Language

ELN Finances

How do you define what involvement means? To me even taxing or protecting the producers makes you part of the process and therefore equally culpable as the man who smuggles it over the border.

I never know how accurate any of this information is but below are just a few quotes that attribute drugs as a source of finance for the ELN. I too would have liked to believe they were not. I have always considered them the most political of all the groups. They certainly do seem to be the least involved but they certainly seem to have their hands in the pie......

Dayton Model United Nations Conference (DAYMUNC) lists the following information.

There are numerous terrorist organizations, which participate in narco-terrorism. A few of them are listed as follows:

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian leftist group, raises funds by taxing coca farmers in the Switzerland-sized zone of the country it controls. FARC forces peasant farmers to grow the coca used to make cocaine. It also makes money by protecting cocaine laboratories and clandestine airstrips and by trafficking in drugs locally.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), another Colombian leftist group, taxes growers of marijuana and opium poppies and protects drug-lab operations. However, it generates far less of its funding from drugs than does FARC.

The United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), which includes several right-wing paramilitary groups, gets 70 percent of its income from processing and exporting cocaine. It claims to be leaving the drug business, but experts doubt that all of its members will comply.

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The BBC (still I think the best mainstream news service in the world, but then I'm biased) ran an article on Jan 14 2001 entitled Inside a Cocaine Factory. Although it clearly states that the AUC and FARC were the main offenders it goes on to say;

We sat about for a day until going on to the ELN-controlled San Lorenzo. On the way we passed through an eerie, deserted village called Cuatro Bocas, where 10 villagers had been massacred a week earlier by the paramilitaries. We had seen abundant evidence that both FARC and ELN taxed the cocaine trade, but the ELN denied any involvement.

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Global Security.Org on their website state;

The National Liberation Army (ELN) operates primarily along Colombia's north-eastern border with Venezuela and in central and north-western Colombia. The territories under ELN influence include cannabis and opium poppy growing areas. Some ELN units raise funds through extortion or by protecting laboratory operations. Some ELN units may be independently involved in limited cocaine laboratory operations, but the ELN appears to be much less dependent than the FARC on coca and cocaine profits to fund its operations. The ELN expresses a disdain for illegal drugs, but does take advantage of the profits available where it controls coca producing areas.

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The Council on Foreign Relations state;

How are FARC and ELN funded?
Experts estimate that FARC takes in $200 million to $400 million annually—at least half of its income—from the illegal drug trade. FARC also profits from kidnappings, extortion schemes, and an unofficial “tax” it levies in the countryside for “protection” and social services. Ransom or “protection” payments account for most of ELN’s income, but it has also recently entered the drug trade.

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I agree that 75% of the violence is attributed to the AUC, but do you remember May 2002, when a church was bombed in Choco province killed 117 people, who had taken refuge from the battle raging outside between FARC and the AUC. FARC accepted responsibility.  That's a good stab at depopulation. And still I believe ranks as one of the worst, if not the worst single atrocity.

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