bogota suburb of Soacha helped force the government to take serious measures to stop the crimes, including by dismissing three army generals. Prosecutors are now investigating more than 3,000 alleged false positives by military personnel. Upwards of 800 army members have been convicted for extrajudicial killings committed between 2002 and 2008, most of them low-ranking soldiers. The convictions have covered a handful of former battalion and other tactical unit commanders, but not a single officer who was commanding a brigade or holding a position higher up the chain of command at the time of the crimes. Of the 16 active and retired army generals under investigation, none have been charged. This report provides the most detailed published account to date of criminal investigations into many specific brigades and battalions responsible for large numbers of alleged false positive killings, lays out the now substantial evidence that senior army officers were responsible for many of the killings, and assesses the obstacles that so far have impeded such officers from being held accountable. The report is based on our extensive review of criminal case files, judicial rulings, and data on prosecutors' investigations into false positives; witness testimony, much of it previously unpublished; and our interviews with more than 40 prosecutors, witnesses, victims' family members, and lawyers, among others. Our analysis of the Attorney General's Office's work shows that prosecutors have identified more than 180 battalions and other tactical units, attached to 41 brigades, operating under all of the army's then-seven divisions, which allegedly committed extrajudicial killings between 2002 and 2008. The patterns in these cases strongly suggest that commanders in tactical units and brigades responsible for a significant number of cases at least knew or should have known about the wrongful killings, and therefore may be criminally liable as a matter of command responsibility. This report profiles 11 such brigades and many of the specific tactical units operating under them implicated in the killings. Some of the commanders of those 11 brigades subsequently rose to the top of the military command. For example, Attorney General's Office data shows prosecutors are investigating: - At least 44 alleged extrajudicial killings by 4th Brigade troops during the period retired General Mario Montoya commanded it. He became the armys top commander in 2006-2008; - At least 113 alleged extrajudicial killings by 4th Brigade troops during the period retired General Oscar Gonzalez Pena commanded it. He became the army's top commander in 2008-2010; - At least 28 alleged extrajudicial killings by 4th Brigade troops during the period General Juan Pablo Rodriguez Barragan commanded it. As the current commander of the armed forces, he is now Colombia's top military official, and oversees all three military branches, including the army; and - At least 48 alleged extrajudicial killings by 9th Brigade troops during the period General Jaime Lasprilla Villamizar commanded it. He is now the armys top commander. Human Rights Watch also identified witness testimony and prosecutor files naming three of these, as well as other, generals and colonels who allegedly knew of, or planned, ordered, or otherwise facilitated false positives. Their positions at the time of the crimes included battalion, brigade, and division commanders, as well as one head of the army. Indeed, the apparently widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings by troops attached to virtually all brigades in every single division across Colombia point to the conclusion that the highest levels of the army command at least should have known about the killings, and may have ordered or otherwise actively furthered their commission. Our research also shows that prosecutors pursuing false positive cases confront serious obstacles, ranging from military authorities' lack of cooperation with investigations, to threats and attacks on key witnesses. Furthermore, many cases remain in military courts. This undercuts accountability because military justice system personnel have historically failed to investigate the crimes, and continue to lack independence and credibility. There have also been shortcomings within the Attorney General's Office, including what some prosecutors describe as overwhelming caseloads. Moreover, cases from the same army unit are generally distributed among different prosecutors, which prevents them from conducting the kind of contextualized and systematic investigations necessary to identify high-ranking perpetrators. Attorney General's Office officials said they are in the process of adopting measures to remedy these internal problems. Seven years after the false positives scandal erupted, there is abundant evidence indicating that numerous senior army officers bear responsibility and it is imperative that the government do more to ensure they are held accountable. Important steps include ordering military authorities to cooperate with false positive investigations, assigning sufficient prosecutors to pursue them, protecting witnesses and their families, and making sure that any transitional justice legislation implemented as part of a peace agreement with guerrillas does not hinder accountability for the crimes. Bringing to justice those most responsible for one of the darkest chapters in Colombia's long war will not be easy, but it is entirely within the government's control to do so. Details: New York: HRW, 2015. 95p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 13, 2015 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/colombia0615_4up.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Extrajudicial Killings Shelf Number: 136001 |
Author: U.S. Department of the Treasury. Office of Foreign Asets Control Title: Impact Report on Economic Sanctions Against Colombia Drug Cartels Summary: Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") integrates regulatory, national security, investigative, enforcement, and intelligence elements towards a single goal: effective implementation of economic sanctions programs against foreign threats and adversaries. OFAC currently administers and enforces more than 30 economic sanctions programs pursuant to Presidential and Congressional mandates, targeting select foreign countries and regimes, terrorist organizations, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, and narcotics traffickers. OFAC acts under general Presidential wartime and national emergency powers, as well as specific legislation, to prohibit transactions and freeze (or "block") assets within the United States or in possession or control of U.S. persons, including their foreign branches. These programs are administered in conjunction with diplomatic, law enforcement and occasionally military action. Since 1995, the Executive Branch has developed an array of "targeted" sanctions programs that focus on drug cartels and traffickers, international terrorist groups, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, members of hostile regimes, and other individuals and groups whose activities threaten U.S. interests. Narcotics traffickers operating on a global scale require an extensive support network, including procurement, logistics, transportation, communications, security, money laundering, and other facilitation. Disguising the sometimes vast profits derived from major drug operations requires the purchase of ostensibly legitimate enterprises capable of handling business on an international scale. These illicitly funded "corporate empires" can be extensive, complex, and undermine the integrity of financial systems. They are also one of the drug cartels' greatest vulnerabilities. To combat the threats of violence, corruption, and harm posed by narcotics traffickers and their networks, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12978 in October 1995, declaring a national emergency with respect to significant foreign narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia. The impact of these sanctions has been significant and, at times, dramatic. When OFAC designates an individual or entity, any assets within the United States or the possession or control of a U.S. person anywhere in the world, must be frozen. Trade with or through the United States is cut off. Moreover, many non-U.S. businesses and banks have voluntarily severed all ties with individuals and entities that OFAC has listed. As a result, designated persons may lose access to their bank accounts outside the United States, disrupting their operations and freedom of access. Finally, in many cases, Colombian authorities have taken law enforcement actions against designated companies or properties after OFAC listed them. Collectively, these actions have disrupted more than $1 billion worth of assets - in blockings, seizures, forfeitures, and the failure of enterprises - and economically isolated the individuals who own and manage the enterprises. The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy ("ONDCP"), in fact, stated that OFAC's efforts have resulted in "the forfeiture of billions of dollars worth of drug-related assets." This report reviews the SDNT program's achievements over the past 11 years, as it has targeted the leaders of Colombia's Cali, North Valle, and North Coast drug cartels. It is our hope that the report will provide a useful window into the history and achievements of this program, as well as lessons for refining sanctions targeting and implementation in the future in this and other programs. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2007. 180p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 13, 2015 at: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/narco_impact_report_05042007.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Colombia Keywords: Asset Forfeiture Shelf Number: 136005 |
Author: Otis, John Title: The FARC and Colombia's Illegal Drug Trade Summary: In 2014, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Latin America's oldest and largest guerrilla army known as the FARC, marked the 50th anniversary of the start of its war against the Colombian government. More than 220,000 people have been killed and more than five million people uprooted from their homes in the conflict, which is the last remaining guerrilla war in the Western Hemisphere. However, this grim, half-century milestone coincides with peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC that began in Havana, Cuba, in November 2012. The Havana talks have advanced much farther than the three previous efforts to negotiate with the FARC and there is a growing sense that a final peace treaty is now likely. So far, the two sides have reached agreements on three of the five points on the negotiating agenda, including an accord to resolve an issue that helps explain why the conflict has lasted so long: The FARC's deep involvement in the taxation, production, and trafficking of illegal drugs. On May 16, 2014, the government and the FARC signed an agreement stating that under the terms of a final peace treaty, the two sides would work in tandem to eradicate coca, the plant used to make cocaine, and to combat cocaine trafficking in areas under guerrilla control. A decade ago, Colombia supplied about 90 percent of the world's cocaine. But due to anti-drug efforts in Colombia as well as Peru's reemergence as a major producer, Colombia since 2011 is believed to provide less than half of the world's cocaine, according to U.S. officials. Yet drug profits continue to be a vital source of cash for the FARC, a smaller Marxist rebel group known as the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and other criminal organizations in Colombia. Massive drug profits help the FARC to buy weapons, uniforms, and supplies and to recruit fresh troops. The fight between the FARC and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups over coca fields and drug smuggling corridors has been a key factor in the conflict's extreme levels of violence, forced displacement and land grabs. When the two sides first met to discuss the drug issue in November 2013, Colombia's chief peace negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, called the illegal drug trade "the fuel that feeds the conflict." During the last round of peace talks with the government that lasted from 1999 to 2002, the FARC was at the peak of its military power thanks, in part, to a surge in drug income and made almost no effort to seriously negotiate a peace treaty. Since then, the U.S. government has provided Colombia with $9.3 billion in aid, much of which has been spent on counterinsurgency and counterdrug programs targeting the FARC. The Colombian military's successful efforts to weaken the FARC and reduce its drug income through targeting coca fields, drug laboratories, and smugglers have helped convince FARC leaders to return to the bargaining table for negotiations that hold much promise for a final peace accord. This paper will examine the FARC's long history of involvement in Colombia's illegal narcotics industry and the impact of rebel drug profits on the course of the armed conflict. It will also explore the likely impact of the drug accord reached at the peace negotiations in Cuba on efforts to extricate the FARC from the drug-trafficking equation, possible changes in Colombia's counterdrug policies, as well as the strong possibility that some FARC members will continue producing and smuggling drugs in a post-conflict scenario. Details: Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Latin American Program, 2014. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 3, 2015 at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Otis_FARCDrugTrade2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 136289 |
Author: Felbab-Brown, Vanda Title: Assessment of the Implementation of the United States Government's Support for Plan Colombia's Illicit Crop Reduction Components Summary: This study provides an assessment of the success to date of Counter-Narcotics (CN) efforts under Plan Colombia along with a set of recommendations for the United States Government (USG) to strengthen future CN efforts directed at increasing security, decreasing coca cultivation and cocaine, and opium poppy and heroin production in Colombia. Plan Colombia commenced in 1999 as a multi-year effort to stem a decades' long spiral towards domestic violence, fueled by narcotics funding resulting from an increasingly robust drug industry. Plan Colombia provided funding to support increased security and counternarcotics efforts, and to address issues of rural development, rule of law, human rights, and support for displaced persons. The assessment was carried out by a team of specialists in economic policy, alternative development, law and security and comparative drug control. The team reviewed documents and secondary literature, conducted interviews with relevant US and Government of Colombia (GOC), local officials, development workers, representatives of national agencies, farmers, farm association officials and other stakeholders. It undertook three site visits, in South of Bolivar (Sur de Bolivar), in Macarena (Meta) and in Narino. In all three sites, team members conducted focus groups made up of local officials, representatives of national ministries, members of farmer associations and farmers. The team also used economic regressions and simulations to assist its analyses. The team examined the history of Plan Colombia, reviewed performance in areas such as implementation of alternative development, impact of eradication, cost effectiveness, improvements in security, and socio-economic aspects of state presence. The report looks at approaches to adjusting performance measures for CN programs. With a view toward formulating recommendations for the future, the report presents analyses of lessons that could be drawn from the significant reduction in poppy cultivation, the role of alternative development and the involvement of citizens and local governments in coca reduction. The report examines the internal balloon effect as that influences the geographic dispersion of coca cultivation. Finally, the report reviews various elements of rural development and agricultural policy as well as providing an estimation of the extent that families in rural areas are vulnerable to participating in coca cultivation. (Vulnerable families are defined as families in coca growing areas that share the socioeconomic characteristics of existing coca farmers.) Details: Washington, DC: Management Systems International, 2009. 177p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2015 at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACN233.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 136307 |
Author: Santana, Geraldo Title: Can cocaine production in Colombia be linked to environmental crime?: A case study into the effect of EU legislation on the trade Summary: This case study highlights the interrelationship between cocaine production, a drug-related criminal activity and environmental pollution and degradation, activities that are considered to be environmental crimes in many parts of the world today. To a lesser extent, this case study also explores the links between cocaine trafficking and organised crime groups, such as the militias in Colombia. There, cocaine production is not just an ordinary illicit activity, it is also a means used by the militias to secure territory, power, finances and weaponry. The European Union represents the second largest market in the world for cocaine. It also exports 20% of the world's chemical precursors, with Germany as the largest European producer with 5.7% share of the global sales. Chemical precursors such as potassium permanganate, an essential ingredient in cocaine production, are highly monitored yet Colombia seized 80% of the global seizure of illicit potassium permanganate for the period of 2007-2012. Criminals have adopted various diversion methods to make up for their losses from tighter controls on chemical precursors trafficking. There is legislation in place that monitor the trade of chemical precursors within and outside the borders of the EU. The case study seeks to examine if the said legislation has been effective in preventing the illicit use of chemical precursors in cocaine production in Colombia and as a consequence help to prevent further environmental pollution and degradation. Details: The Hague: Institute for Environmental Security, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: A study compiled as part of the EFFACE project. Accessed August 21, 2015 at: http://efface.eu/sites/default/files/EFFACE%20Can%20cocaine%20production%20in%20Colombia%20be%20linked%20to%20environmental%20crime_0.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 136517 |
Author: Paris, Jeffrey Jonathan Title: Crime, Contraband, and Property Rights: Explaining Variations in Violent Crime Rates Summary: Violent crime affects quality of life on an individual level and development on a national level (Kleiman, 2009), and could be the most important factor in determining whether many low and middle-income countries develop stable governments and implement effective economic policies. I propose a political and natural resource based explanation of the variation in crime rates in order to overcome the lack of connections between macro-level statistical data and causal mechanisms identified up to this point. My explanation involves the dynamics between state strength, property rights formation and enforcement, and the specific nature of criminal markets. When the state is weak crime rates usually increase due to the state's inability to enforce property rights, including the inability to control contraband markets (or adequately taxing legal markets), and the inability to effectively punish defectors. Property rights are established through a political bargaining process between actors that generally depends on the capacity for violence of interested parties (DeSoto, 2000; Umbeck, 1981). Well-defined and enforced property rights reduce transaction costs, and therefore reduce levels of violence (Anderson and Hill, 2003). The specific properties of markets, including the resources they are based on, can shape the market environment, including legality, and affect the resulting "institutions of extraction" (Snyder, 2006, 952). Lootable resources make property rights harder to enforce and interact with the state's ability to provide the rule of law, especially in the case of prohibitions. Illicit markets engender violence because normal business disputes are often settled with violence (Kleiman, 1993, 104-107, 115). My hypotheses examine the relationship between the production of lootable products, while controlling for other factors commonly attributed to crime. My analysis suggests that, all else being equal, the production of lootable resources increases crime rates, while the enforcement of property rights, whether by a state, non-state actor, or community, reduces violent crime rates. To test my hypotheses I use a mix of statistical analysis, case studies based on archival research, and structured interviews. Cross-national data was collected through archival research and existing databases, spanning over seventy countries and fifty years. Local level data comes from fieldwork in Colombia, and includes quantitative data for every municipality in Colombia over a span of nine years, and qualitative data for several regions critical to testing my hypotheses. Details: Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, 2012. 179p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/08t0s726 Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Contraband Shelf Number: 136779 |
Author: Isacson, Adam Title: Consolidating "Consolidation": Columbia's "security and development" zones await a civilian handoff, while Washington backs away from the concept Summary: Colombia's government is negotiating peace with the country's largest and oldest guerrilla group, the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia). If the talks succeed- a strong possibility - Colombia faces a big question: what will be different in the vast territories where the guerrillas have been in control, or operated freely, for decades? In these areas, violence, drug trafficking, and warlordism have long been the norm, and the government's presence has been virtually nonexistent. If the government does not establish itself in these jungles, mountains, plains, coasts, and borderlands, the FARC's negotiated end will make little difference; illegality and violence will continue to fill the vacuum. Colombia must follow a successful negotiation with getting the government into the country's ungoverned zones. And not just military occupiers: a real, civilian state whose members provide basic services, operate without impunity, and thus enjoy the population's support. Will Colombia be able to fill the vacuum and end the cycle of violence? As WOLA's new report Consolidating "Consolidation" describes, the record of the National Territorial Consolidation Plan - a five-year-old program with that very goal - should worry us that it might not. Backed by at least half a billion dollars in U.S. assistance, this ambitious program seeks to bring the government into several areas of the country with histories of illegal armed groups, violence, drug trafficking, and statelessness. (It is often called the "La Macarena" program, after the southern Colombian zone where the most advanced pilot project has taken place.) Today, while "Consolidation" has brought security improvements and more soldiers and police to a few territories, the governance vacuum remains far from filled. In the Consolidation zones, armed groups remain very active, especially outside of town centers. Soldiers are by far the most commonly seen government representatives, and the civilian parts of the government - such as health services, education, agriculture, road-builders, land-titlers, judges, and prosecutors - are lagging very far behind. In Consolidating "Consolidation," WOLA sought to identify the reasons why the Consolidation program's military-to-civilian transfer has stalled. Senior Associate for Regional Security Policy Adam Isacson found that while the U.S. and Colombian governments underestimated the difficulty of achieving security and the cost of "state-building," much of the blame lies with civilian government agencies themselves, most of which have been very reluctant to set up a presence in Consolidation zones. But we found something even more serious: the entire Consolidation model is losing momentum quickly and may have begun to deteriorate. Based on dozens of interviews and a very close read of available evidence, Consolidating "Consolidation" portrays a program lacking interest and backing at high levels of government. What was once a showcase program stagnated during a year and a half-long "rethinking," followed by several months of infighting that culminated in the sudden exit of the program's director. Meanwhile, in places like Afghanistan, the United States is edging away from similar missions, which it calls "Stability Operations," that sought to provide basic services to citizens in ungoverned areas. Instead, U.S. forces are relying more on Special Forces operations and drone strikes. Programs continue in Consolidation zones in Colombia, thanks in great part to US$227 million in USAID contracts awarded since 2010. But Consolidation, which once promised to bring a functioning government to areas that never had one, may be on its way to becoming a politically driven handout program attached to an open-ended military occupation. If Consolidation fades away, the report warns, it is not clear what will replace it in Colombia's neglected territories. As Colombia faces the possibility of peace in zones of historic guerrilla control, it is crucial that a plan be in place to prevent a re-emergence of violence. If the peace talks succeed, for a brief period Colombia will have a window of opportunity to bring the government to areas that have long generated violence, bringing their citizens into national civic and economic life for the first time. The National Territorial Consolidation Plan could offer a way to do this, but only if it returns to its initial vision of a phased, coordinated entry of civilian government. If this scheme, or something like it, is to succeed, it will require political will from the highest levels to ensure that the civilians take over as quickly as security conditions allow. And it will require a renewed - but far more civilian-centered - commitment from the United States. Details: Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, 2012. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 17, 2015 at: http://www.wola.org/files/Consolidating_Consolidation.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 136802 |
