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FACTORS AND REASONS FOR COLOMBIA'S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN WORLDWIDE DRUG TRAFFICKING |
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WHAT GIVES THEM THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE??? The way in which Colombians produce and export cocaine and the factors that allow them to continue being the worlds largest exporter all add up to one thing. That one thing is, Colombia has a competitive advantage in the producing and distributing of cocaine. There are many involved in creating this competitive advantage. The sum total of all the factors equates to the fact that Colombia offers the lowest risk for the industry. The important components that make Colombia the lowest risk nation are:
Many other countries have some or all of these factors however they don't mesh the Colombia's do.
ILLEGITIMACY OF THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT...
Politics in Colombia are very very corrupt. When people throughout Colombia began migrating to the urban cities, they realized that they could break laws and get away with it. This trend continued and caused people to reject the government rule. Citizens began forming their own groups that accepted this type of lawless behavior. The more people saw others breaking the law and getting away with it, the more people followed, and the government became less and less legitimate. Colombians began entering into what one author called a "dishonesty trap." "This trap occurs when the situation in which it is legitimate to break many laws, in which the costs and risks of doing so are extremely low or zero and the benefits very high."(Thoumi,1995) All this dishonesty and mistrust of the government paved the way for the drug lords to do whatever they wanted, and to bribe whom ever they wanted. The acceptance of the drug dealers trade as not being that bad was a huge part of the kingpins success, if the all the public had completely frowned upon the trade then it wouldnt have inspired so many people to want to become drug lords. Other countries have governments that the people don't trust or believe in, however Colombia's government was really never accepted since its creation around 1940. Two political parties waged war against each other from the very begining of the country of Colombia, this caused people to really start forming their own constitutions and beliefs from the time the country was first formed. Through these beliefs Colombians started forming groups based upon certain beliefs. These groups would formed in villages and they would also take out their own justice on those that they feel were violators. This cause the people to start depending on themselves instead of the government, which of course led less support and patronage to the government.
LA VIOLENCIA... The waring political parties and the forming groups to protect or take justice into their own hands leads to another component of Colombias' competitive advantage in drug trafficking. The violence caused by the warring political parties and citizens against each other lead to around 200,000 to 300,000 people being killed. This in turn eventually desensitized the Colombian people to most kinds of violence. All this desensitizing of violence helps the drug cartels deal with unruly coca producers, gives a reason why citizens don't think it a big deal when the local justice or judge disappears and later is found to have been murdered, or even why if a political figure is assassinated the public doesn't think too much of it. As a matter of fact the violence in Colombia is so bad that the greatest cause of death for males ages 15-40 is homicide. This homicide rate is third in the world! LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION... Colombia provides the US with around 80% of the cocaine that comes into the US. Colombia is in the ideal location to be the major supplier of cocaine and other illicit drugs to the US. It is surrounded by countries that grow vast amounts of coca plants and also by governments that are friendly towards drug dealers. Colombia has access to the coast on its western side and it has vast amounts of rain forests that can conceal huge factories that turn coca paste into cocaine. DEVISING STRATEGIES AND AVOIDING LAW ENFORCEMENT... The illegal drug industry's structure was originally based on the exporting of illegal goods such as coffee and emeralds. The illegal mining of emeralds is really what helped the drug lords base how to manage the networks and build a structure of distributing the drugs, as well as intimidate people through violence. Some of the technology and routes used to evade law enforcement were already established by these other illegal exporting enterprises. As a matter of fact some of the illegal emerald leaders moved into the illegal drug industry. The most famous was Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, who later became one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel. With this type of beforehand knowledge and the creativity of developing new ways evading authorities the Colombians soon came to dominate the illegal drug exporting industry. |
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| Here is an informative link as to how Colombia has a Competitive Advantage: | ||
| --an overall view of drug trafficking: | ||
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| REFERENCES:
Thoumi, Francisco E. (1995). Political Econonmy & Illegal Drugs in Colombia. Colorado: Lynne Rienner George, Susan (1992). The Debt Boomerang. San Francisco: Westview Press Scott, Peter D. & Marshall, Johnathan (1991). Cocaine Politics. Los Angeles: University of California Press Gootenberg, Paul (1999). Cocaine; Global Histories. New York: Routledge
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