80 A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLOMBIA
Since the end of the National Front in 1974, governments have confronted
ongoing social and economic discontent in different ways. Liberal Julio Cesar
Turbay, elected in 1978, gave the military a free hand in dealing with guerrillas,
union organizers, and community activists — certain army units soon racked up
a negative human rights record which included torture and disappearances. In
1982, a divided Liberal Party was defeated by the Conservative candidate,
Belisario Betancur, who pursued a peace process. During these talks, the FARC
organized a political party, the Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union — UP) as a
means to reenter civil society and the M-19 signed a ceasefire agreement. The
military was upset — after being given a free hand by the Turbay administration
(and watching comrades die in the civil conflict), the army was now ordered to
stay in their barracks. Grafted onto this situation was the explosion in the
cocaine trade — narcotraffickers soon began to fund illegal death squads which
were at least tolerated, when not actively supported, by sectors within the
military.
The illegal drug trade in Colombia began on the Caribbean coast during the
marijuana boom of the 1970s. By the end of the decade, a burgeoning cocaine
trade was developing, based in Medellín. For years high protectionist tariffs had
encouraged contraband smuggling of electrical appliances and other goods; this
trade was managed from the Antioquian capital, which was close to Panama and
the Colombian free trade zone on the island of San Andrés where goods were
purchased. The contrabandists discovered that instead of going empty-handed,
they could trade cocaine. Soon, coca paste was being transported to Colombia
from the coca-producing highlands of Peru and Bolivia, where indigenous people
had been chewing the leaf for centuries. In jungle labs, the paste was combined
with the right chemicals (produced in the U.S.) and made into high quality
cocaine. Established contraband routes expanded further into the U.S. and
Europe, cocaine production skyrocketed, the price of the drug fell (especially in
the form of "crack"), and addiction spread across the developed world.