Author: Rettberg, Angelika Title: Oil and gold: private sector and post-conflict risks in Colombia Summary: For the first time in decades Colombia seems to be on course towards a negotiated settlement with its two remaining guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army. However, the post-conflict prospects are not altogether auspicious. Abundant weapons in circulation, demobilised combatants with criminal expertise, and multiple opportunities for applying this know-how in both legal and illegal activities and organisations as part of the steady and continuing reconfiguration of criminal groups pose serious risks to stability and the sustainability of peace in Colombia over the coming years. This report presents a number of the challenges for Colombias post-conflict stability arising from criminal networks and activities in regions associated with the extractive industry and specifically in regions dedicated to oil extraction and gold mining. While domestic and foreign investments have risen over recent years, and overall security conditions have improved, it is likely that armed violence will continue and undergo further transformations in these regions. The emergence of new sorts of non-conventional armed violence, operating across the spectrum between conflict and criminality, illustrates the challenge of consolidating a post-conflict arrangement in Colombia. Details: Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, 2015. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2015 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/Rettberg_NOREF%20Clingendael_Gold%20oil%20and%20the%20lure%20of%20violence_the%20private%20sector%20and%20post-conflict%20risks%20in%20Colombia_Sept%202015_FINAL.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Violence Shelf Number: 136927 |
Author: Schmidt, Rachel Anne Title: No Girls Allowed? Recruitment and Gender in Colombia Armed Groups Summary: There are approximately 11,000-17,000 child combatants in Colombia, and women and girls are estimated to make up 25-50 percent of left-wing guerrilla units. Yet, females do not appear to have a strong presence in Colombian paramilitary groups or gangs. While some research exists on girl soldiers in Colombian guerrilla groups, there is currently very little research asking why so few females appear in other Colombian fighting factions. This paper suggests that girls do not deliberately select the guerrillas from a range of viable options, arguing instead that their choices are largely based on imperfect information, risk tolerance and proximity to groups willing to recruit them. The paper then proposes that if girls are not self-selecting into the FARC, it is the gatekeepers of the armed groups that decide whether or not to recruit girls and how to utilize them. Employing rebel recruitment theories from Weinstein (2007) and Kalyvas (2006), the paper examines whether their models of economic and social resources, collective and individual benefits, and proximity still apply when looking at the recruitment of girls. Details: Ottawa, ONT: Carleton University, Norman Peterson School of International Affairs, 2007. 171p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 5, 2015 at: https://curve.carleton.ca/system/files/etd/6100dfba-4760-44cb-bbbc-38389c6541a6/etd_pdf/ffbd88a4d8c9ab522e93c5aad997989a/schmidt-nogirlsallowedrecruitmentandgenderincolombian.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Colombia Keywords: Female Gang Members Shelf Number: 136944 |
Author: Mejia, Daniel Title: Bushes and Bullets: Illegal Cocaine Markets and Violence in Colombia Summary: This paper proposes a new identification strategy to estimate the causal impact of illicit drug markets on violence using a panel of Colombian municipalities covering the period 1994-2008. Using a UNODC survey of Colombian rural households involved in coca cultivation, we estimate the determinants of land suitability for coca cultivation. With these results we create a suitability index that depends on the altitude, erosion, soil aptitude, and precipitation of a municipality. Our exogenous suitability index predicts the presence of coca crops cross sectionally and its expansion between 1994-2000. We show that following an increase in the demand for Colombian cocaine, coca cultivation increases disproportionately in municipalities with a high suitability index. This provides an exogenous source of variation in the extent of coca cultivation within municipalities that we use as an instrument to uncover the causal effect of illegal cocaine markets on violence. We find that a 10% increase in the value of coca cultivation in a municipality increases homicides by about 1.25%, forced displacement by about 3%, attacks by insurgent groups by about 2%, and incidents involving the explosion of land mines by about 1%. Our evidence is consistent with the view suggesting that prohibition creates rents for suppliers in illegal markets, and these rents cause violence as different armed groups fight each other, the government and the civil population for their control and extraction. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics, 2013. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2013-53 : Accessed November 9, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2353979 Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 137222 |
Author: Aksenova, Marina Title: Values on the Move: The Colombian Sentencing Practice and the Principle of Complementarity Under the Rome Statute Summary: This paper is about self-identification of the International Criminal Court ('ICC'). As the focus of international criminal justice shifts to national prosecutions, it is unclear to what extent the ICC will act as the enforcer of international norms on the ground. The paper discusses the principle of complementarity using the case study of Colombia. The ICC prosecution team has been conducting preliminary examinations in this country for over ten years and has yet to decide whether to move to the stage of formal investigations. In doing so, it must assess, among other things, whether reduced or suspended sentences rendered to senior perpetrators by the local judiciary are adequate in light of the gravity of the crimes committed during the continuing civil war. The issue of sentencing in Colombia illustrates the difficulties the Court may face in deciding on a state's willingness to undertake genuine prosecutions. The ICC has yet to determine its role in adjusting the values conceived internationally to the domestic terrain. In the case of Colombia, the matter is further complicated by the fact that the ICC's involvement may disturb the ongoing peace negotiations. Details: Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen - iCourts - Centre of Excellence for International Courts, 2015. Source: Internet Resource: iCourts Working Paper Series nr. 24 : Accessed February 1, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2605362 Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: International Criminal Court Shelf Number: 137720 |
Author: Leoncini, Riccardo Title: Counteracting Cocaine Production - An Analysis Based on a Novel Dataset Summary: The debate about the effectiveness of the counteracting policies against the supply of drugs, in particular of cocaine, is very lively and intense. Indeed, since many opinions are based on certain measures rather than others, the construction of reliable indicators is one of the preconditions for a correct and concerted assessment of drug supply. The lack of reliable data on drug provision derives, on the one side, from the objective difficulties encountered in assessing the quantitative elements of drug production and drug trafficking due to its illegal nature, and, on the other side, from the lack of a standard methodological approach to the issue. This paper tries to contribute to the topic by proposing a new dataset, based on a completely new approach to the problem of measuring drug supply. We put forward a unique dataset covering cocaine related seizures in Colombia for the whole of year 2008. Data have been collected on a daily basis from the websites of the main organizations fighting against drug traffickers (Army, Air Force, National Police, Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, Armada Nacional, Fiscalia), detailing each single seizure of laboratories for the production of both basic paste and cocaine hydrochloride. By means of this dataset, we offer some accounts of the main numbers on drug supply and on drug seizures, suggesting some policy options, and arriving to an estimate of cocaine production Details: Unpublished paper, 2010. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 26, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1546925 Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 137983 |
Author: Villa, Edgar Title: Illicit Activity and Money Laundering from an economic growth perspective : a model and an application to Colombia Summary: This paper contributes to the economic analysis of illicit activities and money laundering. First, it presents a theoretical model of long-run growth that explicitly considers illicit workers, activities, and income, alongside a licit private sector and a functioning government. Second, it generates estimates of the size of illicit income and provides simulated and econometric estimates of the volume of laundered assets in the Colombian economy. In the model, the licit sector operates in a perfectly competitive environment and produces a licit good through a standard neoclassical production function. The illicit sector operates in an imperfectly competitive environment and is composed of two different activities: The first activity produces an illicit good that nonetheless is valuable in the market (for example illicit drugs); the second does not add value to the economy but only redistributes wealth (for example robbery, kidnapping, and fraud). The paper provides a series of comparative statics exercises to assess the effects of changes in government efficiency, licit sector productivity, and illicit drug prices. From the model, the analysis derives a set of estimable macroeconometric equations to measure the size of laundered assets in the Colombian economy in the period 1985 to 2013. The paper assembles a data set whose key components are estimates of illicit income from drug trafficking and common crime. Illicit incomes increased drastically until 2001, reaching a peak of nearly 12 percent of gross domestic product and then decreasing to less than 2 percent by 2013. The decline overlaps not only in a period of high economic growth, but also after the implementation of Plan Colombia. The data set is used to estimate the volume of laundered assets in the economy by applying the Kalman filter for the estimation of unobserved dynamic variables onto the derived macroeconometric equations from the model. The findings show that the volume of laundered assets increased from about 8 percent of gross domestic product in the mid-1980s to a peak of 14 percent by 2002, and declined to 8 percent in 2013. Details: Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Research Working Paper 7578: Accessed March 5, 2016 at: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2016/02/25/090224b0841b08b8/1_0/Rendered/PDF/Illicit0activi0lication0to0Colombia.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 138113 |
Author: Moser, Caroline Title: Urban Poor Perceptions of Violence and Exclusion in Colombia Summary: A society in crisis presents both a challenge and an opportunity. This is certainly the case in the context of Colombia, now in the fifth decade of its bitter civil war. The crisis in which Colombia finds itself today represents an integral challenge to the economy, the institutions, and the values of its society. At the same time, it provides an opportunity for changing structures that no longer work. Although this may vary according to different interests in society, the needs of the most excluded and poorest are often marginalised. Yet, as this study shows, they have very clear perceptions of those structures that they consider important to change The elusive concept of crisis that underpins this study has long been an important concern. The German philosopher Jurgen Habermas for instance, provides a useful taxonomy of systemic crisis comprising a fourfold classification of (a) economic crisis, (b) rationality crisis, (c) legitimation crisis, and (iv) motivation crisis (Habermas 1972). An economic crisis, termed a "realization crisis" by Habermas, may be a recession, an economic depression, or an inflationary phenomena; a rationality crisis, in Habermas's words, is a breakdown of the "rational administrative" practices necessary to maintain the economy in due course. This can be interpreted as the inability of the government in a crisis situation, to properly manage and regulate the economic system. A legitimation crisis, in turn, is characterized by a breakdown in the level of public support, credibility, and trust on existing institutions. A motivation crisis is a crisis in the realm of values, traditions, and norms in society. Both economic and rationality crises belong to the economic sphere, legitimation crises are political in essence and motivational crises belong to the sociocultural realm. The boundaries may shift, in turn, depending on the specific nature of a crisis in a country during a given historical period. Thus, a societal crisis is a comprehensive phenomena occurring simultaneously at an economic, political, socio-cultural (value-system) level. It is a systemic, rather than a partial or local, phenomena in which institutions become dysfunctional in terms of their ability to process internal societal conflicts, as both the formal and informal rules that mediate social interaction collapse. Such a breakdown often has far-reaching, mostly negative, effects. At the economic level, the investment climate deteriorates in an environment without well-defined rules (e.g., property rights may not be enforced), with ensuing adverse effects in terms of economic growth and employment creation. Countries in crisis rarely experience economic growth and development is postponed. At the social level conflict erodes trust and social cohesion-the social capital so important in development processes. Another manifestation of crisis is the emergence of violence, a phenomena linked to a breakdown in rules of behavior (see below). High levels of violence and insecurity not only deteriorate the investment climate, but have economic as well as human, social, and political costs which exacerbate the crisis. In a crisis situation, public objectives may start to be replaced by private interests. Accountability and monitoring of the "agent" (e.g. governments or public officials) by "principals" (parliament, judiciary system, the people) weaken substantially. Often the result is corruption, a phenomenon that has received substantial attention in the 1990s, particularly in the development community. Corruption has a demoralizing effect on the public (and on honest officials in the public sector institutions), eroding social creditability in institutions. In Habermas's framework, corruption, and, to an extent, violence, can be understood from several angles. At one level, corruption is a manifestation of a "rationality crisis". In this sense common administrative practices of sound governments weaken to such an extent that conditions prevail for the acquisition of public assets for private benefit. In turn, when corruption reaches significant proportions a legitimation crisis may develop, eroding trust and confidence in government and other public institutions. Finally, if corruption became an ingrained social practice, affecting the norms and values of society, this then contains the typical features of a motivational crisis. Thus Colombia is experiencing a dirty war, economic recession and high levels of corruption, all of which are affected by and in turn affect the current crisis. Details: Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2000. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 11, 2016 at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/15182/multi_page.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2000 Country: Colombia Keywords: Political Corruption Shelf Number: 138178 |
Author: Kirchhoff, Stefanie Title: Displacement Due to Violence in Colombia: Determinants And Consequences At The Household Level Summary: The armed conflict over economic and political power in Colombia has led to the massive displacement of people living in the areas of violence. The design of appropriate policies of prevention, assistance, and resettlement requires improved information on the determinants and effects of displacement. This paper contributes to providing such information by using household survey data collected at expulsory and receptor locations. First, we develop a conceptual framework for analyzing the factors which influence a household's decision to leave its area of origin for an uncertain future or to stay and risk being the victim of violence. Using econometric analysis, the framework is then used to examine the significance and relative importance of the hypothesized factors in the study region. Second, the impacts of displacement on the affected households are examined through a descriptive analysis of the survey data, and a method for estimating the welfare losses of the displaced is presented. The results confirm the significant role of violence and perceptions of insecurity in motivating displacement. The analysis indicates that land owners, members of local organizations, and younger household heads face the highest risk of becoming the direct target of threats which appear to be the most important trigger of displacement. However, security considerations do not appear to be the only factors underlying the displacement decision. People decide to stay in their areas of origin despite being affected by violence. A significant percentage of the displaced appear to have reflected on their options and on the expected impacts of displacement. Considerations regarding the cost of leaving behind important assets and potential improvements in living conditions after displacement appear to impact the decision. The results also point to the important role of information in displacement decisions. The descriptive analysis highlights the impacts of displacement on the affected households. The wide majority of the displaced had lived in the areas of origin for a very substantial amount of time. For many, displacement implies the loss of agricultural land and the associated way of life. At the receptor locations, households - particularly those from rural areas - have to look for types of employment they are not trained for. A very substantial proportion ends up being long-term unemployed. The surveys point to the need for programs which provide long-term opportunities to the displaced. The paper concludes with policy recommendations and topics for future research. Details: Bonn: Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, 2001. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: ZEF - Discussion Papers on Development Policy: Accessed April 20, 2016 at: Year: 2001 Country: Colombia Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 138700 |
Author: Nussio, Enzo Title: Peace and Violence in Colombia Summary: The Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos is currently in talks with the oldest of Latin America's guerilla groups, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC); most recently, it has also engaged with the smaller Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). In particular, it appears possible that a peace agreement will soon be signed with FARC. President Santos is promoting the negotiations in Havana internationally as good news in a crisis-ridden world. However, the general population of Colombia remains skeptical. In a survey of March 2016, about two thirds of respondents were pessimistic about the negotiations; nearly half would prefer an end of negotiations and a military offensive against FARC. Many Colombians have no faith in a treaty with the rebels, whom they regard as untrustworthy, and believe that the violence plaguing Colombia cannot be eliminated at the negotiation table. "Peace" is generally regarded as an unrealistic, utopian goal, even if the FARC and ELN fighters should lay down their arms. Despite the hopeful prospects, it is likely that the pessimism of the general population will prove correct: An end of political violence would by no means lead to the end of societal and criminal violence in the country. Details: Zurich, SWIT: Center for Security Studies (CSS), 2016. 4p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2016 at: https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/pdfs/CSSAnalyse-191-EN.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 139050 |
Author: Nussio, Enzo Title: When Illegal Protection Collapses: Pathways to Increased Post-Demobilization Violence Summary: The implementation of peacebuilding activities, including the demobilization of non-state illegal actors, does not necessarily bring about a reduction in violence. While there are several theories that address the causes of persistent violence, there are few that adequately explain why rates of violence can rapidly increase in a post-demobilization context. This paper uses process tracing following the demobilization of paramilitary groups (AUC) in Cordoba Department, Colombia to assess alternative theories. We argue that the AUC created and maintained a monopolistic illegal protection system during its years of operation, and this type of local order was able to contain violence. After demobilization, the protection system was disrupted and as a consequence, new competition between post-demobilization criminal organizations for existing illegal rents developed, petty crime became pervasive and revenge killings spiked, thus contributing to increased rates of violence in the post-demobilization period. Our theory about the breakdown of protection finds additional support in other AUC dominated regions of Colombia. An alternative theory relating state pressure to increased violence was not strongly supported by our empirical analysis. Details: Zurich, SWIT: Center for Security Studies, 2013. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 11, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2277954 Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 139396 |
Author: Cuesta, Jose A. Title: Social Capital, Violence and Public Intervention: The Case of Cali Summary: This study attempts to quantify the impact of public interventions designed simultaneously to foster crime prevention and the formation of community-wide social capital. The relationship between social capital and violence has been rarely modeled in the literature and, when so, it has been found not significant. The study finds otherwise, on the basis of simultaneous econometric models with data from Colombia. Interpersonal trust is the single most important determinant to reduce victimization, while victimization levels cut back interpersonal trust and increasingly so only after some threshold is surpassed. Perceptions in the community of an effective public presence both reduce victimization and increase interpersonal trust, but the magnitude of these effects is rather small. Other public interventions (civic campaigns and improving the performance of public institutions) in crime-ridden communities also have a positive impact on both victimization and interpersonal trust levels. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 20078. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 29, 2016 at: https://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/4361/Social%20Capital%2c%20Violence%20and%20Public%20Intervention%3a%20The%20Case%20of%20Cali.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2007 Country: Colombia Keywords: Community Crime Prevention Shelf Number: 110168 |
Author: Rettberg, Angelika Title: Gold, Oil and the Lure of Violence: The Private Sector and Post-conflict Risks in Colombia Summary: For the first time in decades Colombia seems to be on course towards a negotiated settlement with its two remaining guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army. However, the post-conflict prospects are not altogether auspicious. Abundant weapons in circulation, demobilised combatants with criminal expertise, and multiple opportunities for applying this know-how in both legal and illegal activities and organisations as part of the steady and continuing reconfiguration of criminal groups pose serious risks to stability and the sustainability of peace in Colombia over the coming years. This report presents a number of the challenges for Colombia's post-conflict stability arising from criminal networks and activities in regions associated with the extractive industry - and specifically in regions dedicated to oil extraction and gold mining. While domestic and foreign investments have risen over recent years, and overall security conditions have improved, it is likely that armed violence will continue and undergo further transformations in these regions. The emergence of new sorts of non-conventional armed violence, operating across the spectrum between conflict and criminality, illustrates the challenge of consolidating a post-conflict arrangement in Colombia. Details: Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), 2015. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 28, 2016 at: https://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/Rettberg_NOREF%20Clingendael_Gold%20oil%20and%20the%20lure%20of%20violence_the%20private%20sector%20and%20post-conflict%20risks%20in%20Colombia_Sept%202015_FINAL.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 139886 |
