Colombia during the 1980s
Starting in the mid 1970s, the infamous Colombian drug cartels were on the rise. They essentially took control of the country during the 1980s and started a turf war amongst themselves, leaving a wake of death and absolute destruction. The Medellín cartel, ran by the infamous Pablo Escobar and the Calí cartel, were the two main cartels warring against each other. In addition to the internal drug war, the Colombian government was trying to destroy these cartels and take back control of their country.
During this time, the government did not have control of their own country. As is common in many third world countries, the government was and still is very corrupt. Politicians and law enforcement would often take bribes or be on the payroll of large cartels. During this time paramilitary groups took the law into their own hands. A paramilitary group is a semi-militarized force whose structure, tactics, and function are similar to those of a professional military but is not part of a government's armed forces.These groups were so fed up with the violence and the kidnapping brought on by the drug cartels and the fact that their government could not do anything to control these criminals, so they decided they would act as the police in their own communities.
The government of Columbia is described as a “Republic”. They have three branches of government and their citizens vote on representatives and elect a president, but in practice their system does not operate as you would think that it does. In name their system sounds similar to that of ours, but it is ridden so deep with corruption that in reality it operates in a very different manner. Those with money could pay to advance their political desires and control who got elected and who was in power. Between 1830 and 1991 they adopted nine different Constitutions. Just an example of the corrupt nature of this government, an article published in 2016, talks about the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos accepting responsibility for government assassinations of thousands of leftist politicians during the height of the internal warfare and drug wars.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC is one of the most notorious paramilitary groups in Colombia. They still operate down their today but were a large force during the drug wars as well. They have also taken responsibility for thousands of murders, assassinations, and kidnappings beginning in the 1980s on through today.
