The Colombian police do not have a very good opinion of security arrangements just across their country's 4,342 kilometres of borders with Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. In its journal Criminalidad, together with the annual statistics on crime, it has published a special section devoted to border security, in which it says that 'the countries bordering on Colombia are an important bridge for the organisations engaged in drug trafficking, gunrunning, smuggling and crimes against the environment.'
Key findings of the study follow:
-Brazil: Along the border with Brazil, 1,645km of Amazonian jungle, the journal reports gunrunning, drug trafficking and imports of precursor chemicals for the processing of cocaine - all along the many tributaries of the Amazon.
The small town of Tabatinga, just across from Leticia in Colombia's extreme southeastern corner, is identified as 'critical' because it is an operations and transshipment centre for drugs. The study says that at least nine drug-trafficking organisations are based there, of which five have an international reach. In the vicinity of Tabatinga, it says, the Farc guerrillas have found 'the perfect location to establish camps and use the borders to market the drugs produced in Caquetá and Putumayo.' It adds that the Farc also uses the river routes to smuggle weapons into Colombia.
-Ecuador & Peru: Frequent features of the southern borders with Ecuador (586km) and Peru (1,626km) are the felling of forests for drug crops and labs, the capture of wild animals for sale to Brazilian traffickers. In the case of Ecuador, also kidnappings (66 reported in 2002), auto theft and uncontrolled movement of Colombian armed groups -- apart from drug trafficking and gunrunning.
-Panama: In the far northwest, the 266km limit with Panama, which straddles the inhospitable 'Darién Plug', turf wars between Colombian paramilitary groups and the Farc have crossed the border, often resulting in raids on villages and deaths of Panamanian civilians. This is also a conduit for drugs and arms, and illegal logging is rife.
-Venezuela: The porous 2,219 border with Venezuela has allowed Colombian armed organisations to move across with ease, and set up a large 'kidnap' industry. Last year 459 abductions were reported close to the border. According to the report, 40 drug-trafficking organisations based on Colombia's Atlantic coast use Venezuelan routes to ship their products to the US and Europe.
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