New Chapter in Drug Trade [View All]

Source: Washington Post

New Chapter in Drug Trade
In Wake of Colombia's U.S.-Backed Disarmament Process, Ex-Paramilitary Fighters Regroup Into Criminal Gangs

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 5, 2007; Page A10

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's cocaine trade has never been controlled by a single cast of characters.

In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar and other flamboyant cocaine cowboys, wielding billions of dollars and armies of hit men, nearly brought the state to its knees. Their deaths ushered in more-discreet groups, so-called baby cartels, that outsourced trafficking and murder to gangs. Then came a paramilitary force that relied on cocaine to fund a war against Marxist rebels, a bloody phase the government says ended with the disarmament of militias last year.

Now, in the latest evolution of Colombia's unremitting drug trade, new criminal gangs led by former mid-level paramilitary commanders have surfaced in about half of Colombia's 32 states. Authorities here estimate that the groups -- steeped in violence and outfitted like armies -- have a combined force of anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 fighters. As many as 17 percent of them are said to be former paramilitary members.
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The OAS document and other reports conclude that the new groups do not have a central command or the national reach or political objectives of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, the powerful coalition of paramilitary groups that was officially demobilized. That organization, known by the Spanish initials AUC, worked closely with Colombian army units and corrupt politicians to erode support for leftist guerrillas, launching campaigns that killed thousands of civilians.



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