The Farc and the Taliban's Connection to Drugs

Summary

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Labrousse explores the nexus between the Afghani Taliban and the Colombian Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the illicit drugs industry and finds important similarities despite the great differences in development and culture that exists between the two. Both armed groups taxed peasants and drug traffickers, both developed exculpatory discourses that justify their participation in the illegal industry, and both ban drug consumption among their members. He concludes that when an armed group claiming to have an ideology but lacking an abundant source of funds confronts the possibility to obtain financing from illicit drug trafficking, it is very likely to do so.

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Extract

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The Farc and the Taliban's Connection to Drugs

INTRODUCTION

The growing association between the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Taliban movement (1994-2001) with drug trafficking does not purport to provide additional arguments to those inclined to demonize these two movements. Instead, it explores the drug links maintained by a Marxist guerrilla and a fundamentalist Islamic group (these groups were chosen because they are greatly dissimilar) and the resulting consequences of these connections. These consequences are complex and raise many questions. For instance, armed groups protect peasants who engage in illicit cultivation for survival reasons in exchange for their support and for the resources needed to carry on the political struggle. In this case, one wonders whether this link between armed groups and the illegal industry necessarily lead them to become involved in the more lucrative drug trafficking business and the increased risks that this implies.

CONFLICTS AND DRUG PRODUCTION

Colombia and Afghanistan are the world's largest producers of cocaine and opiates, respectively. Colombia has occupied this position since the beginning of the 1980s. During the second half of the 1990s, it became the leading producer of coca leaf, the raw material used in the manufacture of coca base. Before this time most coca leaf had been imported from Peru and Bolivia. At the beginning of the 1980s, Afghanistan was the second most important opium [the raw material for heroin] producing country, trailing Myanmar (Burma). Within 10 years, however, it surpassed the latter (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2003), and a significant portion of opium began to be processed into morphine base and heroin in Afghanistan.

Both Colombia and Afghanistan have been hotbeds of conflict and violence for more than 20 years. During that turbulent period, three dis...

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