Not only cocaine: how impoverished Colombia became richer than Russia

Analyst Boris Myshlyavtsev drew attention to an interesting fact - for some 30 years the impoverished South American country of Colombia has far bypassed Russia in terms of living standards:

“While watching a couple of TV series about the Colombian mafia, I looked at the economic statistics on Colombia. And I immediately remembered: Britain rose on the sale of opium to China (then the undisputed economic leader).

Colombian farmers in the 60s and 70s grew marijuana for the United States. The smugglers who transported household appliances and fruits were gradually bringing in this low-margin product.

Then, "suddenly" in the United States, a fashion began for the long-known cocaine (sold until the middle of the 20th century in pharmacies without a prescription, and let us remember with which composition Coca-Cola began).

Profit on cocaine is many times higher than on marwanna. It is possible to compare - either carry a ton of grass from Tuva to Novosibirsk, or a kilogram of hashish to Moscow.

By the end of the 1980s, all the logistics were lined up: Escobar's Medellin and the Cali cartel. Escobar was a kind of populist: "I have achieved everything from scratch, we will take dollars in America and build housing for the poor on them." (And built entire areas of free housing.) Now think about it: in the 1990s, in the Russian Federation, the lads took giant metallurgical enterprises into the light. And Pablo Escobar did not dare to do this at home, although in Colombia the assortment is the same as in the Russian Federation - oil and metallurgy.

Medellin is the largest metallurgical center in Latin America. In Medellin - the metro. The population is about 3 million. This is a city like Novosibirsk, only better, there are more skyscrapers, the metro is older. But if you look at how Medellin is portrayed in the films, it's just some kind of favela, and that's all.

And look: the smartest Escobar, one of the richest people in the world, did not take ANY metallurgical plant in Medellin. He did not take control of the construction and operation of the metro. He did not even take the housing and communal services of the multimillion city under control. He had to bury the money in the fields.

I emphasize: he did all this, being a very smart person.

Medellin lived its own life. Escobar gave the bums and antisocial elements a little money and a little hope.

Escobar decided to become president, and here SOMEONE decided - no, no. The Americans destroyed Escobar's business, he himself was killed. However, the flow of cocaine into the United States has only increased.

(Escobar was, according to Forbes, the seventh richest man in the world. What did this mean for impoverished Colombia? In negotiations with the government, Escobar offered to pay ALL Colombia's huge national debt in exchange for amnesty.

And it also meant that a continuous, ever-increasing flow of dollars was going to Colombia (Escobar invested mainly in his homeland).

Escobar has become too subjective for both the US and the Colombian elites. And the traffic from the populist Escobar was handed over to the Cali cartel. The Cali gentlemen were a very different flight of birds. Highly educated, from wealthy families, VERY right-wing, science and high-tech oriented. If Escobar used the proceeds to build housing for the poor, and half of the money was simply buried in the form of treasures, then the gentlemen from Cali invested every penny from cocaine, every centtik in the pharmaceutical industry and other high-tech.

As soon as the Cali cartel took the lead in traffic, Colombia experienced rapid economic growth, which continues to this day. In 1990, per capita GDP was $ 1,500, now it is $ 15,000 (compare with neighboring oil Venezuela). However, Colombia is also oil, about 30-40% of revenues are oil. However, the structure of Colombia's exports looks quite decent, certainly not worse than the Russian one (and Colombia started in 1990 from a much lower level than the Russian Federation).

The Cali cartel, by the way, established very close ties with representatives of the top leadership of the Russian Federation in the early 1990s. By the way, this is not necessarily about cocaine: the Cali cartel was only called a drug cartel. Cocaine money was just a source of investment for him. So their activities in the Russian Federation .... There are a lot of versions, but why do we need conspiracy theories?

Many experts called the Cali cartel the largest transnational corporation.

However, one day the conventional Americans slammed the cartel: he, like Escobar in his time, became too subjective, only not on a Colombian, but on a global scale.

(I note that the ideology of the Kali cartel was far-right. In their hometown, the Rodriguez brothers professed the concept of "Beautiful Kali - pure Kali." As part of this concept, thousands of homeless people, prostitutes, thieves, petty criminals were killed in the city.)

However, miraculously, the supply of cocaine to the United States did not decrease after the defeat of the Cali cartel. And the growth of the Colombian economy continued.

As a former Soviet person, I am rather offended to realize that Colombia (Colombia!) Has overtaken Russia in per capita GDP, in high-tech exports (many times!), And in the minimum wage - 2 times.

COLOMBIA OUTSTANDED RUSSIA. How is it? Okay, so liberals and patriots say: Russia has been ruled by bandits for the last 30 years. OK. But after all... And who ruled Colombia? People honest to god?"