Author: Rettberg, Angelika Title: Golden Opportunity, or a New Twist on the Resource-Conflict Relationship: Links between the Drug Trade and Illegal Gold Mining in Colombia Summary: Resource wars face greater difficulties to end conflict, as well as greater probabilities of relapse. In part, this is due to the persistence of resource-fueled criminal networks developed under the auspices of armed conflict. In this paper we focus on the Colombian armed conflict, one of the longest-lasting conflicts in the world. Recent evidence suggests that gold mining in Colombia has been permeated by illegal organizations linked to the drug trade, driving armed conflict and criminality. This reveals that attention to drugs alone as a conflict resource in this particular case has overshadowed the degree to which legal resources and economic activities have been permeated by illegal organizations and interests. This paper provides a framework of the gold-drugs relationship, which reveals the existence of resource portfolios, or the parallel participation and exchangeability of resources in the provision of funding for illegal organizations. We argue that, in addition to the impact of each resource on armed conflict and criminality, illegal organizations develop abilities to extract benefits of different resources at once or interchangeably (a resource portfolio), which should be taken into account when analyzing the consequences of war on countries' social and economic institutions. In addition, political or reputational factors have been insufficiently considered in analyzing groups' decisions to engage in or abandon specific economic activities. We show that, along with expectations of revenue, resource portfolios may also respond to political conditions, as illegal organizations accustomed to deriving income from coercive practices such as kidnappings - until recently a widespread phenomenon in Colombia - have caused increasing international and domestic outrage followed by pressure to stop this brutal violation of Human Rights. Based on field research in gold mining Colombian regions - combining more than seventy semi-structured interviews with first-hand observation during field trips - and a careful review of press, non-governmental organizations' and official reports in local, regional and national media, the paper provides a general framework of this complex relationship, paying specific attention to the evolution of the links and interchangeable nature of gold and drugs as conflict resources throughout the production phases of the gold extraction process. At a time when Colombia's ongoing peace process is likely to put an end to the armed confrontation between guerrilla groups and the Colombian state, our paper raises a warning sign for scholars and policymakers to consider the potential transformations of illicit markets and their role in shaping the prospects of durable peace. Details: World Development, 2016. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2719686 Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Colombia Shelf Number: 139891 |
Author: Guarin, Arlen Title: The Effects of Punishment of Crime in Colombia on Deterrence, Incapacitation, and Human Capital Formation Summary: Based on individual data on the population of those arrested in Medellin, we assess whether the change in punishment at age 18, mandated by law, has a deterrent effect on arrests. No deterrent effect was found on index, violent or property crimes, but a deterrence effect was found on non-index crimes, specifically those related to drug consumption and trafficking. This implies an elasticity of arrests with respect to punishment that varies between -1.0 and -6.7 percent. The number of days that arrested individuals take to recidivate is 300, higher for index crimes if they are arrested right after, rather than before, reaching 18 years of age, in which case they are less likely to recidivate in any type of crime. The change in criminal penalties at 18 years of age does not explain future differences in human capital formation among the population that had been arrested immediately after versus immediately before reaching 18 years of age. There is no evidence that the longer length of time to recidivate on the part of individuals arrested for the first time immediately after reaching 18 implies future differences in human capital formation. This suggest that our estimated incapacitation effect would not be explained by the impossibility of the arrested population to recidivate due to their having been imprisoned, but rather by a specific deterrence effect resulting from the harsher experience while in prison of those arrested right after, rather than before, reaching 18. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Banco de la Repblica, 2013. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: : Accessed August 5, 2016 at: http://www.banrep.gov.co/en/borrador-774 Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Deterrence Shelf Number: 130037 |
Author: McGee, Rosie Title: Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency: A Colombian Case Study Summary: In a situation of longstanding and complex violent conflict in Buenaventura, Colombia, we used action research to explore with social activists what power, violence, citizenship and agency mean to them and how they experience and exercise citizen agency in relation to the violence. This Working Paper presents our conceptual and theoretical starting points, action research process and findings. Direct violence was at a peak in urban Buenaventura when the action research was conducted, manifest in some particularly macabre forms. Yet in exploring the interconnections between power, violence and active citizenship, what emerged most strongly were structural and symbolic violence. These are experienced by Buenaventura citizens in ways that correspond to certain power theorists' interpretations of 'invisible power'. Most citizens have yielded to the encroachment of violent norms, language and imaginaries, allowing these to infuse their social roles and interactions and the socialisation of children and youth. The action research participants, however, represented a minority of active citizens who respond differently to direct, structural and symbolic violence. They navigate it using a range of responses: innovative organisational practices; mould-breaking models of social leadership; the de-legitimation of violent actors, actions and attitudes; and other visible and invisible expressions of individual and collective resistance to the violent re-shaping of norms, beliefs and values. The case study highlights the interconnected nature of direct, structural and symbolic forms of violence; contributes to theorising invisible power from this grounded and richly contextual perspective; illustrates the shortcomings of simplistic assumptions about citizen engagement in fragile and violent contexts and the importance of 'seeing like a citizen'; and sheds light on debates about citizen agency and structuration in processes of social change. Details: London: Institute of Development Studies, 2016. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: IDS Working Paper 474: Accessed August 30, 2016 at: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/12139/Wp474.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Urban Areas Shelf Number: 140100 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Colombia Elites and Organized Crime Summary: The power of Colombia's elites is founded upon one of the most unequal divisions of land in the world. As of the early 21st century, one percent of landowners own more than half the country's agricultural land. Under Spanish rule, Colombia's agriculture was organized on the hacienda system, in which "landless peasants" worked, often as sharecroppers or indentured labor, for the landowners. The fight for land redistribution began with the struggle for independence and continues to this day. Bolstered by a relatively stable economy, Colombia's elites have been able to repeatedly block attempts to redistribute land or carry out significant political reform. The country largely avoided the military coups and economic crises that beset its neighbors in the 20th century, but this very stability helped store up a legacy of social problems that remain unresolved. Colombia is, "the only Latin American country in which the traditional parties and elites neutralized all political reform efforts," Francisco Thoumi argues. "There were never reforms that challenged the power structure and weakened its control over society." Though the elite has been able to prevent major reform that would disrupt its power, it has not itself remained static. Successive generations of capitalists have been able to clamber into the ranks of the elite by generating wealth, first through industrial manufacturing and later through the drug trade. "The dominant groups -- large-scale owners of the means of production and the main political power brokers, who might or might not be the same people -- have always been open to new blood from outside or from below," argues Forrest Hylton. As Colombia's economy grew and modernized in the early 20th century, the old landowning class joined forces with the expanding commercial class created by the coffee boom, protecting its position and avoiding disruption to the existing social order. The manufacturers and industrialists created by the coffee boom also found common ground with the landowners, allowing the old elites to maintain their position. The traditional elite has been flexible enough to absorb and co-opt rising groups, who "end up reproducing the exclusionary behaviors that many criticized before." Colombia's elite has always been made up predominantly of Colombian nationals unlike other Latin American countries, such as Honduras, where the export industries were largely foreign-owned. The country's economic and political elites overlap to a large extent, and the wealthy exert political power. Still, there are some divisions within them. The political elite can be considered as two groups: the elites of the country's periphery - - everything outside Bogot -- and the elites of the center, or capital. The periphery elites can exert great power in their local sphere, while the elites of the center largely determine national policy. For its part, the economic elite can be divided into the modern industrial-financial bourgeoisie and the traditional landowning elite. A superelite has developed since the 1970s, made up of several family-owned economic conglomerates that dominate the business world. The state has lacked effective presence in many areas of the country for much of Colombia's history, allowing local elites to grow powerful and largely autonomous in their regions. Until the mid-20th century, communications were very poor, and the capital was isolated, several days of hard travel away from the coast or the other major cities. Many parts of the country continue to lack basic public services such as electricity and adequate roads. Since independence, the local landowners and ranchers have often maintained private armies and successfully resisted attempts to centralize control and increase taxation. As Nazih Richani puts it, "large landowners, cattle ranchers and the agribusiness elite conspired to resist the growth of state power." As a result, the tax base has remained weak -- Colombia had South America's second smallest tax revenue per capita into the 1990s. Details: InsightCrime.org, 2016. 117p. Source: Internet Resource; Accessed September 2, 2016 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/2016/Colombia_Elites_Organized_Crime Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 140110 |
Author: Urrego, Joaquin A. Title: A Spatial Analysis to Permanent Income as Deterrent of Homicides: the case of Medellin City Summary: This paper studies the relationship between permanent income and homicides, estimating an income-crime elasticity. We assume that this elasticity varies across geographical areas. We estimate different specifications of Spatial Panel Models using information of urban areas in Medellin (Colombia), areas known as communes. Spatial Models consider the importance of location and the type of neighbors of each commune. We simulate an intervention over permanent income in order to estimate the income elasticity for each commune and the average elasticity of income-crime on the city. We provide evidence about spatial dependence between the homicides per commune and their neighbors, and about a relationship between homicides and neighbor's income. In our case of study, the average estimated impact of 1% increase in permanent income in a specific commune produces a decrease in the homicide rate on average in 0.39%. Finally, permanent income plays a crime deterrent role, but also this effect of income on crime varies across the city, showing that some areas are strategically located to this kind of intervention. Details: Medellin, Colombia: Universidad EAFIT, 2016. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Center for Research in Economics and Finance (CIEF), Working Paper : Accessed September 8, 2016 at: https://repository.eafit.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10784/8562/2016_10_Urrego_Joaquin.pdf?sequence=2 Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 140252 |
Author: Rey Marcos, Francisco Title: The Humanitarian Impact of the New Dynamics of the Armed Conflict and Violence Summary: The peace agreement that is expected to be reached between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) will end more than 50 years of armed conflict. It will highlight new opportunities for the country, and also new violence dynamics that are especially present in remote regions of the country and some urban areas. The role of other armed groups besides the FARC-EP, especially post-demobilisation armed groups, is one of the greatest risks facing the consolidation of a peace process. While the peace talks in Havana were still ongoing, these actors reconfigured their operations and have been responsible for serious humanitarian impacts on some communities. Despite seeing improvements in many indicators (e.g. the homicide rate, acts of war, etc.), other more surreptitious activities such as threats, individual displacement, extortion and social control have increased, indicating that the humanitarian situation remains alarming. This should be a priority in post-agreement peace planning, since this type of violence has a more subtle humanitarian impact and there is the danger that it could become invisible. This report analyses these conflict dynamics, their possible evolution during the post-agreement stage, and their humanitarian and social consequences. It also highlights the need to improve monitoring systems and improve protection for affected communities. Details: Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), 2016. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2016 at: http://www.css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/resources/docs/NOREF-humanitarian%20impact%20armed%20violence%20Colombia.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 147919 |
Author: Guarin, Arlen Title: Police Stations for Instant Reaction: A Maximal Homicide Coverage Location Problem Summary: The probability of facing prison is one of the major factors that deters individuals from committing crimes. The degree of impact of this variable is affected both by the severity of penalties, and by the probability of being caught, which largely depends on the level of police coverage in the jurisdiction. Thus, we consider a maximal covering location problem where the objective is to provide maximal coverage of weighted potential homicide spots through the construction of police stations for instant reaction, subject to a budget constraint. Our empirical application is performed in Medellın (Colombia), one of the cities with the highest homicide rate in the World. Specifically , we call the Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API) to estimate average travelling time between police stations and criminal spots, then we use a Simulated Annealing algorithm to find the best feasible allocation of stations subject to a set of suggested budgets. We confirm that the maximum coverage follows a diminishing marginal process over the budget. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Banco de la Republica, 2015. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2016 at: https://repository.eafit.edu.co/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10784/8152/ArlenYahir_GuarinGaleano_2015.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Hot Spots Shelf Number: 140269 |
Author: Cortes, Darwin Title: Economic Shocks and Crime: Evidence from the Crash of Ponzi Schemes Summary: In November 2008, Colombian authorities dismantled a network of Ponzi schemes, making hundreds of thousands of investors lose tens of millions of dollars throughout the country. Using original data on the geographical incidence of the Ponzi schemes, this paper estimates the impact of their break down on crime. We find that the crash of Ponzi schemes differentially exacerbated crime in affected districts. Confirming the intuition of the standard economic model of crime, this effect is only present in places with relatively weak judicial and law enforcement institutions, and with little access to consumption smoothing mechanisms such as microcredit. In addition, we show that, with the exception of economically-motivated felonies such as robbery, violent crime is not affected by the negative shock. Details: Caracas, Venezuela: CAF (Development Bank of Latin America), 2016. Source: Internet Resource: Working papers No. 2016/01: Accessed September 17, 2016 at: http://repository.urosario.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10336/11880/dt185.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 147940 |
Author: Masse, Frederic Title: Due Diligence in Colombia's Gold Supply Chain Summary: The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (hereafter OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Minerals) provides detailed recommendations to help companies respect human rights and avoid contributing to conflict through their mineral purchasing decisions and practices. The Due Diligence Guidance is for use by any company potentially sourcing minerals or metals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas and is global in scope. Colombia adhered to the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Minerals in May 2012. To support implementation efforts by producing countries, the OECD commissioned a baseline assessment of the gold supply chain in Colombia. The aim of the baseline assessment is to analyse the gold mining sector in Colombia and the potential to build responsible mineral supply chains as defined in the Due Diligence Guidance for Minerals. The assessment should furthermore assess stakeholders' awareness of supply chain risks, the Due Diligence Guidance and the level of implementation - if any - of due diligence initiatives and related government initiatives that could be leveraged. The assessment should lead to strategic recommendations on how to advance responsible sourcing in the gold sector in a manner that makes a positive contribution to socioeconomic development of producer countries and communities. The following overview report is the first of a series of baseline assessment and aims to develop an initial approach and analysis for how risks outlined in Annex II of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Minerals are relevant in the Colombian context. The research for this report was undertaken by independent experts in 2015 and is based on previous research, new analysis of secondary sources, and exploratory interviews with key stakeholders in the mining and security sectors in Colombia.3 This initial report will be complemented by five regional case studies (phase II) and a concluding report (phase III) assessing ongoing due diligence and traceability projects and outlining recommendations on how these can be leveraged, improved and scaled up. Details: Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2016. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2016 at: https://mneguidelines.oecd.org/Colombia-gold-supply-chain-overview.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Conflict Minerals Shelf Number: 140534 |
Author: Medina, Carlos Title: Peer Effects and Social Interactions of Crime: The Role of Classmates and Neighbors Summary: We analyze delinquent networks of adolescents and youth in Medellin, Colombia. Particularly, using a very detailed dataset of individuals attending schools during the years 2004 and 2005 and matching this data set with individuals who were captured during the period 2006-2010, we estimate peer effects on the likelihood to become a criminal, for a sample of students attending public schools, using as reference group individuals in their same grade, and also in their same the classroom. We estimate a social interaction model with a network structure, with the presence of endogenous, contextual, correlated and group fixed effects, following the identification strategies proposed by Lee (2007), Lee, Liu and Lin (2010), and Liu and Lee (2010). These methods satisfy the necessary and sufficient conditions for identification mentioned by Bramoull, Djebbari and Fortin (2009). We find that peer effects (endogenous effect) are positive and significant when our socio-matrices, "W", are constructed taking into account neighborhood-classmates and neighborhood-grade information. Details: Bogota: Banco de la Repblica, 2012. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2016 at: http://fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/165.peereffects.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Delinquent Networks Shelf Number: 145081 |
Author: Medina, Carlos Title: The Effect of Adult Criminals' Spillovers On the Likelihood of Youths Becoming Criminals Summary: We use a unique data set at the individual level to estimate an empirical model explaining the probability of young individuals to become criminals as a function of the presence of adult criminals in their neighborhoods, an a complete set of control variables, including census sector fixed effects. We use the census of criminals captured in Medellin between 2000 and 2010 to construct our peer's variables, and find a strong and robust positive effect of the presence of adult criminal neighbors on the probability of becoming criminal. The result is robust across different specifications of the presence of criminals, and with respect to the probability of committing different types of crimes, even controlling for contextual and group effects. Both modeling peer effects as the sum of friends' efforts and modeling them as deviations from the means, affect the likelihood to become criminal, although with differential importance by type of crime. Details: Bogota: Banco de la Republica, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Num. 755: Accessed October 8, 2016 at: http://www.banrep.gov.co/sites/default/files/publicaciones/archivos/be_755.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Juvenile Offenders Shelf Number: 145369 |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: The Risk of Returning Home: Violence and Threats against Displaced People Reclaiming Land in Colombia Summary: Violence associated with Colombia's long-running internal armed conflict has driven more than 4.8 million Colombians from their homes, generating the world's largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Colombian IDPs are estimated to have left behind 6 million hectares of land, much of which armed groups, their allies, and others seized, and continue to hold. In June 2011, President Juan Manuel Santos took an unprecedented step towards addressing this problem by securing passage of the Victims Law, which aims to return land to hundreds of thousands of displaced families over the course of a decade. Despite some notable gains in applying the Victims Law, major obstacles stand in the way of its effective implementation. IDPs who have sought to recover land through this new law and other restitution mechanisms have faced widespread abuses tied to their efforts, including killings, new incidents of forced displacement, and death threats. The Risk of Returning Home - based on a year and a half of field research - details those abuses and assesses the government's response. Human Rights Watch found that crimes targeting IDPs for their restitution efforts almost always go unpunished: prosecutors have not charged a single suspect in any of their investigations into threats against land claimants and leaders. Justice authorities also rarely prosecute the people who originally displaced claimants and stole their land. This is a root cause of the current abuses targeting claimants because those most interested in retaining control of the wrongfully acquired land often remain at large and are more readily able to violently thwart restitution. The failure to significantly curb the power of paramilitary successor groups - which have committed many of the abuses against land claimants - also poses a major threat to restitution. To ensure that IDPs can safely return home, Human Rights Watch recommends that prosecutors work with land restitution authorities to vigorously pursue crimes against claimants in the areas where restitution is being implemented. Unless Colombia delivers justice for current and past abuses against land claimants and makes substantial progress in dismantling paramilitary successor groups, the threats and attacks will continue - and the Santos administration's signature human rights initiative could be fundamentally undermined. Details: New York: HRW, 2013. 192p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 24, 2016 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/colombia0913webwcover.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 131167 |
