by Ken Dermota

About the author: Ken Dermota is a Knight Foundation journalism fellow in Santiago, where he is analyzing the news media in modern Chile.

Back in 1993, I had coffee with one of Pablo Escobar’s [the leader of the notorious Medellín drug cartel] men. He’s dead now (or at least pretending to be), so I suppose I can tell you his name was Juan Fernando Toro. As we sat in a corner restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, Toro was writing excitedly on a napkin.

“Look! Now that the border is open to Venezuela, I can nearly double my profits! I can buy a kilo of cocaine—a good one, made with ether and acetone—for $1,200.” He jotted a quick balance sheet on the napkin: Transport...