At the end of the Cold War, the term "narcoterrorism" was coined. This concept
originally meant ties between drug dealers and terrorist organizations and the countries
of the Soviet bloc. The definition of this phenomenon, developed later, is ambiguous and
means both methods attributed to terrorists, applied by drug cartels and the financing
of their activities by terrorist groups through drug trafficking. This article deals with
the first of these meanings and discusses the situation in two Latin American countries.
The Colombian Medellin cartel was the first to use typical terrorist measures. Criminals
carried out bomb attacks on public buildings, planes and attacks on politicians. In doing
so, they wanted to achieve the goal of preventing the extradition of cartel leaders.
Mass drug production has been going on since the 1930s in Mexico, but at the turn
of 21st century, local criminal groups monopolized drug trafficking routes to the US.
In 2006, an attempt by the state to combat this practice resulted in a long-term "drug
war", in which several hundred thousand people were killed. There has also been
an unprecedented increase in crime in the world, to the point where about 100 people
are killed at the hands of the cartels in Mexico on a daily basis. The international
community has almost unanimously labeled the activities of the Mexican drug cartels
as terrorism. Only the opinion expressed in Mexican literature differed in that respect.
The cooperation of these cartels with terrorist organizations turned out to constitute
another threat to international security. This kind of cooperation can bring mutual
benefits to terrorist groups and the countries supporting them – especially in the case
of money laundering. The long-term operation of cartels has created the phenomenon
of "drug culture" in Latin American communities, glorifying the terrorist activities
of cartels and the figures of their leaders.