Narc & Farc
Security issues in Colombia
Security Advisory: Traveling within Colombia
0174 days
I hate to be the alarmist, but the problems with security in Colombia are still very real and not to be trifled with. The crowning achievement of the Uribe administration was that we could finally travel by land between most cities without fear of running into road blocks set up by either the FARC or ELN rebel groups. That is no longer true under president Santos.
Attacks by the FARC have been the bread of the daily newscasts. The states of Valle del Cauca (or simply Valle) and Antioquia have been the scene of the greatest number of incidents. Of particular concern were the assaults along the main highway uniting Medellin to Cartagena and the Caribbean coast. Although the targets were usually policemen, including Antioquia’s police superintendent who was murdered with his escorts, many private vehicles, including buses, were hijacked and torched.
Although Santos has ordered the deployment of soldiers along all principal roads, this is not a guarantee of absolute safety, as there are thousands of kilometers to patrol, much of it cutting through dense vegetation in mountainous terrain. If you’re in a vehicle that’s intercepted by rebels, it’s highly likely that you’ll be taken hostage, as foreigners are still prized as human shields or political pawns. Since the government has long stopped negotiating with terrorists, your captivity may last years.
At this time, if you’re planning on traveling by road in Colombia, it’s best to keep within the immediate vicinity of large cities. If you want to travel further afield, take the plane!
The New Face of the Colombian Cocaine Trade
2649 days
by Tom Germain
in Narc & Farc
Colombia has fought and won an arduous battle spanning decades against the cocaine cartels that had at one time reduced the country to a failed state. However, it did not win the war. It’s estimated that more cocaine is being exported from Colombia than ever before. If the ring leaders are all dead or in jail, how is this possible?
Photo by Rotorhead
The void left by the cartels’ dismantling was quickly filled by a multitude of smaller criminal gangs, disbanded paramilitary, as well as the armed rebels of the FARC and ELN, who have formed an alliance. The cocaine trade is far too lucrative to not attract new players, despite the heightened risks. Since their enormous size proved to be the undoing of the cartels, it was only logical that the new organizations would seek to function as a series of disconnected cells, making them less vulnerable. The most fundamental change is the high level of cooperation that exists nowadays among criminal groups. Whereas the cartels feuded constantly in the 80′s and 90′s, often informing the authorities on one another, the tendency now is to network. One organization might specialize in production, another refining, and a series of others handle the distribution. Even the execution of enemies is handled by specialized organizations disconnected from the illegal drug trade, such as the feared Oficina de Envigado.
Another major difference is that the Colombians no longer control all foreign distribution. Home grown traffickers in Mexico, the most important drug route into the biggest market, the United States, have developed organizations so large and powerful that they can only be called cartels. A completely new development is the alliances secretly forged between the armed rebel groups in Colombia, now major players in the drug trade, and the government of Venezuela, and, by proxy, its allies Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. The FARC and ELN are known to funnel considerable amounts of drugs without hindrance through Venezuela.
While the flamboyance and brashness of a Pablo Escobar wouldn’t work today, bribery and blackmail are still widely used by drug traffickers to facilitate their business. Politicians, judges, the police and military, as well as ordinary people are still routinely approached with an offer of “la plata o el plomo” (the money or the bullet), despite the Uribe’s government’s great strides in rooting out corruption. It’s no mystery that the routine extradition of captured major drug traffickers to the USA to be prosecuted there is the only way to insure they won’t manipulate the corrupt Colombian justice system rather than a favor to the United States. Even ordinary Colombians are useful to the traffickers, as they cannot only be used to transport drugs, but also to launder money by putting their names to business contracts and property. Every year, billions of dollars in drug money is invested in this way, and it makes it very difficult for the authorities to discover the real owners, despite laws that allow the state to summarily seize such assets once the link is uncovered.
The new Colombian traffickers have become more sophisticated in their smuggling methods as well, building countless million dollar submersibles that can transport a ton of cargo virtually undetected. They’ve also found every unimaginable way to camouflage drugs, including sewing them into the bellies of pets and corpses. For every kilo intercepted, there’s countless others that make it through. Cocaine isn’t the only drug marketed by the drug traffickers, as they’ve diversified into heroin and marihuana, which are also easy to grow in the vast, mountainous tropical forests of Colombia.