Author: Fundacion Ideas para la paz Title: Impact evaluation of the national plan for community policing in quadrants: Metropolitan areas of Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cúcuta, Bucaramanga, Pereira and Cartagena Summary: The monitoring and evaluation of the National Plan for Community Policing in Quadrants (PNVCC) by the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP) responded to the National Police’s interest in involving an independent institution in the observation of the strategy’s progress and the identification of ways to improve the plan. Similarly, the Police requested an objective evaluation of the strategy’s impact on crime and misdemeanor rates, and on citizen perceptions of security in the eight metropolitan areas in which the first phase of the PNVCC was implemented: Bogotá, Cali, Barranquilla, Medellín, Cúcuta, Cartagena, Bucaramanga and Pereira. The purpose of this document is to delineate this process and present the results of the monitoring and impact evaluation of the PNVCC in the eight metropolitan police departments that initiated implementation of the strategy in the period from July 2011 to July 2012. The National Police provided crime and misdemeanor information for 25 crimes and 25 misdemeanors over the period 2007 to 2012. The information related to perception and victimization was provided by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, which was involved in the evaluation in its entirety, in particular with respect to the evaluation of the city of Bogotá. The framework in which the evaluation was developed is presented in the first section of this report, taking into account the objectives and goals of the PNVCC as illustrated in institutional documents and revisions. The evaluation examines the adoption of the PNVCC in the technical, operational, and organizational conditions established by the police, and whether or not this implementation impacts crime and misdemeanor rates. Secondly, this report describes the evaluation methodology used to analyze the implementation, impact, and results of the PNVCC. As will be demonstrated, the Police is adopting the PNVCC gradually, as was stipulated in the implementation methodology, resulting in improvements in organizational and criminal indicators during the first year of execution. Finally, the document presents conclusions about the implementation and the impact of the PNVCC, put forth by FIP after the application of the evaluation methodology. It is worth noting that this document does not constitute a definitive evaluation of the police strategy, given that the methodology has not been applied to the full extent planned and should therefore be considered only as a progress update in the development of the methodology and its application. Details: Bogota: The Fundacion, 2012. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Reports Series No. 18: Accessed October 26, 2016 at: s550ee9e7fd146a90.jimcontent.com Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Community Policing Shelf Number: 140857 |
Author: Guarin, Arlen Title: Fast reaction police units in Medellín: A budget-constrained maximal homicide covering location approach Summary: We propose a maximal covering location problem with a budget constraint to determine the optimal location of facilities that provide fast police assistance to homicide hot spots, to mitigate criminal activity in Medellín (Colombia). We use the Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API) to estimate the average traveling times between police units and criminal spots, and impose a budget constraint taking into account the project's costs. Our procedure identifies how the optimal locations for fast reaction police units have a diminishing marginal coverage pattern when subject to loosened budget constraints. Details: Bogota: Central Bank of Colombia, 2015. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 15, 2016 at: http://www.banrep.gov.co/sites/default/files/publicaciones/archivos/be_908.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Analysis Shelf Number: 141162 |
Author: McDermott, Jeremy Title: The "Victory" of the Urabenos: The New Face of Colombian Organized Crime Summary: The mad scramble for criminal power in the aftermath of the demobilization of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) is over. The Urabeños, or as they prefer to call themselves, the "Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia," have won. Following the completion of the AUC demobilization in 2006, more than 30 new criminal groups, known as the "BACRIM” (for the Spanish for criminal bands – “bandas criminales”) were born. Over the last eight years it has been a war to the death between these groups for hegemony. The winners, the Urabeños, are the perfect amalgamation of Colombian organized crime. While they were born from the demobilization of the AUC, much of the Urabeños’ criminal pedigree goes much further back. Many of their members, before joining the paramilitaries, were part of one of the three main Marxist rebel groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) or the People's Liberation Army (EPL). And many others, particularly on the drug trafficking side, can trace their criminal history back to the Medellín Cartel, which pioneered the cocaine trade almost 40 years ago. The Urabeños encompass three generations of criminal expertise, melded into a hybrid structure forged by the current situation in Colombia. Does this mean that Colombian organized crime has come full circle? Ever since Pablo Escobar was killed on a Medellín rooftop in 1993, organized crime has continued to fragment. Yet now, once again, a single criminal syndicate dominates the underworld. The Urabeños, though, are not a hierarchical, integrated criminal organization with a unified and central command structure. As shall be seen in Section 2, where the structure of the BACRIM is defined, Colombia's National Police face a very different challenge than they did with the Medellín Cartel. The success of Colombia's security forces against drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) cannot be underestimated. Under constant pressure, Colombian organized crime has evolved and mutated. The result of this constant evolution is the Urabeños. It is a criminal network, built around a series of units, or "nodes." The basic building block of this network is the "oficina de cobro," a peculiarly Colombian manifestation of organized crime that, as with so many things in the underworld, traces its roots back to the Medellín Cartel. If one node of the structure is taken out, the network simply shifts, with new nodes taking over the roles of their dismantled predecessors. This is true even in the case of command nodes, such as those formerly headed by Urabeños founder Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias "Don Mario," and that of the next leader, Juan de Dios Usuga, alias "Giovanni.” Another result of Colombia's increasingly efficient police force is the phenomenon of criminal migration, or "the cockroach effect." Turn on the lights in a room and the cockroaches run for the dark corners. The lights have been turned on in Colombia, and the criminal cockroaches have, in many cases, moved abroad. While the Mexicans now dominate the traditional cocaine market of the United States, the Colombians have been developing and exploiting new markets. They have targeted not only the European Union, but booming domestic markets far closer to home, those of Latin America's most populous nations: Brazil, Argentina and Colombia itself. As coca crops have been reduced in Colombia, the balloon effect has led to increased drug cultivation in Peru, now the world's top cocaine producer, and in neighboring Bolivia. And at almost every link in the drug chain in these two Andean nations, you will find a Colombian. The Colombians remain the pioneers of the world's drug trade. The Mexican cartels may now overshadow their Colombian counterparts in terms of power and military capacity, but the fragmentation of organized crime in Colombia is being replicated in Mexico. The recent capture of Mexico's so-called Pablo Escobar, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, of the mighty Sinaloa cartel, will simply accelerate this process. As more members of the Urabeños’ central command (its "Estado Mayor" or "board of directors") get taken down, it is likely that the domination exercised by those from Colombia's banana-growing heartland will be eclipsed, and the criminal network that currently exists may take on a different name. The evolution of Colombian organized crime is constant, and will remain so as long as the vast profits are available. Cocaine is no longer the sole, or perhaps even the primary element of the Urabeños’ criminal portfolio. Gold mining, extortion, human trafficking, gambling and prostitution all provide criminal revenues, to name but a few. No longer can the National Police focus its attention solely on the cocaine trade. The Urabeños look for any criminal opportunity, and exploit it swiftly and efficiently. The police must keep up, and in the case of the gold industry, for example, they are trailing behind, hamstrung by the lack of adequate legislation and tools to combat this illegal industry Details: s.l.: InsightCrime, 2014. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 18, 2016 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/2016/The_Victory_of_the_Urabenos.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 141202 |
Author: Munoz-Herrera, Manual Title: Drug Dealing In Bucaramanga: Case Study In A Drug Producing Country Summary: We present a case study of the market of drug dealing in the context of a drug producing country. A main characteristic of a drug producing country is that illegal drugs are more accessible and have dramatically lower prices in the street market compared to countries that do not produce drugs. We locate our study to the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia; the country with the largest production of cocaine in the world. We make use of two sources of primary information (i) direct interviews to drug dealers, and (ii) media analysis of the local newspaper. Our main finding is that individual dealers exchange drugs, without any incentives to integrate and take control of the distribution in the city. That is, the low prices of drugs reduce profit and deter dealers to fight for monopoly, leading to a decentralized market of multiple uni-personal firms who use no violence. Details: Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2014. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 58523: Accessed December 7, 2016 at: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/58523/1/MPRA_paper_58523.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 147951 |
Author: Robinson, James A. Title: The Misery in Colombia Summary: For most of the country's history, the majority of Colombians have been in absolute poverty and plagued by violence and insecurity. I argue that the extent and persistence of poverty and violence in Colombia is a consequence of extractive facets of political institutions. These have two main dimensions; the very low quality of "actually existing democracy"; and the 'Janus-faced' nature of the weak, ine§ective Colombian state. I provide an analysis of the political logic which maintains the extractive aspects of these institutions in place and how they interact with the inclusive aspects of Colombian institutions. I argue that Colombian institutions have become slowly less extractive over time because of elite attempts to counteract some of the internal contradictions of the coexistence of extractive and inclusive institutions. This has resulted in falls in poverty and violence and a gradual modernization of the country. Nevertheless, the powerful forces which have kept Colombia poor and violent remain in place and powerfully reproduce themselves. I outline what a solution to Colombia's problems might look like. Details: Unpublished paper, 2015. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 8, 2016 at: http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jrobinson/files/the_misery_in_colombia.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Inequality Shelf Number: 140355 |
Author: Duarte, Natalia Title: Introduction to trafficking of Gold and Coltan in Colombia Summary: The aim of this document is to present the social, economic and politic background of Colombia, as well as some characteristics of the legal and illegal markets for gold and Coltan. The document has four parts: The first one is a background to relevant characteristics of Colombia, the second part is an introduction to the characteristics of the extraction and trade of Gold in Colombia, the third section is a description of the exploitation and trade of Coltan in Colombia, and the final section includes some conclusions. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Vortex Foundation, 2016. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: The Global Observatory of Transnational Criminal Networks: Research Paper No. 1. VORTEX Working Papers: Accessed January 26, 2017 at: http://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/522e46_fadd5864de324ab0a358b0bef2f642e5.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Conflict Minerals Shelf Number: 140722 |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Title: Violence, Crime and Illegal Arms Trafficking in Colombia Summary: Colombia has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Most of those killings involve firearms. What is the relationship between violence, crime and arms trafficking in Colombia? This report aims to find out. The biggest problem is that in parts of Colombia, the State does not have a monopoly on the use of force. Highly organized criminal structures such as drug trafficking mafias and paramilitary groups are well-armed and dangerous. There are many private security companies, some of which use illegal weapons. Most Colombians who die from bullets do not die through indiscriminate violence. Rather, firearms are being used in the “professional” exercise of violence. The Government therefore has a major challenge to disarm such groups and reduce violence. It also needs to strengthen gun control by increasing penalties for arms trafficking and the illegal carrying of arms. Furthermore it needs to cut the supply of weapons by stopping the illicit trafficking in firearms. As demonstrated in this report, this is a trans-border issue. Weapons and ammunition are being smuggled into Colombia, very often in return for drugs. Regional cooperation and improved border control are essential to cut the links between drug trafficking, organized crime and insurgency. Colombia deserves praise for its regional and international efforts to regulate and control small arms and light weapons. It understands from its bitter experience the need to reduce arms trafficking and that international cooperation, particularly with neighbouring States, is vital. More countriesshould learn from Colombia’s experience. Since 2005 the world has had a powerful instrument against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, namely a Protocol which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Ratification of this protocol is shamefully slow considering the seriousness of the threat posed by illegal weapons. Preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit manufacture and trafficking in firearmsis not an impossible dream. Whereas in the past people have talked about the importance of beating swords into ploughshares, some inspired Colombians are showing the world that you can turn guns into guitars. Colombian musician and peace activist Cesar Lopez has builtseveral "escopetarra" – part rifle (escopeta) and part guitar (guitarra). With more activistslike Mr. Lopez, greater domestic gun control and greater regional and global cooperation, Colombia and the rest of the world will have less guns and more guitars. Details: Bogota: UNODC, 2006. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 27, 2017 at: https://www.unodc.org/pdf/Colombia_Dec06_en.pdf Year: 2006 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 144925 |
Author: Garay-Salamanca, Luis Jorge Title: Illicit Networks Reconfiguring States: Social Network Analysis of Colombian and Mexican Cases Summary: People have often thought that as a rule, criminal gangs confront the State. We have this preconceived notion of the State as a homogeneous entity acting as a block to guarantee law enforcement, and of organized crime, such as drug trafficking, seeking ways to get away with breaking the law. In achieving these two objectives, violence ensues: the State resorts to coercion, and organized crime resorts to bribery, kidnapping, murder, or terrorism. However, research carried out during recent years shows that the history of the relationship between the State and organized crime is not always one of confrontation. Indeed, in some cases the latter has been able to infiltrate and to co-opt some State institutions in order to achieve its unlawful objectives. On the other hand, government officials and politicians, in many cases, get along well with organized crime, taking advantage of its criminal power in order to obtain egoistic, exclusive and morally unlawful benefits to the detriment of public interests. It has been reported around the world that policemen infiltrate gangs, criminal gangs bribe government officials to obtain privileged information, and government officials reach secret agreements with gangs of outlaws. However, the social situations analyzed in this book go beyond the classic stories of bribed policemen, infiltrated gangs, or egoistic government officials. This book analyzes cases in which the State has been infiltrated and manipulated, sometimes resulting from alliances between the organized crime and lawful officials and organizations. These alliances can be observed even at high decision-making levels, affecting the structure and operation of institutions. In previous books, the concept of Co-opted State Reconfiguration (CStR) has been introduced to describe situations in which unlawful groups reach agreements with authorities in order to infiltrate State institutions. This concept was also useful to describe situations in which lawful organizations, such as political movements, groups of individuals as landowners, government officials and politicians, establish alliances with unlawful groups to take advantage of their criminal and violent potential. In both cases, the objective is to manipulate and use legitimate institutions in order to obtain unlawful benefits, or obtain lawful benefits that are socially questionable. In both cases the result goes beyond the economic framework, encompassing objectives of political, criminal, judicial and cultural manipulation, and to gain social legitimacy. The CStR has been defined as a more developed and complex process of State Capture (StC), since in the traditional StC lawful economic groups manipulate law making in order to attain exclusive economic benefits. Against this backdrop, the objective of this book is to go deeper into the conceptual, methodological, and empirical issues of the State Capture (StC) and Co-opted State Reconfiguration (CStR). To fulfill this objective, a conceptual and empirical analysis of specific cases of organized crime in Colombia and Mexico will be made. A methodology identifying when a social situation may be defined as either traditional or systemic corruption, StC or CStR, will be presented, developed, and applied. This methodology will also be used to infer the institutional scope, or the degree of damage that a criminal organization may impinge on informal and formal State institutions. Therefore, the StC and CStR will be the guiding concepts throughout the book. The empirical issues will be developed through the social network analysis (SNA), in which alliances such as the above mentioned are found. The first network analyzed is a Mexican cartel, well known for its extreme violent actions throughout the past decade. The second network analyzed is related to an unlawful paramilitary group operating in a Colombian province called Casanare. This province has been favored for more than two decades with huge amounts of public resources coming from oil royalties. However, most of the province’s budget has been misspent, stolen, or appropriated by lawful agents and outlawed organizations, and diverted for purposes other than providing for the social needs of a poor and backward population. The third network is related to five Colombian provinces in the Atlantic Coast of Colombia: Sucre, Córdoba, Cesar, Atlántico, and Magdalena. In these provinces, the United Self–Defense Forces of Colombia [Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC], the most powerful unlawful paramilitary group that has ever existed in the recent Colombian history, consolidated its unified command at the end of the nineties. This group, with its increase of de facto power, combined violent actions, drug trafficking, and corruption in order to grab large portions of public budget, manipulate elections, and ultimately, get elected to the Colombian Congress. These actions were carried out with the purpose of promoting law making that favors its interests and achieving social legitimacy at the same time. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Metodo Foundation, 2010. 140p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 23, 2017 at: http://media.wix.com/ugd/f53019_f5aa311ed5854d24b2d823f0176e593c.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cartels Shelf Number: 141201 |
