CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

96 CAPITALISM’S ACHILLES HEEL
carefully studied and learned from the mistakes of the groups that went before
them. They maintain an extremely low profile, they mix their licit and
illicit businesses, they don’t carry out terrorist acts and they operate in small,
autonomous cells. They are much harder to fight than previous groups because
they are much harder to find.” 91
Today, Colombia is a narco-state. As in Afghanistan, there are four competing
power centers. These include left-wing guerillas, right-wing paramilitary
groups, the Colombian army and police, and the drug traffickers.
Incessant violence has blighted this beautiful country for more than 30
years, and drug dollars brought back from the United States and Europe finance
all sides of the conflict. U.S. policy is, in a nutshell, hard on the producers
and distributors of drugs but soft on the international structures that
facilitate their illegal financial flows. And frankly, the smartest thing the
drug traffickers can do is continue paying for chaos in Colombia, because
out of chaos comes continued freedom of movement for clandestine criminal
groups. Every line snorted in North America and Europe, every $10 for
a dime bag of drugs, produces anguish for someone in this benighted country.
Tax havens, secrecy jurisdictions, and money-laundering schemes make
it worthwhile for everyone involved.
Now, drug lords and guerrillas find it useful to have friends in neighboring
countries. Enter Vladimiro Montesinos, Peruvian spy master, CIA informant,
and world-class thief.
Montesinos’s father, a leftist intellectual, named his son Vladimiro Illych
in honor of Lenin. Entering the army, Montesinos soon became a principal
advisor to the prime minister in Peru’s military government. Young and irritating
to senior officers, he was eventually shifted to a remote posting. But,
having already come to the attention of U.S. embassy officials, he was invited
to Washington and, with forged travel papers, showed up at CIA headquarters
in Langley, Virginia, in 1976. An early U.S. acquaintance enthused
that Montesinos “is a firm friend of the United States, and the results of his
visit will accrue benefits to both nations for many years to come.” 92 But
upon returning to Lima, the unauthorized trip, forged papers, and CIA visit
got him sacked from the army and jailed for a year.
Studying law and qualifying for the bar, Montesinos found his niche defending
Colombian drug dealers and murderous Peruvian army officers,
honing his skills by bribing police, prosecutors, and judges and intimidating
others who remained uncooperative. Accumulating influence, he wormed