The War on Drugs under Plan Colombia

Daniel Mejía1
Universidad de los Andes
Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
bia, which had two main objectives. The first one was to reduce the production and trafficking of illegal drugs, mainly cocaine, by 50% in six years. The second objective was to improve security conditions by reclaiming the control of large areas that were under the control of illegal armed groups. According to Colombia`s National Planning Department (DNP), the US disbursed about $500 million per year between 2000 and 2008 in subsidies to the Colombian armed forces for its war against illegal drug production and trafficking. The Colombian government, for its part, spent about US$712 million per year during the same period. Together,
these expenses in the military component of Plan Colombia account for about 1.1% of Colombia’s yearly GDP during this period, making this Plan one of the largest interventions ever implemented in drug markets in producer countries. Figure 1 shows the evolution of the amount of resources invested in the military component of Plan Colombia (the US expenses and the Colombian expenses), while Figure 2 shows the three main components of Plan Colombia. The first component is the military component, which aims at reducing illicit narcotics and improving security conditions. The second component has to do with the promotion of social and economic justice, and the third component has to do with the promotion of the rule of law. The social justice and the rule of law components have been growing over time, while the military component has been shrinking. Read Article