Word: colombianizing
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...hear the far-off thunder of violent drums. We feel the winds of storms," warned Colombian President Belisario Betancur last week in a chilling speech to government ministers of his Latin American neighbors. His rousing rhetoric referred not to war or natural disaster but to something equally momentous: Latin America's $350 billion debt burden. Since the beginning of the year, the pressure on both the borrowers and the American banks that lent them much of the money has grown sharply. A 2% jump in interest rates has hit Latin countries with a potential increase of $5 billion...
Argentina's complaints about the tough IMF measures failed to earn the country much sympathy last week from Latin neighbors. The nation drew criticism from Colombian Finance Minister Edgar Gutiérrez Castro, whose government lent Argentina $50 million last March. Bankers and international officials attack Argentina's stance as an act of political bravura. Says a World Bank economist: "They are handling the debt the way they were handling the Falklands war. They see themselves as the center of the universe...
Meanwhile, the man most wanted by Colombian authorities is Pablo Escobar, 34, a prime suspect in the Lara killing. Escobar is believed to have united the 15 or so families that control the bulk of Colombia's drug industry into a consortium. This organization, known as the Medellin Mafia, directs most of the nation's narcotics operations, from the processing of coca leaves into paste, much of which is imported from Bolivia and Peru, to the marketing of cocaine and marijuana in the U.S. According to Colombian police, Escobar's personal holdings include at least 15 airplanes...
Escobar allegedly paved the way in the late 1970s for the Colombians' ever growing stake in the U.S. narcotics traffic by unleashing the "Cocaine Cowboys," a squad of brutal, ruthless killers. "The Colombian mafia like to hit you where you hurt most, especially your family," explains Lucho Arango, 29, a Bogotá office worker whose family ran afoul of the mafia. According to Psychologist Gonzalo Amador, mafia enforcers will kill their enemies' wives, children, servants and family friends. They have even been known to kill the family parrot "to keep it from talking," he says...
...Many Colombians doubt whether the government will be able to sustain its crackdown for very long. They fear that once the state of emergency is lifted, the drug traders will be back in business. However, John Phelps, a U.S. drug-enforcement official in Colombia, believes that if the government's war on drug traffickers continues at its present pace, the mafia's ability to mass produce and distribute narcotics will be crippled. Certainly, President Betancur has much of the population behind his efforts to stamp out the drug trade. A Colombian woman may have best expressed the attitude...