For decades, Colombians have been caught in the crossfire between leftist guerillas (FARC, ELN) and right-wing paramilitary organizations. In 2003, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe signed a peace deal with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the country’s largest paramilitary group, in an effort to initiate a transition from war to peace. Since then, over thirty thousand combatants have demobilized and requested legal, economic, and social benefits under the Justice and Peace Law of 2005 (Ley 975- in Spanish).
In early 2006, the Organization of American States (OAS) Peace Support Mission in Colombia (MAPP/OEA) and civil society organizations warned of a possible rearming of demobilized paramilitary groups and the merging of former paramilitary members with transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence has since emerged that these new armed groups also established relations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN). According to the March 2006 OAS report:
In regions where guerrilla activity is low and the entry of the forces of law and order has not been effective, conditions arise under which various armed illegal groups can assume control. In these areas, the problem arises when middle-level demobilized combatants step into the vacuum. They assume control of the criminal activities that were traditionally the preserve of the units or groups based there (extortion, levies on drug production, social cleansing, alliances with local administrations) and organize themselves into small groups, armed with side arms, remaining in urban areas and communicating by cell phones.
The report also points out:
There is a risk of demobilized sectors of the population being co-opted, and of new combatants being recruited. This phenomenon has emerged primarily in areas with consolidated illegal economies.
On January 11, 2008 Stephanie Hanson of the Council on Foreign Relations published "Colombia’s Right-Wing Paramilitaries and Splinter Groups," providing an insightful assessment of this developing situation. The report is available at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Related information:
In May 2007, the International Crisis Group published a similar report on the emergence of "Colombia's New Armed Groups" which urged the Colombian government to move beyond treating the groups as simple "criminal gangs" but as organizations requiring an urgent and comprehensive response.
For additional information on Colombia's illegal armed groups:
FARC, ELN, AUC Backgrounder (Council on Foreign Relations)
Photo by Jason P. Howe
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