Author: Blattman, Christopher Title: Pre-Analysis Plan for "The Impact of Hotspot Policing and Municipal Services on Crime: Experimental Evidence from Bogota" Summary: Hotspots In most cities in the world, crime is highly concentrated in a small number of places. For example, out of 136,984 street segments in Bogotá, Colombia, only 2,970 accounted for all homicides between January 2012 and September 2015.1 Other forms of crime are similarly concentrated. Police usually refer to these areas as crime "hotspots". Hotspots policing Policing strategies and tactics that focus on such areas are commonly referred to as hotspots policing interventions (Weisburd and Telep, 2016). Hotspot policing has become one of the most common and popular approaches to crime reduction. Hotspots policing interventions cover a range of police responses that share a focus on police and enforcement resources on the locations where crime is highly concentrated (Weisburd and Telep, 2016). The specific strategies can be as simple as drastically increasing the dosage of policing time at crime hotspots (e.g. Sherman andWeisburd (1995) in Minneapolis and our case in Bogotá), or more complex strategies such as the three step program (identifying the problem, developing a tailored response and maintaining crime control gains) in Jersey City (Weisburd and Green, 1995). In the past two decades, a series of rigorous evaluations have argued that hotspots policing strategies can be effective in reducing crime. Braga et al. (2012) conduct a systematic review of this literature. They identify 25 tests of hotspots policing in 19 experimental or quasi-experimental eligible studies. 20 cases report significant crime control gains. Along with ongoing evaluations in Medellin (Collazos et al., 2016) and Trinidad and Tobago (Sherman et al., 2014), the Bogotá hotspots policing experiment is one of the first interventions of this type in Latin America, the one with the biggest sample size and the first one specifically addressing the issues of network spillovers from the design stage. "Broken windows" and municipal services Police and scholars have also argued that disorder on the streets, in the form of trash, graffiti, broken windows, and nonfunctional street lights, may promote some forms of criminal behavior – the so-called "broken windows" hypothesis, whose name stems from Wilson and Kelling (1982). The idea is that disorder contributes to an area becoming a hotspot. The economic theory of crime introduced by Becker (1968) argues that increasing the probability of apprehension and punishment prevents criminals from taking part in illegal activities. The broken windows hypothesis reconciles with this theory by introducing the subjective perception of apprehension and punishment that criminals have. This is, the conditions of an environment may carry signals about social norms and enforcement capacity. If it is the case that the environment presents itself as highly disordered, criminals may subjectively believe that police presence and other enforcement efforts are weak at that location. Some experimental studies favor the broken windows hypothesis. For instance, Braga et al. (1999) report significant reductions in crime following a combined treatment of intensive arrests, improvements in the physical environment and provision of social services in a randomized controlled trial at Jersey City. Also, Braga and Bond (2008) conducted an experiment in Lowell, Massachusetts aimed at testing the effect of intensive arrests and environmental interventions. These later included surveillance cameras, lighting and clearance of abandoned buildings. The authors report significant reductions in crime stemming from each of these interventions. Intervention spillovers The success of any of these interventions relies on crime being reduced rather than displaced. Hence measuring spillover effects is essential to any cost-effectiveness analysis. There are two reasons to focus on spillovers, the first being that spillover from treatment to control hotspots would bias the simplest causal estimate on treated areas. Identification of causal effects when conducting randomized controlled trials rests on the Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption, or SUTVA (Rubin, 1990). This implies there should be no interference between experimental units, i.e. potential outcomes for a unit should reflect only its treatment status. However, under the rational approach to crime, it would be sensible for criminals to displace whenever their costs rise under a certain context. In particular, if more police presence increases the expected costs of crime for a criminal at his preferred location, it would be rational for him to displace to another less costly place. Moreover, allocation of police efforts at specific places may imply, ceteris paribus, that efforts at other places are reduced. Previous experiments generally do not directly address this SUTVA violation. Studies as Weisburd and Green (1995); Braga et al. (1999); Braga and Bond (2008); Ratcliffe et al. (2011); Taylor et al. (2011); Telep et al. (2014) assess spillover effects by comparing crime outcomes at catchment areas surrounding treatment and control units (usually with buffers of one or two blocks, or 500 feet). Some studies such as Braga et al. (1999); Braga and Bond (2008); Taylor et al. (2011); Telep et al. (2014) introduce specific hotspot selection criteria aimed at easing the identification of spillover effects. Specifically, they conduct a cleaning process so that a given hotspot is far enough from any other. However, no such process is able to account for the SUTVA violation. For instance, patrols heading to treated hotspots may treat surrounding street segments, so that comparing neighboring areas of treatment units to neighboring areas of control units does not identify spillover effects. The second reason to focus on spillovers is to assess whether hotspot policing simply decreases crime to streets outside the experimental sample, in effect creating new hotspots. The existing evidence suggests that immediate spatial spillovers are low, but besides identification problems and statistical power issues with specific studies, other types of spillovers are poorly identified or ignored. 1.2 Aims The aim of this study is to estimate the direct and indirect (spillover) effects of a large-scale hotspot policing intervention and a large-scale municipal services intervention, and to identify any interaction between the two. Our main focus will be on the effects of the hotspot policing intervention because there may not have been enough time for the municipal services treatment to affect outcomes It is our aim to improve the estimation of direct causal and spillover effects compared to prior studies. In order to do so, it is necessary to model potential outcomes before the intervention begins. For the case of Bogotá, as shown below, we model 16 potential outcomes, according to treatment assignment to both interventions and proximity to treated units. This design allows us to assess whether hotspot policing or municipal services reduce crime in the aggregate or merely displaces crime. Moreover, it allows to identify how large the bias induced by displacement may be in existing impact estimates at hotspots. Details: Unpublished paper, 2016. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2017 at: https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1156 Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Broken Windows Policing Shelf Number: 144492 |
Author: Carlin, Ryan E. Title: Legitimacy Deficits in Colombia's Peace Talks: Elites, Trust, and Support for Transitional Justice Summary: As part of Colombia's transitional justice process, the Colombian government is negotiating with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) to bring peace after 51 years of armed conflict. Negotiations have involved discussions on how FARC members should be held accountable for atrocities committed and what role, if any, FARC commanders and militants may play in the future of Colombia. These discussions culminated in a September 2015 agreement to establish a judicial mechanism, the "Special Peace Jurisdiction," to try those considered responsible for the most serious crimes. In this paper, a Georgia State University (GSU) research team used a two-wave experimental survey to test whether and how trust in Colombia’s negotiating elites affected support for the peace process, and whether levels of support for more or less lenient treatment of FARC members could be affected by contextualizing ex-combatants' experiences within narratives that capture the key negotiation points. Key findings include: Public support for the peace process was predicated on trust in all negotiating elites. Increased public trust in any party to the peace talks, regardless of what atrocities that party committed, increased public support for the peace process, and vice versa—implying that parties need to build trust in all players at the negotiating table to gain public buy-in to the peace process. When asked the abstract question, the public does not accept as legitimate alternative justice outcomes that allow demobilized FARC troops to run for political office or preclude jail time for FARC commanders. However, the legitimacy of these alternative justice outcomes increases when FARC members’ experiences are presented in short stories—implying that negotiators could increase the public legitimacy of alternative justice outcomes by framing the decisions in narratives that contextualize individual perpetrators of specific crimes. Both gender and experience of victimization affect public support of the peace process and of the alternative justice outcomes. Women express less support than men of both the peace process and alternative justice mechanisms, and female victims of violence demand guarantees of non-repetition of crimes against them. FARC victims—men and women—express less support of the peace process than non-victims; however, victims and non-victims show no difference in level of support for alternative justice outcomes. Details: Washington, USAID, 2016. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 28, 2017 at: https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/Legitimacy%20Deficits%20in%20Colombia%27s%20Peace%20Talks--Elites%2C%20Trust%2C%20and%20Support%20for%20Transitional%20Justice%20(2016).pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Shelf Number: 144604 |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: The Day after Tomorrow: Colombia's FARC and the End of the Conflict Summary: As a final peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) nears, negotiators face an elaborate juggling act if they are to lay out a sustainable path for guerrilla fighters to disarm and reintegrate into civilian life. A viable transition architecture not only needs to be credible in the eyes of FARC but must also reassure a society that remains deeply unconvinced of the group's willingness to lay down its arms, cut its links with organised crime and play by the rules of democracy. The failure of disarmament and reintegration would at best delay the implementation of reforms already agreed at the Havana talks since 2012. At worst, it could plunge the entire agreement into a downward spiral of renewed violence and eroding political support. Strong internal and external guarantees are needed to carry the process through a probably tumultuous and volatile period ahead. There is a lot that can go wrong. Most of the 7,000 or so combatants, and three times that number in support networks, are concentrated in peripheral zones with little civilian state presence and infrastructure. Some guerrilla fronts are involved in the drug economy and illegal mining. In most regions FARC operates in proximity to the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second guerrilla group, or other illegal armed groups, exposing its members to security threats and an array of options for rearmament, recruitment and defiance. Major doubts linger about the military's commitment to the peace process, and its readiness to take the steps necessary to end the conflict. Political violence has subsided from the paramilitary heyday but could grow again, and FARC has not forgotten the thousands of killings that decimated the Patriotic Union (UP), a party it created as part of peace talks in the 1980s. And after decades of conflict with a rising civilian toll and negotiation efforts that ended in bitter failure, the parties are feeling their way forward amid deep mutual distrust and strong political opposition. None of these problems has a perfect short-term fix. But the starting position is not all bad. Colombia can tap into three decades of experience in reintegrating members of illegal armed groups and it has more financial and human resources than most post-conflict countries. FARC's command and control structures are in decent shape and guerrilla leaders have a strong interest in a successful transition. The Havana agenda, which alongside the "end of the conflict" includes rural development, political reintegration, transitional justice and the fight against illicit drugs, is, at least on paper, broad enough to embed the reintegration of FARC into a long-term peace-building strategy, particularly focused on the most affected territories. Finally, in sharp contrast to the paramilitary demobilisation, the region and the wider international community are strongly supportive. Negotiators need to agree on a reintegration offer that allows FARC to close ranks behind a transition process riddled with uncertainty and ambiguity. Given its deep-seated distrust toward the state, the best way to achieve this is, probably, to give FARC a stake in reintegration, capitalising on its cohesion. This would minimise the risk that FARC could split over the transition. But the parties must also be aware of and carefully manage the drawbacks to such a solution. To make a collective reintegration model palatable to a society disinclined to be generous to FARC and sceptical of its true intentions, negotiators should agree on strong measures of accountability, over-sight and transparency. They also need to promote local transitional justice to avoid an intensification of communal tensions following the arrival of FARC combatants. Such a long-term reintegration offer would probably facilitate the fraught negotiations over the conditions under which FARC is willing to abandon the conflict early on in the transition. A bilateral ceasefire needs to go into effect immediately after a final accord has been signed. This will require military de-escalation well ahead of that, but a formal ceasefire will only be sustainable once FARC's forces have been concentrated in assembly zones. After the agreement has been ratified, measures for "leaving weapons behind" (or disarmament) should begin. These are irreversible, risky steps, and convincing the guerrillas to take the plunge will not be made easier by the government's refusal to negotiate broader changes to the security forces. But the shared interest in a stable post-conflict period should provide sufficient space to hammer out a workable solution. Alongside security safeguards and interim measures to stabilise territories with FARC presence, this should include early progress in implementing key elements of the peace agreement and the establishment of a joint follow-up committee to ensure that the accords will be honoured after disarmament has been completed. Implementing the agreements will largely be the responsibility of the government and FARC. But in Colombia's sharply polarised environment, international actors will have to play a crucial role. An international, civilian-led mission should be invited to monitor and verify the ceasefire and disarmament. For such monitoring to be successful, the mission needs to have the necessary autonomy from the parties and the technical as well as the political capacity to deal with the predictable setbacks and disputes. Beyond that, international actors should remain engaged by providing high-level implementation guarantees, political support for contentious reforms, including of the security sector, and long-term financial commitment. None of the elements needed to stabilise the immediate post-conflict period is entirely new in the Colombian context, but jointly they will break the mould of previous disarmament and reintegration programs. Flexibility and determination from the negotiators will be needed, alongside renewed government efforts to boost social ownership of the peace process, in particular in conflict regions. Previous transitions have faltered over high levels of violence, public indifference and timid international involvement. A bolder and faster response is needed this time to set Colombia on an irreversible path toward peace. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2014. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 53 ; Accessed April 21, 2017 at: https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/53-the-day-after-tomorrow-colombia-s-farc-and-the-end-of-the-conflict.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: FARC Shelf Number: 145138 |
Author: Tobon, Santiago Title: Condiciones De Reclusion Y Reincidencia: Evidencia De Una Expansion De Cupos Carcelario (Prison Conditions and Recidivism: Evidence from an Expansion in Prison Capacity) Summary: I investigate the causal effect of prison conditions on recidivism by exploring the construction and operation of new prisons in Colombia. Between March 2010 and January 2013 ten new prisons started operation in the Colombian penitentiary system. These prisons, known as third generation prisons, have better infrastructure, lighting and accommodation services, electrical and sanitary networks, and more and better trained security, administrative and rehabilitation personnel. Results based on information from more than 7,000 inmates transferred to the new prisons within the first ten days of operation, show that an increase of one standard deviation in the proportion of time served by an inmate in a third generation prison, is associated with a decrease of 15.8 % in the probability of arrest and re-entry in the year following their release. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics, 2017. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2017-07: Accessed April 22, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2921477 (Article in Spanish) Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Correctional Administration Shelf Number: 145153 |
Author: Buonanno, Paolo Title: Inequality, Crime and the Long Run Legacy of Slavery Summary: This paper investigates the relationship between economic inequality and crime in Colombian municipalities. Following recent scholarly research that suggests that the legacy of slavery is largely manifest in persistent levels of economic inequality, we instrument economic inequality with a census-based measure of the proportion of slaves in each municipality before the abolition of slavery in the 19 century. We also explore the robustness of our estimates to relaxing the exclusion restriction, as the slavery instrument is only plausibly exogenous. We document a strong association between inequality and both violent and property crime rates at the municipal level. Our estimates are robust to including traditional determinants of crime (like population density, the proportion of young males, the average education level, the quality of law enforcement institutions, and the overall economic activity), as well as current ethnic differences and geographic characteristics that may be correlated both with the slave economy and with crime. Details: Caracas: Development Bank of Latin American, 2016. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 2016/17: Accessed May 1, 2017 at: http://scioteca.caf.com/bitstream/handle/123456789/987/BuonannoVargas_CAF_WP.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 145224 |
Author: Beittel, June S. Title: Colombia's Changing Approach to Drug Policy Summary: Colombia is one of the largest producers of cocaine globally, and it also produces heroin bound for the United States. Counter-narcotics policy has long been a key component of the U.S.- Colombian relationship, which some analysts have described as "driven by drugs." Now, Colombia is changing its approach to counter-narcotics policy, which may have implications for the U.S.-Colombian relationship. U.S. concerns about illicit drug production and trafficking in Colombia arose in the 1970s but grew significantly when Colombia became the dominant producer of cocaine in the Andean region in the mid-to-late 1990s. The United States has worked closely with Colombia to eradicate drug crops and combat trafficking. Simultaneously, over the past 17 years, the United States has forged a partnership with Colombia - perhaps its closest bilateral relationship in Latin America - centered on helping Colombia recover its stability following a decades-long internal conflict with insurgencies of left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, whose longevity has been attributed, in part, to their role in the country's illicit drug trade. Between FY2000 and FY2016, the U.S. Congress appropriated more than $10 billion of bilateral foreign assistance to support a Colombian-written strategy known as Plan Colombia and its successor programs. In addition to counter-narcotics, the United States helped support security and development programs designed to stabilize Colombia's security situation and strengthen its democracy. A peace accord between the government of Colombia and the country's main leftist insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was signed in late November 2016 after four years of formal peace talks. The Colombian Congress unanimously ratified the peace accord, which had been revised following the narrow rejection of an earlier accord in a national referendum in October 2016. The final peace agreement addresses important issues, such as illicit crop cultivation - a major source of FARC income-and rural development. According to President Juan Manuel Santos, the peace accord will draw former FARC members into efforts to counter illicit drug production and trafficking. In 2017, as Colombia begins to implement the final peace accord and demobilize the FARC, the country is facing a large increase in cocaine production. During the protracted peace negotiations with the FARC, the Colombian government altered its approach to drug policy. A major change was the decision to end aerial spraying to eradicate coca crops, which had been a central - albeit controversial - feature of U.S.-Colombian counter-drug cooperation for more than two decades. In addition, Colombia's counter-narcotics policies shifted in 2015 to a public health approach under President Santos. The shift was influenced by broader hemispheric trends to reform traditional anti-drug practices in ways that proponents claim can reduce human rights violations. On the supply side, Colombia's new drug policy gives significant attention to expanding alternative development and licit crop substitution while intensifying interdiction efforts. The revised drug policy approach promotes drug-use prevention and treatment for drug users. According to Colombian officials, the public health and prevention dimensions of the revised strategy will be led by Colombia's Health Ministry, in coordination with other agencies. This report examines how Colombia's drug policies have evolved in light of Colombia's peace agreement with the FARC and its changing counter-narcotics policy. It explores both policy and oversight concerns, such as - prospects for reducing coca and poppy cultivation under Colombia's new drug policy and the peace accord with the FARC; - the role of Colombian drug trafficking organizations, including powerful criminal groups containing former paramilitaries, in a post-peace accord environment; - U.S.-Colombian cooperation on counter-narcotics and Colombia's future role in regional anti-drug efforts; and - shifts in U.S. government assistance to support Colombia's revised drug policy and how Colombia's new policy converges with traditional U.S. priorities. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2017. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: R44779: Accessed May 8, 2017 at: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44779.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 145353 |
Author: Haugan, Gregory L. Title: The effect of urban violence on student achievement in Medellin, Colombia Summary: This paper examines the impact of urban violence on the standardized test scores of public school students in Medellin. I use the school-level variation in exposure to local homicides for years 2004-2013 in a model that includes school and year fixed effects, allowing me to control for the endogeneity of violence. I find that each additional homicide per year occurring within 500 meters of a school reduces student achievement by slightly over 0.01 standard deviations on a variety of tested academic subjects. For an average school, this implies dropping from the 50th percentile to the 47th percentile in a typical violent period. The effect does not appear to be driven by bias from student migration, and evidence from differential effects estimates is more consistent with supply-side channels. Examining the causal pathways of the effect, the impact of local violence is shown to induce higher levels of teacher turnover, although this may actually improve the average qualifications of teachers in the school in the long run. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, Department of Economics, 2016. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Serie Documentos Cede, 2016-09; Accessed May 9, 2017 at: https://economia.uniandes.edu.co/components/com_booklibrary/ebooks/dcede2016-09.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Education Outcomes Shelf Number: 145362 |
Author: Camacho, Adriana Title: Drug Consumption in Colombia Summary: This paper examines the evolution of drug use in Colombia over the past years. Our analysis, based on surveys from the Direccion Nacional de Estupefacientes, shows that drug consumption grew substantially between 1996 and 2013. The growth occurred for both genders, all ages, socioeconomic strata and types of occupation. The results also suggest that men of high socioeconomic strata who regularly consume alcohol and cigarettes and who are between 18 and 24 years of age are more likely to use drugs. Finally, the paper presents some indirect evidence that contradicts the alleged effects of the judgment of the Constitutional Court (Sentencia C-221 of May 1994) that decriminalized the personal dose on the consumption of drugs in Colombia. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics, 2016. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2016-36: Accessed May 9,. 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2877199 Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 145363 |
Author: Cuartas, Jorge Title: Parenting, Scarcity and Violence: Theory and Evidence for Colombia Summary: During early childhood, children develop cognitive and socioemotional skills that predict success in multiple socioeconomic dimensions. A large part of the development of these skills depends on the child's context during the first years of life and, in particular, on the quality of parental care. Grounded on recent literature in psychology and behavioral economics, we discuss a theoretical framework for understanding why some children receive adequate care, while others do not. Within this framework, we identify a determinant of the quality of parenting that has not yet been explored in-depth: the availability of parents' mental resources, which are depleted by the subjective feeling of scarcity and the stress generated by adversities. Using cross-sectional data from a household survey in Colombia and administrative data on crime and violence, we find that a greater subjective feeling of scarcity (β=0.45, IC95%:[0.082, 0.979]) and greater exposure to violence (β =0.09, IC90%:[0.004, 0.182]) are associated with a lower likelihood that parents engage in stimulating activities with their children. At the same time, the results show that receiving information on childrearing is correlated with better parental practices (β =-0.48, IC95%:[-0.822, -0.136]). Details: Bogota; Universidad de los Andes Facultad de Economa, 2016. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No.38 2016: Accessed May 10, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2912482). Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Child Abuse and Neglect Shelf Number: 145401 |
