ABSTRACT
The geographic region comprising Central, South America and the Caribbean has nurtured drugs, weapons, and human smuggling organizations for decades. Journalists have been forced to tone down any criticism of the cartels or face the prospect of death. Based in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan, the cartel came to prominence under Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, who built the Sinaloa cartel into Mexico's most powerful drug gang. Colombia has had the "longest democratic history in Latin America". The same freedom that allowed the economy to flourish in the free market also set the stage for the evolution of that country's drug trafficking organizations in the 1970s and 1980s. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Bolivia was a principal supplier of cocaine to the world market. Due to its geographic location, Panama has long served as a hub for the transfer of legal and illegal goods and services.
