Fighting drug traffickers isn't the same as fighting guerrilla insurgencies. Fracturing trafficking groups merely creates job opportunities for aspiring drug dealers.
Kevin Young, Foreign Policy in Focus. January 7, 2011.
A few drug lords, politicians, and corporate profiteers benefit, but most of the population suffers from increased poverty, migration, drug production, street crime, and violence.
Phillip S. Smith, Drug War Chronicle. July 16, 2010.
With $7.3 billion spent and 21,000 fighters from all sides and an estimated 14,000 civilians killed, Plan Colombia's positive effects aren't easy to distinguish.
