Drugs and Violence in Colombia

During the height of the ‘drugs war’ in Colombia in the 1990’s and into the new millennium, illegal drugs and violence appeared to be synonymous with each other. However, a more detailed analysis of the illegal drugs industry and the violence associated with it, demonstrates that their relationship is far more complex than causality alone. It is certainly not the case of drugs equalling violence, which have in fact became increasingly reinforcing of each other. By deconstructing layers of Colombian society throughout one of the most violent and notorious periods in the nation’s history, including the role government, police, judicial and legal systems, the long running civil war with the Guerrillas, the role of the Paramilitaries and the ‘Dirty War’, and finally ‘ordinary’ criminal violence in rural and urban settings, this book investigates the deeper roots of drugs and violence in Colombia, and deconstructs the norms, narrative and common misconceptions between them.