For decades, Colombia has borne the burden of America’s foreign drug policy. The public imagination has long been associated with the legacy of narco-trafficking violence perpetrated by Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel, and the Cali Cartel. The history, largely fictionalized, has been immortalized in recent years by Netflix’s hit show, Narcos.
As Narcos depicts, Colombian politicians were often targets for cartel violence as they posed a threat to the big business of international drug trafficking and had their finger on the trigger with respect to the extradition policy. Today, Colombia is charting a new path for reform that may very well serve as a shining example of successful drug policy on the global stage.