Author: Carriazo, Fernando Title: Arborizacion Y Crimen Urbano En Bogota (Trees and Urban Crime in Bogota) Summary: The relationship between vegetation and crime has been the subject of recent research among urban scholars. Using data for developed countries, the literature recognizes that vegetation has a positive effect on human health but it states that it may be positively related to certain type of criminal activities. This study is the first effort to quantify the relationship between planting trees and thefts in an emerging country. Based on census and geo-referenced data of trees in Bogot (Colombia), it is possible to establish that the process of afforestation has a positive effect on the criminality of the city. Specifically, spatial econometric techniques show that the act of planting trees has a negative effect on theft. Details: Bogota: Economics Department at Los Andes University, 2016. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2016-37: Accessed May 10, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2940428 (Full report available in Spanish) Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Environmental Criminology Shelf Number: 135402 |
Author: Gomez, Santiago Title: The Deterrent Effect of Public Surveillance Cameras on Crime Summary: We investigate if there is any effect on crime following the installation of public surveillance cameras. To do so, we benefit from a quasi-experiment that took place in Medellin, Colombia with the installation of 587 cameras between 2013 and 2015. We highlight three main findings. First, there is a statistically significant decline in total crime after the installation of the cameras. On average, total crime reports are 23.5% lower within the coverage zone following the installation of a camera relative to the average baseline level of crime reports. Second, we also find a statistically significant decline in arrests. The magnitude of this effect is 31.5% relative to the average baseline level of arrests. Along with the facts that the monitoring capacity of the system of public surveillance cameras is low and decreased during the installation period, and the two year installation period is unlikely to allow for the public surveillance cameras to be used by the criminal justice system for aggravated sentences, these results suggest that the effect of the surveillance cameras on reported crime are driven by a deterrent effect on potential offenders. Third, we do not find any crime spillover effects after the installation of the cameras nor we see any diffusion of benefits to surrounding places. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics, 2017. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2017-09: Accessed May 12, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2912947 Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cameras Shelf Number: 145450 |
Author: Zambrano, Andres Title: Revealing the preferences of the FARC Summary: Currently the FARC and the Colombian Government are negotiating a peace agreement in the city of Havana in Cuba. Although the results of these talks are uncertain and the final goal of the rebels is not observable, it is possible to analyze their strategy under different scenarios and associate the actions undertaken by the insurgents with their real willingness to cease violence. We model the strategy of an insurgent group that follows a pattern of prolonged popular war but negotiates with the government. The main results of the model are the following: (i) If the marginal probability of signing a peace treaty is significantly low when the guerrilla invests little on non-violent strategies, then they will continue to fight and allocate all its resources on military power. (ii) If the guerrillas value political participation as they value a complete revolution, and the depreciation of its military power is higher than the budget they can allocate; then the optimal strategy is to avoid military confrontation and devote all the resources to sign a peace treaty. (iii) By increasing its military power the government can generate a change in the strategy of the rebels and, particularly, a reduction in the budget allocated to military power. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, 2016. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2016-12: Accessed May 12, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2782161 Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: FARC Shelf Number: 145454 |
Author: Ibanez, Ana Maria Title: Impact of a Judicial System Reform on Police Behavior: Evidence on Juvenile Crime in Colombia Summary: This paper uses a natural experiment to identify the impact of a judicial system reform on police behavior. The study finds that, after a decrease in the severity of judicial punishment imposed on Colombian adolescents, arrest rates for adolescents in most misdemeanor crimes decreased due to a change in police behavior. The magnitude of this effect ranged between 0.08 to 0.321 standard deviations. The uncertainty on how to operate the new system, the lack of training, and the potential disciplinary sanctions led police officials to reduce arrest rates. Nonetheless, police forces learned gradually how to operate within the new system and adjusted their operations, countervailing the initial negative impact on arrest rates. We present suggestive evidence that the reduction in arrest rates and the lower sanctions increased crime incidents in cities with a large proportion of adolescents in their population. Qualitative evidence collected in focus groups with police officials supports the principal quantitative findings and contextualize the obstacles that led to the decrease in arrest rates and the perceived increase of juvenile crime based on the officials' experiences in the streets. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics, 2017. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Documento CEDE No. 2017-17: Accessed May 12, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2931146 Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Juvenile Crime Shelf Number: 145457 |
Author: Montenegro, Santiago Title: Falling Kidnapping Rates and the Expansion of Mobile Phones in Colombia Summary: This paper tries to explain why kidnapping has fallen so dramatically in Colombia during the period 2000-2008. The widely held belief is that the falling kidnapping rates can basically be explained as a consequence of the success of President Alvaro Uribe's democratic security policy. Without providing conclusive alternative explanations, some academic papers have expressed doubts about Uribe's security policy being the main cause of this phenomenon. While we consider the democratic security policy as constituting a necessary condition behind Colombia's falling kidnapping rates, we argue in this paper that a complementary condition underlying this phenomenon has been the significant increase during this period in the speed and quality of communications between potential victims and public security forces. In this sense, the expansion of the mobile phone industry in Colombia implies that there has been a substantial reduction in information asymmetries between kidnappers and targeted citizens. This has led to a higher level of deterrence as well as to higher costs for perpetrating this type of crime. This has resulted in a virtuous circle: improved security allows higher investments in telecommunications around the country, which in turn lead to faster communications between citizens and security forces, which consequently leads to greater security. We introduce a Becker-Ehrlich type supply and demand model for kidnappings. Using regional and departmental data on kidnapping, the police and mobile phones, we show that mobile phone network expansion has expanded the effective coverage of public protection; this, in turn, has led to a spectacular reduction in kidnapping rates. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los AndesFacultad de EconomaCede, 2009.. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2017 at: https://economia.uniandes.edu.co/components/com_booklibrary/ebooks/dcede2009-32.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Rates Shelf Number: 145471 |
Author: Martnez Cuellar, Mariana Title: Is Justice Blind? An Examination of Disparities in Homicide Sentencing in Colombia, 1980-2000 Summary: Evidence has repeatedly shown that disparities in crime sentences can be attributed to certain variables considered outside the legal dimensions of the case. The majority of research that investigates factors that contribute to such disparities has primarily focused on crimes of varying severities adjudicated in the U.S. court system. We expand research on this topic by focusing on disparities in homicide sentences using data from over 9000 homicide cases tried in Colombia from 1980 - 2000. We specifically explore whether judges use substantive rationality when deciding the length of the offender's sentence and if the sentence should be above the legal minimum set for the severity of the crime according to the criminal code under which it is adjudicated. Results reveal that disparities in homicide sentences can be attributed to extra-legal variables such as: the city in which the homicide trial took place, where the body of the victim was retrieved, and whether the defendant was identified by an ID parade. However, we also find evidence that suggests that legal variables such as the defendant's previous criminal record and the aggravating circumstances of the case engender greater differences in sentence outcomes than non-legal variables previously mentioned. Explanations and policy implications are discussed. Details: Bogota: Universidad de los AndesFacultad de EconomaCede, 2008. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed May 15, 2017 at: https://economia.uniandes.edu.co/components/com_booklibrary/ebooks/dcede2008-01.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 145475 |
Author: Bryson, Alyssa Title: Survival cities: adaptive approaches to violence and insecurity on the periphery of Bogota Summary: In Latin America, the most violent and urbanized region of the developing world, violence and insecurity are among the most powerful issues facing cities. In Bogota, Colombia, decades of armed conflict and structural dynamics of urbanization and exclusion act as the stage for pervasive violence in the urban periphery. The insecurity that residents of marginal areas face limits their physical, social, economic, and political mobility in diverse ways that reflect individuals' unique positions in the urban ecosystem. In this context, short- and medium-term responses that allow citizens to mitigate the instability and move forward with their lives are urgently needed. This thesis examines the various manifestations of violence and the spatial, sociopolitical, and economic security strategies that residents adopt to respond to these threats in the Municipality of Soacha, an urban extension of the capital city of Bogota. By critically evaluating the ways in which citizens adapt to their insecure conditions and the implications these have for the city as a whole, the thesis makes a case for considering citizen adaptations on the periphery as the basis for sustainable urban change, calling into question the dominant security and planning paradigms. By looking to resident experiences with violence for cues, planners and policymakers can design more grounded and effective responses to insecurity and exclusion that allow communities to move toward a more integrated and productive urban reality. Details: Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011. 109p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 16, 2017 at: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/66872 Year: 2011 Country: Colombia Keywords: Urban Areas Shelf Number: 145483 |
Author: Niemi, Malin Title: The Coca and the Kidnappings: A Colombian Experience Summary: Colombia differs from the rest of the world due to the amount of kidnappings and coca cultivation taking place. Using data between 1999-2008, this paper studies to what extent and in what direction there exists a causal relationship of coca cultivation on kidnappings. A study that has never been done in the previous published economic literature. A negative relationship would mean that policies implemented to reduce coca cultivation would also increase the number of kidnappings. A positive relationship, on the other hand would reduce the number of kidnappings. Using OLS-, fixed effects- and instrumental variable regressions, the results imply a negative relationship. Meaning implementing policies with the aim of eradicating coca production would come with negative externalities in the form of more kidnappings. Details: Uppsala: Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2013. 49p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 17, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:605244/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 131265 |
Author: Rubio, Mauricio Title: Kidnapping and Armed Conflict in Colombia Summary: The main purpose of this paper is to challenge the notion that kidnapping in Colombia "is just another business". It is argued that, on the contrary, kidnapping has been inextricably linked to armed conflict. The paper is divided in four sections, beginning with a brief history of this activity in Colombia. In the second section the evolution of aggregate rates is analyzed, and two kidnapping booms are highlighted. In the third section three arguments are given to back the idea of a close relation between kidnapping and armed conflict. Emphasis is given to the precarious evidence about bands of common criminals as relevant perpetrators. Concluding remarks address the recent sharp drop in kidnapping rates, and the main issues that require further research. Details: Paper presented at the PRIO Workshop on "techniques of violence in civil war" Oslo August 2004. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 17, 2017 at: https://www.prio.org/Global/upload/CSCW/Violence%20in%20civil%20war/Kidnapping%20and%20armed%20conflict%20in%20Columbia.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 131269 |
Author: Becker, Sarah Title: The Effects of the Drug Cartels on Medellin and the Colombian State Summary: In 2012, Medellin was named "City of the Year" by the Urban Land Institute and became a universal model for a country's comeback from extreme violence. However, twenty years earlier at the height of the drug cartel's power, Medellin, the hub of the cocaine industry, was reported the most dangerous city in the world. The author posits the economic, political, social and physical effects of the cartels are and were profoundly felt by both marginalized and mainstream citizens who came into contact with the consequences of the cartel's actions on a daily basis. However, Medellin is altering its contemporary reputation to one of innovation, creativity, and equity. This paper examines the effects of the drug cartels and international cocaine trade on the Colombian Republic with a focus on Medellin, the nucleus of the industry. It will also address what has been done in Medellin's era of reconstruction to recover from a dark history and create a space free of violence, fear, and uncertainty. Details: Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, 2013. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 18, 2017 at: https://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/handle/10192/25053/BeckerThesis2013.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 131367 |
Author: Londono, Ana Maria Ibanez Title: Abandoning Coffee under the Threat of Violence and the Presence of Illicit Crops. Evidence from Colombia Summary: This paper explores the importance of the risk of violence on the decision making of rural households, using a unique panel data set for Colombian coffee-growers. We identify two channels. First, we examine the direct impact of conflict on agricultural production through the change in the percentage of the farm allocated to coffee. Second, we explore how conflict generates incentives to substitute from legal agricultural production to illegal crops. Following Dercon and Christiaensen (2011), we develop a dynamic consumption model where economic risk and the risk of violence are explicitly included. Theoretical results are tested using a parametric and semi-parametric approach. We find a significant negative effect of the risk of violence and the presence of illegal crops on the decision to continue coffee production and on the percentage of the farm allocated to coffee. Results are robust after controlling for endogeneity bias and after relaxing the normality assumption. Details: Brighton, UK: HiCN Households in Conflict Network, 2013. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: HiCN Working Paper 150: Accessed May 24, 2017 at: http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HiCN-WP-150.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 145750 |
Author: Nelson, Laurence Gabriel Title: The Intersection of Violence and Land Inequality in Modern Colombia Summary: This dissertation examines the emergence and endurance of state-sponsored land reform in Colombia. Despite inadequate results from two previous rounds of land reform, Colombia's current president instituted a bill in 2011 that promised to return land to poor farmers displaced by a forty-year conflict that involved the military, anti-government insurgent groups, paramilitary organizations, and narco-traffickers. During the latter stages of this devastating conflict, 57% of Colombian municipalities saw land inequality increase. Even with two state land reform efforts implemented over the course of the twentieth century, the continued lack of success in diminishing rural inequality in Colombia motivates the research question: what factors contribute to the failure or success of land reform to impact land inequality? Drawing from sociological and political science perspectives on development and inequality, I focus on Colombia as a strategic case study. I utilize (1) longitudinal data set of census and cadastral survey data, (2) interviews with legislators, human rights advocates, and journalists, and (3) analysis of newspaper articles from liberal and conservative newspapers. Political institutions are central to the explanatory framework. I find that the Colombian state failed to consolidate the monopoly of violence during the nineteenth century due to a nexus of geographic and institutional factors, during which time a categorical distinction emerged between landed elites and peasant settlers. In various periods during the twentieth century, civil conflict in Colombia was fought over political affiliation (e.g. during La Violencia), and over relationships profoundly changed by commercial agriculture (e.g. strikes by peasant workers on banana plantations in 1928 and the raids by ANUC in 1971-73). Violence changes relations between social classes on its own, irrespective of the penetration of capitalism into rural areas, and shifts alliances between different factions of elite groups. Colombian elites have at various critical junctures been successful in consolidating de facto power by hiring non-state armed forces, and have bypassed changes to the state's institutions. The dissertation therefore delves into one particular dimension of state capacity - its ability to enforce order - in perpetuating rural inequality. Details: Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles, 2014. 180p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed June 17, 2017 at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/82x4n54c Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Inequality Shelf Number: 146231 |
Author: de Boer, John Title: Criminal Agendas and Peace Negotiations: The Case of Colombia Summary: The objective of this paper is to analyze how criminal agendas were addressed during the peace negotiations between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Government of Colombia (2012-2016) and to highlight key lessons that can be drawn for future application. Key innovations: Illicit and criminal economies, ranging from drug trafficking, illegal mining, kidnapping and extortion have shaped the nature, dynamics and duration of the 52-year long conflict in Colombia. As FARC leadership and representatives from the Colombian Government entered the peace talks in 2012, there was no escaping the need to take into account criminal agendas on the prospects of peace in the country. Negotiators recognized that criminal agendas were a threat to the process but also to the very social fabric of the country and developed key innovations to tackle them, including: - The provision of credible security guarantees to FARC's membership, particularly from criminal organizations. This was key to convincing the FARC to lay down their arms and commit to the peace process; - A paradigm shift in the strategy to combat illicit economies. The negotiators agreed to adopt a public health-based approach to dealing with the problem of illicit drugs and agreed to work together to combat organised crime.The FARC agreed to leverage its criminal insight to combat illicit economies and the government agreed to create viable alternatives to illicit economies for FARC members and local communities; - A shift away from criminal to restorative justice, creating alternative sentencing models that privileged reconciliation over incarceration. The process also found practical ways to distinguish beween politically-motivated crimes and those committed for profit-driven motives. This helped persuade the FARC to open up about its hidden criminal agendas. Challenges and unintended consequences: Despite these innovations, a series of challenges and unintended consequences threatened the viability of the negotiation process and the ultimate agreement: - The threat of dissidence and recidivism among FARC members remained a constant threat throughout the negotiations and continues to be a primary source of pre-occupation for public authorities. Criminal groups continue to lure FARC members into their fold by offering double the stipend that they will receive through disarmament and demobilization; - The lack of state capacity to guarantee the security of FARC members, their families and the communities in which they operated is becoming evident. A worrying number of social leaders have been assassinated and criminal organisations are moving into FARC-controlled territory, leaving populations vulnerable to criminal control; - Since the beginning of the negotiations, coca production has risen dramatically, causing many opposition leaders to question the effectiveness of the peace process and provoking serious questions about the capacity of the state to contain illicit economies. Key recommendations: To tackle these challenges, this paper identifies a series of policy recommendations for both national and international actors supporting the peace process and its implementation. - Cultivate a robust knowledge of criminal agendas today and assess how they will evolve tomorrow: the link between peace negotiations and criminal agendas is a two-way interaction. Criminal actors are great entrepreneurs and have a tremendous capacity to adapt to changing circumstances on the ground. It is essential that public authorities understand the types of new opportunities and governance vacuums that will be created by removing key actors from the criminal market. - Devise new and inclusive strategies to deal with pervasive illicit economies including: providing credible economic opportunities and alternative sources of livelihood, recovering criminal assets and developing options for criminal organizations to transition into the lawful order. Details: Tokyo: University National University Centre for Policy Research, 2017. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: https://i.unu.edu/media/cpr.unu.edu/attachment/2484/Criminal-Agendas-and-Peace-Negotiations-The-Case-of-Colombia.pdf; Accessed June 19, 2017 at: Crime-Conflict Nexus Series No. 6: Accessed Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime-Conflict Nexus Shelf Number: 146263 |
Author: Camacho, Adriana Title: The Externalities of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs on Crime: The of Case Familias en Accion in Bogota Summary: In this paper we examine the indirect effects of the income transfers made under Colombias most important Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program on crime in the urban area of the city of Bogota. More precisely, our paper evaluates the "income effect" of these transfers by exploiting the location of beneficiary households together with the exact date when the transfers are made. In order to do this, the following two sources of information were used: the Sistema de Informacion de Beneficiarios de Familias en Accion (SIFA) and the National Police crime reports. Our results indicate that, through the so-called income effect, the program is responsible for reducing different measures of property crime in the days following the transfers. Specifically, we find that transfers made by the program reduce thefts and vehicle theft by 7.2 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, during the days following the transfers made by Familias en Accion. Details: Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 20, 2017 at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTLACOFFICEOFCE/Resources/870892-1265238560114/ACamacho_Oct_2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Conditional Cash Transfers Shelf Number: 146298 |
Author: Duarte, Natalia Title: Gold Trafficking in Colombia and the Andean Region Summary: The objective of this document is to present relevant descriptive information about gold trafficking with especial emphasis in the Andean region, and Colombia in particular. The information is organized in three parts: (i) Key criminal agents relevant in gold trafficking, (ii) key criminal hotspots referred to origins, routes and destinations of gold trafficking with emphasis on Peru, Colombia and Bolivia, as well as the criminal activities related to this illegal market, and (iii) relevant recent cases covered by the media. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Vortex Foundation, 2017. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: The Global Observatory of Transnational Criminal Networks: Research Paper No. 2; VORTEX Working Papers No. 16: Accessed August 25, 2017 at: http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/522e46_31103280795749c690ad49fff98a42be.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Conflict Minerals Shelf Number: 146901 |
