Battleground State

Photos of the country that was supposed to be the poster child for the war on drugs.

MAY 1, 2013

Gustavo de Greiff, the Colombian attorney general who brought down Escobar, told Engle, "We killed Escobar. We dismantled many, many small cartels and nothing happened. Cocaine continues to flow into the United States, and the narco-traffickers getting rich."

In this photo, Colombian soldiers patrol Commune 13 on March 20, 2013 in Medellín. So far this year, more than 335 people have been killed by urban conflict and more than 400 have been displaced, joining the some four million people in Colombia who have been internally displaced due to drug violence. To confront the violence, the government has brought 1,000 new policemen into the region.

RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images