A report from the Mexican newspaper El Universal said that an avalanche of cocaine will pass through Central America in 2017, due to the effect of pacification in Colombia on drug trafficking activity.
The cocaine from South America will be transferred to Mexico and the United States, as the impact of the peace process in Colombia comes with a rebuilt structure of the link between Mexican cartels and regional mafias with former FARC guerrillas that are still into production and distribution of illegal substances.
More than two years ago I warned that there was a greater production of cocaine in South America and, therefore, there would be more drug trafficking in the area. This was confirmed in Colombia… and it will continue for about three or four years,”
explained Public Security Minister, Gustavo Mata.
Due to the demobilization of the FARC, and the lack of leadership, small groups (of former guerrillas) will emerge with the same mentality… and
they’ll want to run their business separately and everyone would create a system to ship cocaine to the United States or Europe,”
added Mata.
Although most of the cocaine comes from Colombia, the merchandise is also shipped to Central America from Venezuela and Ecuador, which have laboratories and collection centers for the substance processed on Colombian soil.
Attorney General of Costa Rica, Jorge Chavarría, said he supports the process that ends more than 52 years of war in Colombia, but that many former guerrillas will continue in the drug trade business, despite the fact that the peace process (signed on November 24th) involves disarmament and demobilization of thousands of rebels for their social reintegration.
What will happen in the new structures that will naturally form in coca production organizations (in Colombia) that handle the cocaine market in territories occupied by the FARC?”
asked Chavarría. Authorities believe there will be more cases of former guerrillas recruited by drug traffickers in Brazil, as they recently discovered.
The FARC have denied being involved in drug trafficking activities for over 20 years to finance their operations.
Chavarría explained that mafias deliver the drugs to Mexican cartels in Colombia and other South American countries, so that they move the substances in Central America through maritime corridors in the Pacific and Atlantic Seas or by air and land harrows.
For almost half a century, Central America has been the bridge of the constant drug trade from the south to the north. Therefore, the region faces a multifactorial panorama.
Drug traffickers anticipated the impact of the peace process in the producing areas of Colombia and removed the product from South America to store it and “cool it” in Central American vaults, waiting to re-export it to the United States in small quantities, thus avoiding further exposure.
In January, the Colombian government announced it plans to eradicate 100,000 hectares of coca plantations by 2017 to reduce cocaine production. The goal of 2016 was to eradicate 20 thousand and they managed to destroy 17 thousand hectares.