Author: Gutierrez Sanin, Francisco Title: Politics and Security in Three Colombian Cities Summary: This paper discusses the "metropolitan miracle" that has taken place in Colombia since the early 1990s and which consists of the radical improvement of security in two of Colombia's three major cities (Bogota and Medellin) - an improvement that experts considered highly unlikely. This phenomenon has been described, but not explained, and this is the purpose of our paper: to provide a political explanation of the miracle. We suggest here that the explanation lies in politics: coalitions, organisation, and state building. We claim that: a) the metropolitan miracle happened because a new, heterogeneous, governing coalition came to power which had strong enough incentives to disentangle itself from the dynamics of private provision of security; and b) the miracle was more likely to occur in very large cities. In contrast to Europe, where relatively small size can coexist with prosperity, for example via conurbations, in Latin America in general - and in Colombia in particular - only in the metropolis does the middle class have substantial power. Details: London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 2009. 29 pp. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 44 (series 2): Accessed August 29, 2017 at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08b7940f0b652dd000ccc/WP44.2.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Colombia Keywords: Public Safety Shelf Number: 146925 |
Author: Sviatschi, Maria Micaela Title: Making a Narco: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths Summary: This paper shows that exposing children to illegal labor markets makes them more likely to be criminals as adults. I exploit the timing of a large anti-drug policy in Colombia that shifted cocaine production to locations in Peru that were well-suited to growing coca. In these areas, children harvest coca leaves and transport processed cocaine. Using variation across locations, years, and cohorts, combined with administrative data on the universe of individuals in prison in Peru, affected children are 30% more likely to be incarcerated for violent and drug-related crimes as adults. The biggest impacts on adult criminality are seen among children who experienced high coca prices in their early teens, the age when child labor responds the most. No effect is found for individuals that grow up working in places where the coca produced goes primarily to the legal sector, implying that it is the accumulation of human capital specific to the illegal industry that fosters criminal careers. As children involved in the illegal industry learn how to navigate outside the rule of law, they also lose trust in government institutions. However, consistent with a model of parental incentives for human capital investments in children, the rollout of a conditional cash transfer program that encourages schooling mitigates the effects of exposure to illegal industries. Finally, I show how the program can be targeted by taking into account the geographic distribution of coca suitability and spatial spillovers. Overall, this paper takes a first step towards understanding how criminals are formed by unpacking the way in which crime-specific human capital is developed at the expense of formal human capital in "bad locations." Details: New York: Columbia University, 2017. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Job Market Paper: Accessed September 19, 2017 at: http://www.micaelasviatschi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/jmpMMSviatschi.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Child Labor Shelf Number: 147408 |
Author: Blattman, Christopher Title: Pushing Crime Around the Corner? Estimating Experimental Impacts of Large-Scale Security Interventions Summary: Bogota intensified state presence to make high-crime streets safer. We show that spillovers outweighed direct effects on security. We randomly assigned 1,919 "hot spot" streets to eight months of doubled policing, increased municipal services, both, or neither. Spillovers in dense networks cause "fuzzy clustering," and we show valid hypothesis testing requires randomization inference. State presence improved security on hot spots. But data from all streets suggest that intensive policing pushed property crime around the corner, with ambiguous impacts on violent crime. Municipal services had positive but imprecise spillovers. These results contrast with prior studies concluding policing has positive spillovers. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper 23941: Accessed October 16, 2017 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23941.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Crime Analysis Shelf Number: 147683 |
Author: Sanchez, Nelson Camilo Title: Cuentas claras: El papel de la Comision de la Verdad en la develacion de la responsabilidad de empresas en el conflicto armado colombiano Summary: This report examines the relationship between private businesses and paramilitary groups during Colombia's decades-long armed conflict, arguing that a post-conflict truth commission should investigate these potentially criminal dealings. Details: Bogota, Colombia; Dejusticia: 2018. 118p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 16, 2018 at: https://www.dejusticia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Cuentas-Claras.pdf?x54537 Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Economic Crimes Shelf Number: 149492 |
Author: Haugaard, Lisa Title: Breaking the Silence: In Search of Colombia's Disappeared Summary: Colombia has one of the highest levels of forced disappearances in the world. Mention the word "disappearance" in the Latin American context and most people think only about Chile, where 3,000 people were killed or disappeared, or Argentina, where some 30,000 people were disappeared in the "dirty war." Yet new information is emerging that is unveiling the tragic dimensions of Colombia's missing. Little attention has been paid to disappearances in Colombia. This may be simply because the death toll from assassinations, massacres, criminal murders, and battlefield casualties- where there are bodies-is so high that disappearances have remained out of focus. The government's ability to project an image of success has also served to make disappearances, along with other human rights abuses, less visible. That the conflict is still raging makes it hard to bring attention to a crime where the proof is by definition invisible. The Colombian government and international community's response to the problem of disappearances has been delayed and inadequate, even in contrast to the limited programs and legal recourses available to other victims of the conflict. Since 2007, the Colombian government has begun to improve the ways in which disappearances are registered. As new and older cases are entered into a consolidated database, numbers are increasing dramatically by the month. As of November 2010, Colombia's official government statistics list over 51,000 disappearances, a figure that includes missing persons who may be alive, while the Attorney General's office speaks of over 32,000 "forced disappearances." More than 1130 new cases of forced disappearance have been officially registered in the last three years. However, the full total remains unknown. Many cases have yet to be entered in the database, and many disappearances are not registered at all. Earlier claims by associations of families of the disappeared of some 15,000 forced disappearances, far from being an overestimation, now look to have vastly undercounted the tragedy's enormous scope. Details: Washington, DC: Latin America Working Group Education Fund and U.S. Office on Colombia, 2010. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 20, 2018 at: http://lawg.org/storage/documents/Colombia/BreakingTheSilence.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Colombia Keywords: Disappearances Shelf Number: 149527 |
Author: McDermott, Jeremy Title: The Changing Face of Colombian Organized Crime Summary: - Colombian organized crime, that once ran, unchallenged, the world's cocaine trade, today appears to be little more than a supplier to the Mexican cartels. Yet in the last ten years Colombian organized crime has undergone a profound metamorphosis. There are profound differences between the Medellin and Cali cartels and today's BACRIM. - The diminishing returns in moving cocaine to the US and the Mexican domination of this market have led to a rapid adaptation by Colombian groups that have diversified their criminal portfolios to make up the shortfall in cocaine earnings, and are exploiting new markets and diversifying routes to non-US destinations. The development of domestic consumption of cocaine and its derivatives in some Latin American countries has prompted Colombian organized crime to establish permanent presence and structures abroad. - This changes in the dynamics of organized crime in Colombia also changed the structure of the groups involved in it. Today the fundamental unit of the criminal networks that form the BACRIM is the "oficina de cobro", usually a financially self-sufficient node, part of a network that functions like a franchise. In this new scenario, cooperation and negotiation are preferred to violence, which is bad for business. - Colombian organized crime has proven itself not only resilient but extremely quick to adapt to changing conditions. The likelihood is that Colombian organized crime will continue the diversification of its criminal portfolio, but assuming an ever lower, more discrete profile and operating increasingly abroad. Details: Berlin: Friedrich Ebert Sstiftung, 2014. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Perspectivas 9/2014: Accessed April 26, 2018 at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/la-seguridad/11153.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 149898 |
Author: Gomez, Santiago Title: Big brother: Good brother? CCTV systems and crime rates in Medellin-Colombia Summary: We investigate whether there is any effect on crime rates following the installation of public surveillance cameras in the city of Medellin-Colombia. To do so, we benefit from a quasi- experiment that took place in the installation of 366 cameras from April 2013 through October 2014. We highlight three main findings. First, there is a decline in total crime after the installation of the CCTV system. On average, year on year monthly changes in a total crime index are between 0.004 and 0.012 lower (i.e. between 33.3% and 100% of the average total crime index from January 2011 to October 2014 lower) in a street segment following the installation of one camera. This effect seems to be driven mainly by a decline in property crime. Second, we find no significant effects on apprehensions following the installation of surveillance cameras. These results may suggest the main channel for CCTV systems to deter criminals is through the subjective certainty of punishment. Third, we do not find crime displacement effects after the installation of CCTV systems. Instead, we find diffusion of benefits to the street segments surrounding installation sites when we restrict our sample to high crime places. This diffusion of benefits seems to be driven by a reduction in violent crime. Details: Department of Economics, Universidad de los Andes, 2015. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2018 at: https://lacer.lacea.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/52981/lacea2015_cctv_systems_crime_rates.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: CCTV Shelf Number: 150321 |
Author: Guerrero Castro, Javier Enrique Title: Maritime Interdiction in the War on Drugs in Colombia: Practices, Technologies and Technological Innovation Summary: Since the early 1990s, maritime routes have been considered to be the main method used by Colombian smugglers to transport illicit drugs to consumer or transhipment countries. Smugglers purchase off the shelf solutions to transport illicit drugs, such as go-fast boats and communication equipment, but also invest in developing their own artefacts, such as makeshift submersible and semisubmersible artefacts, narcosubmarines. The Colombian Navy has adopted several strategies and adapted several technologies in their attempt to control the flows of illicit drugs. In this research I present an overview of the 'co-evolution' of drug trafficking technologies and the techniques and technologies used by the Colombian Navy to counter the activities of drug smugglers, emphasizing the process of self-building artefacts by smugglers and local responses by the Navy personnel. The diversity of smugglers artefacts are analysed as a result of local knowledge and dispersed peerinnovation. Novel uses of old technologies and practices of interdiction arise as the result of different forms of learning, among them a local form of knowledge 'malicia indigena' (local cunning). The procurement and use of interdiction boats and operational strategies by the Navy are shaped by interaction of two arenas: the arena of practice - the knowledge and experience of local commanders and their perceptions of interdiction events; and, the arena of command, which focuses on producing tangible results in order to reassert the Navy as a capable counterdrug agency. This thesis offers insights from Science and Technology Studies to the understanding of the 'War on Drugs, and in particular the Biography of Artifacts and Practices, perspective that combines historical and to ethnographic methods to engage different moments and locales. Special attention was given to the uneven access to information between different settings and the consequences of this asymmetry both for the research and also for the actors involved in the process. The empirical findings and theoretical insights contribute to understanding drug smuggling and military organisations and Enforcement Agencies in ways that can inform public policies regarding illicit drug control. Details: Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 2017. 345p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 23, 2018 at: https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/22950/Guerrero2017.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Control Shelf Number: 150324 |
Author: Troyano Sanchez, Dora Lucila Title: Coca Industrialization: A Path to Innovation, Development, and Peace in Colombia Summary: For decades, Colombia has faced the challenge of promoting economic development and peace in its coca growing regions while quelling the flow of coca for unlawful purposes. During this time, the country has rarely considered promoting economic development with coca, partly because the national and international conversation has written off coca growers as one of the main drivers of the drug trade. Coca Industrialization: A Path to Innovation, Development, and Peace in Colombia seeks to challenge this perspective, primarily by conceiving of coca as an agricultural product with ample industrialization opportunities that fit within the existing national and international legal arrangements. This report explores coca's diverse potential in applications as varied as nutrition, natural medicine, personal care, and agro-industry-as well as coca's historical cultural uses. The report addresses the following questions regarding this controversial plant and its use in economic ventures: What are the benefits of coca leaf for nutrition? What examples are there in Colombia of initiatives that advance coca industrialization? Is there a legal framework for developing enterprises in Colombia based on coca? What would need to be true to expand the horizons for coca industrialization? The report suggests seeing the coca plant (Erythroxylum spp) as an agricultural product. It proposes building a coca leaf industry that, firstly, guarantees a sound income for farmers; secondly, provides good quality, sustainable raw materials for manufacturers; and, thirdly, ensures traceability, and control across the supply chain, with adherence to international laws. The report is divided into four sections. The first chapter, "What Does the Coca Leaf Offer," considers the coca leaf 's value and uses. It describes the results of a recent bromatological study that explores coca's nutritional value, applying the national regulator's standards for food products. This chapter concludes that coca indeed appears to have significant nutritional potential and offers a research agenda to help fully confirm this hypothesis. The second chapter, "Coca Industrialization Experiences," describes Colombian entrepreneurship surrounding coca leaf. It maps the business initiatives that have sprung up in the gray area of the current normative framework. This chapter briefly reviews Bolivia and Peru's coca leaf markets, and examines how these countries facilitated the development of new products across coca's traditional and modern uses. The third chapter, "The Normative Framework for Colombia," outlines and analyzes the laws and regulations relating to coca. Despite Colombia's political changes, industrializing coca leaf for non-drug uses remains challenging. The current policy framework tolerates a gray area where small businesses can operate, but has failed to define norms that would promote industry growth from farmer to end user. We scan the laws passed since colonial times right up to the State Council ruling issued in the first half of 2015, which widened the narrow legal window that allows coca manufacturing and distribution. The final chapter, "Horizons for Coca Industrialization," offers approaches for building a coca leaf industry around non-narcotic uses. We describe the experience of the National Training Service (SENA) partnership with the southern Cauca village of Lerma. This state-community partnership (which we call the Lerma Model) offers a process to incrementally build the coca leaf industry and gradually reform Colombia's coca control framework. The Lerma Model focuses on advancing community well-being via technological innovations that benefit the entire supply chain. Drawing from experiences in Lerma and the Andean region, we conclude with a proposal that reinforces the Colombian state's rural development policy stemming from the 2016 Peace Agreement framework. This proposal scales the Lerma Model into a social and technology innovation program based on sectoral pilots that accelerate coca industrialization while building a system of local social control. This strategy contributes to a more legitimate and effective drug and rural development policy via a process based on science, innovation, and mutual benefit, which invites all social and political sectors of a polarized country. Details: New York: Open Society Foundations, 2018. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Lessons for Drug Policy Series: Accessed May 25, 2018 at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/path-to-innovation-evelopment-and-peace-in-colombia-en-20180521.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 150368 |
Author: Ramirez, Byron Title: Narco-Submarines: Specially Fabricated Vessels Used for Drug Smuggling Purposes Summary: Narcotics are moving at sea in relatively sophisticated nautical craft beneath the waves - we need to understand their capabilities and intent. This volume is a fine start. For several decades, law enforcement agencies and the militaries in the Western hemisphere have focused on developing strategies that will allow them to thwart the efforts of drug trafficking organizations and mitigate the flow of drugs into our great nation. In close partnership with its allies, the United States has acquired a rich store of experience in activities aimed at disrupting the activities of criminal organizations. In spite of the success of Operation Martillo targeting illicit trafficking routes in coastal waters along the Central American isthmus, the flow of illicit drugs into the United States continues at a high level. Just over 20 years ago, narco-submarines emerged as an alternative method of transporting narcotics. This study is important and relevant to the present challenges faced by law enforcement authorities and militaries as it specifically focuses on these specially fabricated vessels that have been used for drug smuggling purposes. This effort adds value to the existing literature on the subject as it contains several essays which describe the complexity of the challenges that narco-submarines present. The document also provides the background and context behind the emergence of these vessels. Furthermore, the work illustrates the evolution of narco-submarine technology and the advances in their design, features, and technical capabilities. Another important contribution of this paper is the extensive and comprehensive photo gallery, arranged in chronological order, which allows the reader to observe the evolution of narcosubmarine technologies. While this is a volume that will be of general interest to anyone with an interest in global security, the intended readers are military, homeland security, and law enforcement personnel who wish to learn more about these vessels and their respective capabilities. Policymakers and analysts may also find the work useful for understanding the detection and interdiction challenges that these vessels generate. Finally, it is important that we collectively consider the potential of these types of vessels to transport more than just narcotics: the movement of cash, weapons, violent extremists, or, at the darkest end of the spectrum, weapons of mass destruction. Details: U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office, 2015. 164p, Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 19, 2018 at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_facbooks/30/ Year: 2015 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 150583 |
Author: McGovern, Tara Alexandra Title: New Armed Groups in Colombia: The Emergence of the Bacrim in the 21st Century Summary: The 2003-2006 paramilitary demobilization in Colombia created major public policy challenges for the government, including the emergence of new illegal groups (Bacrim or bandas criminales). To date, there is no agreement between the government, academicians, and non-governmental organizations about the nature of these bacrim. The lack of shared understanding inhibits the establishment of a comprehensive plan to combat the bacrim and does a disservice to prior demobilization efforts. If these groups are legitimate participants in the on-going conflict, members will reap economic and legal benefits; otherwise, they will face criminal consequences. In this dissertation, I used an embedded case study of five major bacrim (Las Aguilas Negras, ERPAC, Los Paisas, Los Rastrojos, and Los Urabenos) to examine their origins and leadership, members and structure, ideology and activities, and territory. I developed a comparative framework to identify key characteristics of paramilitary groups, drug trafficking organizations, gangs, and new types of organized crime. I also developed a supporting quantitative analysis of crime statistics and public opinion surveys. The case study revealed heterogeneity across all five groups, calling into question the utility of the umbrella term bacrim. The quantitative research showed a substantial postdemobilization decline in homicides and other violent crimes but steady and/or increasing extortion and corruption. Identifying and ameliorating long-standing social and economic problems, in addition to developing strategies for individual groups, will do more to support peace in Colombia than focusing on short-term homogeneous approaches to the bacrim, such as kingpin removal. Details: Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 2016. 357p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 17, 2018 at: http://ebot.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/10611/McGovern_gmu_0883E_11303.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 151161 |
Author: Hernandez Calderon, Cristian Daniel Title: Los fines de las penas alternativas en los procesos de justicia transicional: el caso colombiano Summary: Transitional justice processes and the alternative penalties that occur in said context, especially in the Colombian case, should have a different purpose to the traditional purposes of punishment. First of all because the judicial processes that are given in transitional justice, have a different treatment to a criminal process Ordinary; and in second place what is sought with the application of a penalty alternative in transitional justice, is to reconstruct the social fabric of a country that is has been severely affected by the conflict. That is why the retributive purposes, or general and specific prevention in their different modalities, although they may become a consequence of the application of an alternative penalty, should not be seen as their ends, but as accessory phenomena, since the ends of the alternative penalties must be directed towards Reconciliation, Reincorporation and Reparation. Details: Bogota, Universidad Santo Tomas, 2017. 98p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 21, 2018 at: http://repository.usta.edu.co/bitstream/handle/11634/1890/Hern%C3%A1ndezdaniel2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Alternatives to Incarceration Shelf Number: 151170 |
