HomeNewsBriefColombia Never a 'Narco-Economy': Academic
BRIEF

Colombia Never a 'Narco-Economy': Academic

COLOMBIA / 16 MAY 2011 BY INSIGHT CRIME EN

Drug trafficking has made only a minor contribution to Colombia's economy, according to one Bogota academic, who says the illegal trade has never constituted more than four percent of the country's GDP.

Alejandro Gaviria, dean of the economics department at the Universidad de los Andes, spoke to La Silla Vacia about a new book he has co-edited, "Anti-drug Policies in Colombia: Successes, Failures, and Follies."

According to Gaviria, the country has never been a "narco-economy," and the drug trafficking business now makes up only some 2.5 percent of Colombia's GDP. However, he says that the narcotics trade is a business which puts large revenues in the hands of a small group of people, giving them the power to corrupt institutions and infiltrate politics, as happened in the 1990s.

The dean criticized those who use the drug trade to explain economic phenomena, stating that it has been fairly constant throughout the years and so cannot be used to understand short-term events like recessions or exchange rate fluctuations.

Gaviria also had criticism for the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia, saying that it limits the Bogota's autonomy in anti-drug efforts, especially at a time when the drug problem is increasingly a regional issue: "The geography of the business is changing. It is no longer a Colombian problem: its a problem of all the region, of Mexico, the Central American countries, of Argentina, of Brazil."

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCA / 22 AUG 2022

Narco ambulances in Colombia aren't new, but a recent rash of discoveries suggests that they are back in vogue with…

COLOMBIA / 4 AUG 2022

A local gang targeted bus drivers in Barranquilla, Colombia, to gain attention ahead of the country's change in government.

COLOMBIA / 14 JUN 2022

The Colombian army has killed two more important dissident FARC leaders in the north and the west of the country.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…