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The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Ochoa Vázquez brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David, and Fabio together with Pablo Escobar and José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha. By 1993, the highly effective resistance group Los Pepes and the Colombian government, in collaboration with the Cali Cartel, right-wing paramilitary groups, and the United States government, had successfully dismantled the cartel by imprisoning or assassinating its members. At the height of its operations, it smuggled tons of cocaine each week into countries all over the world and brought in at least $420,000,000 per week. For a time the Medellin Cartel supplied at least 84%-90% of the United States and 80% of the global cocaine market. == History == In the late 1970s, the illegal cocaine trade took off and became a major source of profit. By 1982, cocaine surpassed coffee as an export, making up 30% of all Colombian exports. Many members of the new class of wealthy drug lords began purchasing enormous quantities of land, in order to launder their drug money, and to gain social status amongst the traditional Colombian elite. By the late 1980s, drug traffickers were the largest landholders in Colombia and wielded immense political power. They used much of their land for grazing cattle, or left it completely idle as a show of wealth. They also raised private armies to fight off guerrillas who were trying to either redistribute their lands to local peasants, kidnap them, or extort the ''gramaje'' money FARC attempted to steal. 〔Brittain, 2010: pp. 129–131〕 At the end of 1981 and the beginning of 1982, members of the Medellín Cartel, the Colombian military, the U.S.-based corporation Texas Petroleum, the Colombian legislature, small industrialists, and wealthy cattle ranchers came together in a series of meetings in Puerto Boyacá, and formed a paramilitary organization known as ''Muerte a Secuestradores'' ("Death to Kidnappers", MAS) to defend their economic interests, and to provide protection for local elites from kidnappings and extortion.〔HRW, 1996: ("II. History of the Military-Paramilitary Partnership" )〕〔Richani, 2002: p.38〕〔Hristov, 2009: (pp. 65-68 )〕 By 1983, Colombian internal affairs had registered 240 political killings by MAS death squads, mostly community leaders, elected officials, and farmers.〔Santina, Peter "Army of terror", Harvard International Review, Winter 1998/1999, Vol. 21, Issue 1〕 The following year, the ''Asociación Campesina de Ganaderos y Agricultores del Magdalena Medio'' ("Association of Middle Magdalena Ranchers and Farmers", ACDEGAM) was created to handle both the logistics and the public relations of the organization, and to provide a legal front for various paramilitary groups. ACDEGAM worked to promote anti-labor policies, and threatened anyone involved with organizing for labor or peasants' rights. The threats were backed up by the MAS, which would come in and attack or assassinate anyone who was suspected of being a "subversive".〔 ACDEGAM also built schools whose stated purpose was the creation of a "patriotic and anti-Communist" educational environment, and built roads, bridges, and health clinics. Paramilitary recruiting, weapons storage, communications, propaganda, and medical services were all run out of ACDEGAM headquarters.〔 〔Pearce, Jenny (May 1, 1990). 1st. ed. ''Colombia:Inside the Labyrinth''. London: Latin America Bureau. p. 247. ISBN 0-906156-44-0〕 By the mid-1980s ACDEGAM and MAS had experienced significant growth. In 1985, the powerful drug traffickers Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Carlos Lehder, and Juan Matta-Ballesteros began funneling large amounts of cash into the organization to pay for weaponry, equipment and training. Money for social projects was cut off, and was put towards strengthening the MAS. Modern battle rifles such as the Galil, HK G3, FN FAL, and AKM were purchased from the military and INDUMIL and through drug-funded private sales. The organization had computers and ran a communications center that worked in coordination with the state telecommunications office. They had thirty pilots, and an assortment of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. U.S., Israeli, and British military instructors were hired to teach at paramilitary training centers. 〔〔〔〔〔''Democracy Now!'', (Who Is Israel's Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone? ), June 1, 2000.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Medellín Cartel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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