Colombia Drug Gangs Overtake Villages As Families Flee

GlobalPost:

MONTELIBANO, Colombia -- On a November morning, several drug runners sat down at a bar in the quiet hamlet of El Palmar. They had told the bar's owner, Pedro Tapias, who doubled as an operator of the town's boat, not to allow river crossings after 6 p.m.

The armed men demanded music and beer, said several residents. Shortly after 3 p.m., they got up, and pumped Tapias with no fewer than 13 bullets. Then, they slit his throat, turned up the music, locked the door and left town. The song played on. It was a vallenato -- a traditional ballad often about loss and longing.

The next day, Tapias' wife and 16 other families fled. In three months, El Palmar had lost a quarter of its population. "This was a big village, but now many houses are alone," said Marelis Tapias Lopez, a niece of the murdered boat operator.

Across the northern department of Cordoba, residents are leaving en masse as drug gangs murder villagers and issue death threats. Drug violence is growing across the country, and has reached particularly alarming levels in Cordoba.

Read the whole story: GlobalPost

Comments

[drjasonmd]

03:18 PM on 02/20/2011

Billions of dollars in US aid in a country that is virtually under martial law and they can't keep these guys from taking over whole towns?

At what point do you realize that prohibition simply isn't going to work?

[SamKnause]

08:12 PM on 02/19/2011

Punish the banks for laundering drug money.

Arrest CIA agents that are drug runners.

The U.S. needs to stop thrusting its failed and fake "War on Drugs" onto other countries.

Legalize Hemp farming the world over.

Legalize Marijuana the world over.

These steps would solve the majority of problems associated with drugs.

Treat drug abuse as a disease, not a crime.

[1differentdrummer]

05:24 AM on 02/21/2011

Makes sense to me.

[moflard]

11:38 AM on 02/21/2011

Sounds good. Just one problem though. If you arrest every CIA agent dealing drugs won't that leave the CIA a tad under-staff.....

Oh sorry. Yes very very good idea.

[MikeNAustin]

07:40 PM on 02/19/2011

Here's my solution. Tell the U.S. drug dealers they have 30 days notice to find a new job or face really bad outcomes. After 30 days, give them a 1 day trial, 1 day appeal, 3rd day hang them. Publicize all on tv. Try them before 3 judges, if 2 say they're guilty - that's it. Repeat as needed until we are a drug free society. We have absolutely no right to cause the level of misery that we are causing all over the world!

[quillsinister]

10:32 PM on 02/19/2011

That won't work. Prohibition never works. The threat of death didn't stop Al Capone and it won't stop these guys. Legalization is the only thing that will bring down the cartels. We could put them out of business tomorrow, if we wanted to.

[drjasonmd]

03:14 PM on 02/20/2011

You confuse being tough with being effective. Hubris hasn't done anything to resolve the problem to this point. Why do you think more hubris will be any different?

[4Quarters]

09:09 AM on 02/19/2011

This is a picture of how the world will be. Dont think that this anarchy is not coming this way.

[DanSc]

09:12 PM on 02/18/2011

Americans hate this, but not enough to stop using cocaine

[drjasonmd]

03:14 PM on 02/20/2011

Or to end prohibition.

[chitosekoiman]

05:45 PM on 02/18/2011

It's time for the people in these villages to pack up, leave town and head for the capital where they can camp out in the public parks and demand the government protect them. The same would go for people in Mexico. Governments that are not responsive to the needs of its citizens are not fulfilling their duties. Take a hint from Egypt.

[1donewrong]

05:02 PM on 02/18/2011

Drugs aren't the problem is the drug user

[drjasonmd]

03:14 PM on 02/20/2011

The problem is the prohibition.

[1differentdrummer]

05:28 AM on 02/21/2011

I've seen coke addiction up close and personal in a loved one. It's not romantic and exciting and it isn't pretty. However, jail doesn't help that.

[jway]

04:08 PM on 02/18/2011

Marijuana has been repeatedly proven to NOT cause cancer, heart disease, brain damage, liver disease, emphysema, or overdoses, and its addictive potential is about on par with coffee. The DEA is 100% misinformed when it calls marijuana "extremely harmful"!

The marijuana prohibition empowers drug dealers and cartels, and makes our children LESS safe! Because of the failings of the prohibition, our children now have easier access to marijuana than to alcohol! We parents have been patient long enough, we must speak up and demand that marijuana be legally sold to adults in gas stations and supermarkets just as beer and wine are today!

We need laws based on logic, not ideology! We need to Legalize Adult Marijuana Sales!!

[DanSc]

09:12 PM on 02/18/2011

Ok. Until then don't buy illegal weed. Look what that money does.

[drjasonmd]

03:17 PM on 02/20/2011

Have you seen the misery caused by the coltan in your cellphone?

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/kenya/100118/congo-conflict-minerals-mining