Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

114 • COLOMBIAN COCAINE CARTELSwhich a bounty of over $1 million was paid to the killer. In 1988the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) thwarted a cartel plan toassassinate Mayor Ed Koch of New York City and the local DrugEnforcement Agency (DEA) chief for their efforts to neutralize cartelmembers there.Second, corruption: The Cali cartel has specialized more in theuse of bribery and corruption, although it also has resorted to murderwhen other means have failed. With the low salaries of judges, policeofficers, and army officers, this is the most cost-effective means ofneutralizing state intervention against the cartel. Through a mixtureof bribery and intimidation, the cartels induced the Colombian Congressto amend its constitution to prohibit extradition of accusedcartel members to the United States. During 1995 the United Statesreceived disturbing reports that the Cali cartel had financed ColombianPresident Ernesto Samper Pizano’s election and had bought offthe judicial system, which imposed short sentences on convictedcartel members while refusing to confiscate or impound the wealthand assets created through the illicit drug trade.Finally, state co-optation: The cartel has managed to penetrate theMinistry of Justice, the National Police and Anti-Narcotics Police,and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and even has gained access toclassified cable traffic of the U.S. embassy in Bogotá. Often DEAagents and Colombian antinarcotics police arrive at remote labs onlyto find that they have been evacuated and most cocaine removed longbefore their arrival, thanks to the intelligence efforts of the cartels.The cartels were willing to pay informants over three times whatthe DEA would offer its informants; moreover, those who were suspectedof being double agents faced cartel retaliation of torture andmurder, whereas the DEA’s sanctions against treacherous informantswere more restrained.There was evidence of collusion, which some have referred to asnarco-terrorism, in the early 1980s between drug traffickers and leftistguerrillas, who shared a common enemy in the Colombian government.This relationship was problematic at best, probably moreon the level of mutual extortion than cooperation. By the late 1980s,the drug traffickers began attacking the leftists in earnest. On 11 October1987 Jaime Pardo Neal, a leader of the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia (FARC)–associated Patriotic Union (UP) Party,was killed by agents of a major drug trafficker. On 22 March 1990