The most wanted list of drug traffickers currently features Daniel El Loco Barrera, who is considered the most powerful drug lord in the country, particularly in the north. Barrera has been particularly successful at making alliances with other illegal groups, including the FARC. Another being actively hunted for is “Comba“, who leads Los Rastrojos and controls most of the production centers and routes of the deep south. Others facing capture and extradition are top FARC commanders, including Alfonso Cano, the maximum leader, and Ivan Marquez.
Drug trafficking is still a massive problem for Colombia, hampering its efforts to clean its international image and spur foreign investment, not to mention tourism. Few are those who believe it can ever be eradicated while the drugs are in demand in developed countries, particularly the USA. However, the Colombian government, with the help of the US financed Plan Colombia, now has the upper hand and the country can never again be overrun to its very core by drug lords.
A Narco-Dictionary
0751 days
by Tom Germain
in Narc & Farc
Colombians have an entire language to describe the country’s criminal groups and their activities. Here’s a few of the most common…
Capo: Title given to the boss, same as in the Italan mafia
Cocina: Literally, kitchen, the place where the coca base is prepared.
Combo: A criminal gang, typically operating in a poor barrio, or “comuna”.
Lavadero: A business or other means to “clean” money obtained through crime.
Lavaperros: “dog washer” — the capo’s point man, who does his biding.
Lugarteniente: Lieutenant, the boss’ right hand man.
Narcotraficante: Person dealing in drugs. The expression is usually used for those higher up in the criminal hierarchy, or to describe the organization as a whole.
Narcopolitica: The business of corrupt politicians aiding and abetting drug lords.
Oficina de Envigado: The infamous murderers for hire organization that originated in Envigado, a suburb of Medellìn.
Paraco: paramilitary. Most have re-emerged in the drug trade, this after being offered immunity and assistance by the government for surrendering themselves. Many have been murdered by their former bosses.
Parillero: Literally, the one handling the barbecue. Describes the passenger on the motorcycle who does the shooting.
Sicario: Assassin. Usually a couple of guys on a high cylinder motorcycle. Sicariato: the business of mudering for money.
Testaferro: A third party who appears as the legal owner of a narcotraficante’s property, hiding the real ownership from the authorities.
Traquete/traqueto: a minor drug trafficker. Often used to mock drug dealers who display their wealth in garish ways.
Tumbao: The very dead victim of a sicario
Colombia, Then and Now
1762 days
by Tom Germain
in Narc & Farc
Photo courtesy of Daniel Andres Forero
Colombia was one of the most dangerous countries on earth. Colombia is still one of the most dangerous places on earth.
Not so long ago, armed rebel groups such as the FARC and the ELN, as well as the paramilitary factions meant to counter them, terrorized the population in most of the rural areas across the country, while the cities were ruled by the powerful drug cartels. Adding further grief to this sorry panorama was the rampant corruption found in all government, military and judicial levels. It’s not an exaggeration to say that at one time, this was a nation ruled by criminals.
Nonetheless, public security has improved dramatically since. First, with a large dose of help (and pressure) from the United States, the dominant cartels based in Cali and Medellin were dismantled by the mid-nineties. The power vacuum left behind was soon filled by smaller criminal groups, as well as the rebels and paramilitary, but it also allowed the government to gradually regain control of its cities. At first, the authorities made the fatal mistake of trying to negotiate with the rebel groups, which only resulted in them gaining more strength and controlling more territory.
The turning point came in 2002, with the election of President Alvaro Uribe, who won on a platform of national security and soon put his plan into action. The first part of his plan was to clean-up corruption from within the military and judicial wings. Next he negotiated the surrender of most of the paramilitary groups, giving them pardons and reintegrating them into society, in tandem with an all-out war against the rebel groups, which continues to this day.
While rebels still haunt parts of the country, they’ve been routed from most, suffering heavy losses at the hands of the military. For the first time in decades, it’s now possible for Colombians as well as tourists to travel by land between most large cities, where before there was a high risk of being captured for ransom or just plain killed by the armed groups. Cities like Medellin and Bogota are now safer than many of their Brazilian counterparts. The body counts are still too high, however, but most of the violence happens within the slums.
There are a few dark clouds on the horizon, however: 2010 is a Presidential election year. Proponents of a Uribe third reelection bid are running out of time, as the Colombian constitution forbids a third mandate. Since pushing through a constitutional amendment in time is unlikely, the big question is whether his successor will be able to maintain the pressure on the illegal armed groups and the criminal gangs, or will we see a return to the chaos that once brought this country to its knees? Another danger lurking around the corner comes from outside Colombia: Venezuela.
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