1 Restrepo, EM. "Colombia and its ‘Wars’ against Drug Trafficking, 1970- 2008". Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Violence in the Americas Today. BM. Bagley and JD. Rosen (eds). University of Florida Press. 2015 ISBN-10: 0813060680ISBN-13: 978-0813060682 Elvira María Restrepo Chapter 7- Colombia and Its Wars Against Drug Trafficking: 1970-2010 Colombia did not have a state policy against drug trafficking until the first administration of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2006). The country witnessed important victories against drug-traffickers as a result of Plan Colombia, from now on PC, which came to fruition during the Andrés Pastrana (1998- 2002) and Bill Clinton (1993-2001) administrations. Despite these achievements, the production of illicit drugs has not been reduced, nor has its price been altered in consuming countries around the world. 1 However, such victories constitute an important change in Colombia, particularly with regards to its security and its institutionality. In this respect, Colombia’s wars against drug trafficking provide important lessons to other states that are struggling with the phenomena, such as Mexico. This chapter seeks to analyze the judicial, legal, and institutional aspects of the different “wars” against drug trafficking that occurred in Colombia since the 1970s. The first section discusses the period between 1970 and 2001 that culminates with the failure of the Caguan peace process with the FARC. 2 This period is characterized by the confluence of politics that oscillated between repressive solutions and negotiations on behalf of the different administrations. These types of fluctuations are common to governments characterized by weak institutions and limited state capacity, and is exacerbated by assassinations and negotiations between the state and the drug cartels. The second section briefly analyzes the complexity of the violence in Colombia, where drug trafficking has served as a catalyst to the prolonged armed conflict, and aims to