Author: Gutierrez Ocampo, David Leonardo Title: El costo social del castigo: Una mirada desde el delito de conservacion y financiacion de plantaciones Summary: Criminal policy is the set of public policy measures that seek to reduce the criminality. One of these measures that is used to counteract this phenomenon is the punishment; This is intended to act as a deterrent to crime. However, the aforementioned purpose implies costs that must be identified when deciding the punishment of a behavior. The Economic Analysis of Law is a tool that contributes in the identification of the social costs incurred by the State in penalizing an action such as conservation or financing of plantations. One of the costs that can be identified is the opportunity cost of punishing an action, that is, how much it loses or earns, social or financially, a State in the punishment of a behavior that has other options that they also contribute in countering this type of actions. In the specific criminal type that is studied in this work, the opportunity cost of punishing this action is identified. In In this sense, it shows the cost that implies that a person enters a prison and also the cost that represents for the State to move this population. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2017. 97p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 29, 2018 at: http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/61355/1/1075249211.2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia Keywords: Costs of Criminal Justice Shelf Number: 150304 |
Author: Nussio, Enzo Title: Deterring delinquents with information: Evidence from a randomized poster campaign in Bogota Summary: In this article, we test whether an isolated information campaign can deter criminals by appealing to their apprehension risk perception. A randomized trial was conducted around 154 high crime housing blocks in Bogota. With support of the Colombian Police, half of the blocks were exposed to a three month poster campaign reporting the number of "arrests around this street block" and half to a no-treatment control condition. The main outcome measure (total registered crime) and secondary outcome measures (calls to the emergency line for thefts and attacks, and minor wrongdoings) were provided by the Police. Additionally, trust in police, security perception, and police performance perception were measured among residents and workers in the treatment and control areas (N = 616) using a post-treatment survey. Measures were analyzed with linear regression analysis and two-sample t-tests. Over the course of the treatment period, premeditated crime was reduced, while spontaneous crime remained unchanged. Overall levels of crime were not significantly altered. Also, a moderate crime reduction is detectable during the first month of the treatment period. The posters were highly visible (93% of respondents in the treated areas recalled them) and positively received (67% "liked" them). Perceptions of security and police among locals improved, though not significantly. Inherent among residents of Bogot is a pervasive feeling of impunity and low trust in authorities, making the city a hard test case for an offender-targeted advertising campaign. Initial reductions of crime and overall reductions of premeditated crime are thus noteworthy. These results align with key principles of apprehension risk updating theory. Details: PLosONE, 33(7): 1-20 Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 30, 2018 at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200593&type=printable Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Delinquency Prevention Shelf Number: 153311 |
Author: Prieto, Carlos Andres Title: Las Bacrim y el crimen organizado en Colombia Summary: This article presents some reflections on organized crime in Colombia, particularly on the risks and challenges that for society pose criminal gangs (Bacrim). From a diagnosis on this phenomenon at present, the author identifies several levels of warning about the existence and functioning of these groups, exposes for each level the State advances in different fronts of action, as well as weaknesses of your strategies and the challenges you will face. Some of the recommendations presented to stop and combat reproduction of these groups and reduce their impact in local contexts and include adequately characterizing the phenomenon, studying its dynamics in terms of organized crime, unify the criteria used to investigate them, and have sufficient resources to strengthen judicial investigation (especially on corruption and money laundering assets) and interagency and intergovernmental coordination, and prevent forced recruitment of children, youth and adolescents, among others. Details: Bogota: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2013. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Paper: Accessed September 12, 2018 at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/la-seguridad/09714.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 151496 |
Author: Rico, Daniel M. Title: The Dimension of International Organized Crime in Colombia: The Bacrim, Routes, and Shelters - La Dimension Internacional del Crimen Organizado en Colombia: Las Bacrim, sus Rutas y Refugios Summary: The dimensions and structures of organized crime in Colombia have been drastically transformed in the last ten years. The clearing part of the paramilitary structures and the advantages of a reintegration process that take several years and I do not include agreements on drug trafficking, it generated a criminal diaspora that incubated the new structures of criminal gangs - more known as Bacrim - initially dedicated to drug trafficking in several regions of Colombia. Since then, around the Bacrim have been generated multiple political, legal debates and to a lesser extent, scholars who argue their similarities and differences vis-a-vis paramilitarism, the challenges that represent the national security and the efficiency of policies public implemented for its containment. However, the understanding and analysis of international dimensions of this generation of criminal organizations have been modest and scarce. Details: Washington, DC: Wilson Center, 2013. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 14, 2018 at: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Daniel%20Rico.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia Keywords: Criminal Gangs Shelf Number: 151543 |
Author: Munoz-Mora, J.C Title: Does Land Titling Matter? The Role of Land Property Rights in Colombia's War on Drugs Summary: The 'war on drugs' has failed. Despite an increase in law enforcement, production levels of coca - the crop used to make cocaine - have hardly altered in the last decade. A 2017 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that coca cultivation in Colombia had increased by 52 per cent; thus, there is an urgent need to find alternative policies to counter illicit behaviour. Research by the Institute of Development Studies found that regions in Colombia with a higher level of land titling, where people who have worked land for many years are given formal ownership of it, witnessed a greater reduction in the area of land used to grow coca Details: London: Institute of Development Studies, 2018. 2p. Source: Internet Resource: IDS Policy Briefing Issue 156: Accessed September 20, 2018 at: https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/does-land-titling-matter-the-role-of-land-property-rights-in-colombias-war-on-drugs/ Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 151594 |
Author: Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo Title: Moving Citizens and Deterring Criminals: Innovation in Public Transport Facilities Summary: This paper explores the relationship between urban public transportation innovation and crime. In 2004, the city of Medellin in Colombia developed an innovative public transportation system based on cable cars (Metrocable) to reach dense, isolated and dangerous neighborhoods. Using Spatial Difference in Difference approaches and a rich dataset at spatial analytical level, using max-p modeling, we explore the effects of the Metrocable on crime and its mechanisms. We find a significant impact on homicides reduction in the treated neighborhoods, especially in the medium run. Homicides decreased around 41% more than the general crime reduction in the city between 2004 and 2006, and by 49% between 2004 and 2012. We explore two mechanisms through which this intervention may affect the level of criminality, one is reducing the travel costs and improving accessibility to the rest of the city for low-income population (socioeconomic mechanism); the other is the increasing of the probability of apprehension for potential and active o enders (deterrent mechanism) Details: Buenos Aires: CAF: Development Bank of Latin America, 2016. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: CAF Working paper No. 2016/15: Accessed October 16, 2018 at: http://www.cedlas-er.org/sites/default/files/aux_files/canavire_duque_urrego.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 152978 |
Author: Blattman, Christopher Title: Place-Based Intervention at Scale: The Direct and Spillover Effects on Policing and City Services on Crime Summary: Cities target police patrols and public services to control crime. What are the direct and spillover effects of such targeted state services? In 2016 the city of Bogota, Colombia, experimented on an unprecedented scale. They randomly assigned 1,919 streets to either eight months of doubled police patrols, greater municipal services, both, or neither. We study how crime responds to intensifying normal state presence in moderate- to high-crime streets, and what this implies about criminal behavior. Scale also brings challenges. Spatial spillovers in dense networks introduce bias and complicate variance estimation through "fuzzy clustering." But a design-based approach and randomization inference produce valid hypothesis tests in such settings. We find that increasing state presence has modest direct impacts, even when focusing on the highest-crime "hot spots." More intense state presence deters more crime. But in most cases, however, crime appears to displace to neighboring streets. Property crimes seem most easily displaced, while violent crimes may not be. One interpretation is that crimes with a more sustained motive are more likely to displace than crimes of passion, which state presence may more permanently deter. Details: Cambridge, MA, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 18, 2018 at: https://www.nber.org/papers/w23941 Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Displacement Shelf Number: 152985 |
Author: Acosta Mejia, Camilo Andres Title: The Cost of Crime and Criminality: Evidence from Colombian Case Summary: One recurrent debate in the literature on crime control is whether increasing the probability of punishment is a more effective deterrent than an increase in the severity of the sanction. From an empirical stance, the results have been mixed, yielding ambiguous conclusions. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to fill this gap in the literature, particularly for the Colombian case. To do this, this work uses a natural policy experiment to estimate how changes in the "costs" associated with criminal activity may influence individuals' decisions to commit a crime. More specifically, through the use of a difference-in-difference approach, this work compares changes in criminal rates before and after introduction of the new Adversarial System of Criminal Justice in Colombia. The results suggest that the individuals are more sensitive to changes in the probability of received punishment than to a variation in the magnitude of the sanction. Details: Colombia: Universidad de Los Andes, 2018. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: November 1, 2018 at: https://lacer.lacea.org/handle/123456789/64686 Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Certainty of Punishment Shelf Number: 153141 |
Author: Escobar, Gipsy Title: Social Disorganization and the Public Level of Crime Control: A Spatial Analysis of Ecological Predictors of Homicide Rates in Bogota, Colombia Summary: Research in the social disorganization tradition has found community disadvantage to be one of the strongest and most consistent macro-level predictors of homicides in urban areas in the United States (Pratt & Cullen 2005). This dissertation empirically tests the applicability of ecological theories of crime to the spatial distribution of homicides in Bogota, Colombia, while proposing alternative measures of social disorganization that are analogous to those used in the American literature but that are more reflective of both social realities and data availability in Colombia. The study used data from several sources including official homicide figures from the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, socio-demographic characteristics from the 2005 census, location of police stations from the Metropolitan Police of Bogota, and presence of criminal groups and illegal markets from interviews with police precinct commanders. The research employed Principal Components Factor Analysis (PCFA) to create ecological constructs, and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) and Spatial Regression Analysis (SRA) to examine patterns of spatial dependence in the outcome and predictor variables. Results provide partial support for social disorganization theory to the extent that concentrated disadvantage, social isolation, and residential mobility positively predict homicide rates above and beyond the effect of the presence of criminal groups and other controls. Only one proxy measure of the public level of control (presence of police) was significant, but its effect was in the opposite direction to what was hypothesized. However, this effect disappeared in the final model once the temporal lag of homicide rates was introduced. The study makes several contributions to the literature including testing the external and construct validity of social disorganization and systemic model of control measures, proposing a mixed-methods approach to get a more nuanced understanding of the spatial distribution of homicide rates, and suggesting policy implications to reduce the effects of disadvantage as potentially effective strategies in preventing violent crime at the neighborhood level. In sum, the study provides some evidence in favor of the usefulness of social disorganization theories to understand violent crime in Latin American cities. Replications in the region will be needed to assess the generalizability of these findings. Details: New York: City University of New York, 2012. 200p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed November 15, 2018 at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2756&context=gc_etds Year: 2012 Country: Colombia Keywords: Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Shelf Number: 153486 |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Recycled Violence: Abuses by FARC Dissident Groups in Tumaco on Colombia's Pacific Coast Summary: In 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a landmark peace accord to halt the atrocities committed in the decades-long armed conflict. The accord brought an overall decrease in abuses. But in many areas of Colombia, hopes that the accord would bring peace were soon frustrated. One such place is Tumaco - a Pacific port, close to the border with Ecuador, where residents have, for many years, endured horrific abuses at the hands of armed groups. Before the peace accord, in 2014, Human Rights Watch documented abuses committed in Tumaco by the FARC. Human Rights Watch returned to Tumaco in June and August of 2018 to determine how much had changed. Recycled Violence describes how flaws in the demobilization of FARC guerrillas-and in their reincorporation into society-helped prompt the formation of FARC dissident groups. These groups kill and disappear those who dare defy them, rape women and girls, recruit children, and have force thousands to flee. In all, Human Rights Watch documented abuses against more than 120 victims since mid-2016. The total number of abuses is much higher. In early 2018, the Colombian government launched a powerful security operation to curb the abuses. Yet the abuses have not halted, the report shows. Authorities have also failed to hold those responsible for the abuses to account and have not provided adequate assistance to victims. The report outlines some steps the Colombian government should take to curb abuses in Tumaco and ensure redress for victims. These include addressing drug trafficking and lack of economic opportunities for Tumaco residents, two factors that enable the groups to thrive, as well increasing the number of prosecutors, judges, and investigators charged with investigating and prosecuting serious abuses in Tumaco. Details: New York: HRW, 2018. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2019 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/colombia1218_web.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Colombia Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 154410 |
Author: Collazos, Daniela Title: Hot Spots Policing in a High Crime Environment: An Experimental Evaluation in Medellin Summary: Abstract Test direct, spillover and aggregate effects of hot spots policing on crime in a high crime environment. Methods: We identified 967 hot spot street segments and randomly assigned 384 to a six-months increase in police patrols. To account for the complications resulting from a large experimental sample in a dense network of streets, we use randomization inference for hypothesis testing. We also use non-experimental streets to test for spillovers onto non-hot spots, and examine aggregate effects citywide. Results: Our results show an improvement in short term security perceptions and a reduction in car thefts, but no direct effects on other crimes or satisfaction with policing services. We see larger effects in the least secure places, especially for short term security perceptions, car thefts and assaults. We find no evidence of crime displacement but rather a decrease in car thefts in nearby hot spots and a decrease in assaults in nearby non-hot spots. We estimate that car thefts decreased citywide by about 11 percent. Conclusions: Our study highlights the importance of context when implementing hot spots policing. What seems to work in the U.S. or even in Bogota is not as responsive in Medellin (and vice versa). Further research -especially outside the U.S. - is needed to understand the role of local crime patterns and police capacity on the effectiveness of hot spots policing. Details: S.L.: 2019. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3316968 Year: 2019 Country: Colombia Keywords: Assaults Shelf Number: 155241 |
Author: Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children Title: Caught in the Crossfire: Displaced Colombians at Risk of Trafficking Summary: More than 40 years of internal armed conflict have ravaged Colombia, leaving hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced and countless others who have suffered violations of their human rights, including human trafficking. The war has been a significant factor leading to the growth in this form of modern day slavery. While difficult to ascertain the scope of the problem, it is estimated 45,000 to 50,000 Colombians are trafficked each year, the majority of them women and children. The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children conducted a fact-finding mission to Ecuador and Colombia to assess the protection and assistance challenges faced by Colombian refugees who have fled into neighboring Ecuador and internally displaced Colombians who have sought refuge inside Colombia. It found that a lack of adequate protection and assistance puts displaced Colombian women and children at grave risk of further human rights abuses, including trafficking. War and persecution create a lawless environment that provides fertile ground for criminal elements to exploit civilians caught in the crossfire. Experts believe that at least 15 percent of trafficked Colombians were first internally displaced within Colombia. Traffickers take advantage of people who are compelled to migrate by the lack of safety and stability in their home communities and who are moving out of fear and desperation. Other factors that fuel trafficking in Colombia are also directly linked to the armed conflict. International criminal rings have a strong presence in Colombia, engaging not only in human trafficking but also other forms of illicit trade, including narco-trafficking and arms trafficking. Colombias economy has suffered because of the war, with an estimated 60-65 percent of Colombians living below the poverty line. Displaced families struggle to support themselves, particularly when the male head of household has been lost in the war. Women and children suffer high levels of sexual violence, including domestic violence. Seeking an escape from such problems, displaced women and children become easy prey for traffickers who lure them with false promises of a new life in a foreign country. The Colombian government has been criticized for its failure to adequately protect citizens who are affected by the armed conflict and forcibly displaced from their homes and communities. While it has enacted laws to protect internally displaced persons (IDPs), it has not made their assistance and protection a priority as it has sought to defeat the insurgency. Rural areas are particularly impacted by the ongoing fighting between government forces, guerrilla forces and the paramilitary. At the same time, Colombia has been recognized for its aggressive anti-trafficking efforts. It has passed comprehensive anti-trafficking laws that address prevention, prosecution and protection of victims as its centerpiece. It has implemented innovative strategies to raise public awareness about trafficking, offered repatriation and reintegration assistance to trafficked persons identified abroad and sought to bring traffickers to justice. In its annual assessment of countries' anti-trafficking efforts, the United States has designated Colombia a Tier 1 country, the highest classification possible, and the only Latin American country to receive such a high rating. Concern remains, however, that these efforts inadequately consider the push factors that put people at risk of trafficking. Trafficked persons cannot be automatically returned to their places of origin if conditions there remain dangerous and unsustainable.... Details: New York: The Author, 2006. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 1, 2019 at: https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/resources/239-refugee-protection/73-caught-in-the-crossfire-displaced-colombians-at-risk-of-trafficking Year: 2006 Country: Colombia Keywords: Arms Trafficking Shelf Number: 113407 |
Author: Torres Quintero, Astrid Title: Colombia - Ninos y ninas con madres y padres encarcelados por delitos de drogas menores no violentos ( 103/5000 Colombia - Children with mothers and fathers imprisoned for minor non-violent drug offenses) Summary: In Colombia, there are currently 115,862 people deprived of their liberty, despite the fact that The capacity of the institutions of confinement is for 79,211 (INPEC, 2018). This situation of overcrowding generates multiple violations of human rights, recognized by the Court Constitutional, that declared an "unconstitutional state of affairs" in prison matters, is say, a serious and massive situation of violation of rights for the private population of the freedom, derived from multiple factors and that, for its improvement, requires actions of all the competent institutions (Constitutional Court of Colombia, 2013 and 2015). However, the recognition of the serious situation suffered by people who are in seclusion does not imply the visibility of other subjects who suffer the impacts of imprisonment, as are families and, especially, children and adolescents (NNA, from now on) whose parents are deprived of freedom, for which reason they are out of focus of attention for making decisions both in terms of prison policy, and in the field of policies aimed at protecting the rights of children and adolescents. In the case of non-violent drug-related crimes, despite the fact that there has been debate over the impact of criminal treatment mainly on the people who carry out the traffic and sale of psychoactive substances, because of the vulnerability that characterizes them, little has been said about their family contexts and the effects they may suffer as a consequence of imprisonment. This invisibility is serious in the Colombian context, where the drug trafficking has especially impacted on family and community relations, not only as a consequence of this activity in itself, but also because of the effect that the hardening of sentences and the premise that they should focus on the use of prison. Therefore, although the vulnerability of persons deprived of their liberty is recognized and, in As a consequence, penal and penitentiary policies are questioned (for example, in terms of use of preventive detention and toughening of sentences in some crimes), these questions do not include analyzes related to the affectations suffered by children and adolescents as a result of the imprisonment of their parents. Several studies allow us to conclude that the populations that suffer the most the consequences of this criminal hardening are those that are in conditions of vulnerability, as women, who usually participate in the stages of transport and sale. However, these investigations do not delve into the effects that deprivation of liberty has on children and adolescents, with the exception of some mentions that are reached as a consequence of the observation of the situation of women who are mothers and are imprisoned. Details: Church World Service, 2018. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2019 at: http://www.cwslac.org/nnapes-pdd/docs/PDD-Colombia.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Colombia Keywords: Children of Inmates Shelf Number: 155873 |