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Aguirre, Katherine, Robert Muggah, Jorge A. Restrepo, and Michael Spagat. 2006 ‘Political Economy of Production, Import, and Export.’ Small Arms Survey 2006: Unfinished Business; Chapter 9, pp. 3-5. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. 1 June

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Political Economy of Production, Import, and Export

Colombia is a significant producer of weapons and munitions. The country also legally imports arms of various calibres from at least 43 countries and is striving to generate greater revenues from weapons exports.(6) Moreover, Colombia has a massive illegal market for weapons, with a complex network of buyers and sellers — many of them driven by the armed conflict and narco-trafficking…

The defence industry was itself consolidated into a single entity — INDUMIL (from the Spanish name Industria Militar) in 1954 — which gained official monopolies on the production, import and export, and sales of firearms and explosives. Since its inception, INDUMIL has been a state-owned enterprise under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which acts as the regulator and keeper of the registry for all legally held firearms through the Office for Control and Trade of Arms and Explosives (OCCAE)…(7)

INDUMIL's primary function is to equip the armed forces and the National Police, though it also supplies legitimate domestic demand and is quietly nurturing an export capacity…

INDUMIL… is the sole outlet for legal firearms, ammunition, and explosives through its central office in Bogotá and some 30 retail outlets throughout the country — each of which is located within military garrisons…

Sources:

6) For a list of Colombia's main arms suppliers and the corresponding quantities, see Annexe 9.1.

7) This particular arrangement is rare in Latin America, where most arms industries have been entirely or partially privatized. Full or partial privatization is not necessarily an improvement in terms of the institutional arrangement for arms control.

ID: Q9977

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