International

Membership in International Organizations

The major organizations in which Colombia is a member include: the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, Andean Pact, Caribbean Development Bank, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Group of 3, Group of 11, Group of 24, Group of 77, Inter-American Development Bank, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Chamber of Commerce, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), International Development Association, International Finance Corporation, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Labor Organisation, International Maritime Organization, International Maritime Satellite Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Olympic Committee, International Organization for Migration, International Organization for Standardization, International Telecommunication Union, International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, Latin American Economic System, Latin American Integration Association, Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of American States, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Rio Group, United Nations, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Universal Postal Union, World Confederation of Labor, World Federation Of Trade Unions, World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Meteorological Organization, World Tourism Organization, and World Trade Organization.

Major International Agreements and Treaties

Defense treaties to which Colombia is a party include the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance of 1947 (the Rio Treaty). Regional treaties include the Andean Pact, now known as the Andean Community, which also includes Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and the bodies and institutions making up the Andean Integration System (AIS). Colombia has also signed, adhered to, and ratified 105 international treaties or agreements relating to the environment. These include the Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, and Wetlands conventions or agreements. Colombia has signed, but not ratified, the Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Law of the Sea, and Marine Dumping. Colombia is a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and is also a party to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (the Tlatelolco Treaty). By 1975 signatories to the 1974 Declaration of Ayacucho, including Colombia, had decided on limitations to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

Narcotics Production and Trafficking

Other than kidnapping and extortion, the principal activities of organized crime and the armed groups in Colombia are narcotics production and trafficking, mainly of cocaine and heroin, and these activities also have involved the guerrilla and paramilitary forces. Trafficking in processed cocaine and other illicit drugs accounts for more than US$5 billion a year and represents between 2.0 percent and 2.5 percent of gross domestic product a year. Only an estimated half of these illicit revenues return to Colombia. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—FARC) and the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional—ELN) control all aspects of the drug trade in their areas of influence. For example, they levy taxes at all levels of the narcotics production chain. Since 2004 many Colombian drug traffickers have been joining or buying their way into the paramilitary militias in order to qualify for an immunity program.

Latin America’s largest exporter of illegal drugs, Colombia is the world’s leading coca cultivator and supplier of refined cocaine. More than 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States is produced, processed, or transshipped in Colombia. The country is also a growing source for heroin. Although opium poppy cultivation fell 50 percent to 2,100 hectares between 2003 and 2004, it yielded a potential 3.8 metric tons of pure heroin, mostly for the U.S. market. Despite tactical successes (such as the dismantling of the big cartels in the 1980s), large amounts of U.S. military and financial support for the government’s war on drugs, and an active aerial eradication program, coca cultivation more than doubled between 1995 and 1999. Increased aerial spraying under Plan Colombia reduced the coca-growing area under cultivation by one-half between 2001 and 2004, but aggressive replanting allowed this area to expand in 2005. As much coca reportedly was being cultivated in Colombia in 2006 as when aerial spraying of the drug crop began in 2000. Coca cultivating simply has been redistributed into smaller, harder-to-reach crops. For these reasons, an investigative report published in the New York Times in August 2006 described the US$4.7 billion Plan Colombia as a failure, pointing out that, despite counternarcotics efforts since the mid-1980s, the supply of cocaine on U.S. streets has remained virtually unchanged, prices have fallen, and purity has increased.

Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Colombia, February 2007