Thursday, October 2, 2014

FARC and Urabenos: Colombian Organized Crime Evolves

It’s been an eventful month of news about the Colombian FARC and Urabenos groups. In September, the two groups appear to have collaborated on an attack directed at a Colombian police department, resulting in seven dead Colombian officers. For multiple reasons, this confluence of the two illicit groups is surprising. First, it is strange to see the FARC ally themselves in non-business terms with a different group. Traditionally, the FARC sells to any group that is willing to buy their narcotics. They don’t coordinate their activities with other groups, especially those that are explicitly anti-governmental. At first glance, this is an odd combination of a leftist insurgency funded by cocaine and a more traditional organized crime group working together. The timing of this attack is intriguing as well. The FARC are currently in peace talks with the Colombian government which at least thus far seem to be progressing to a final deal. Colombian President Santos has threatened that spoiler violence could end the talks previously, which makes the joint September attack on the police department so surprising. Although the FARC is a relatively hierarchical organization, there are fronts that operate quasi-independently. A major concern for the Colombian government is that although a peace agreement with the majority of the FARC is reached, splinter groups will break off and coalesce with the Urabenos, or other drug trafficking organizations in the country. The FARC’s dual nature of simultaneously being a leftist insurgency and cocaine trafficker makes these peace negotiations more fraught than with a prototypical insurgency. The FARC does not have one single reason to exist anymore. The FARC could potentially go the way of the Irish Republican Army, in which the majority of the group commits for peace, but small splinter groups remain, financed by criminal activities. 

In more recent news, the Urabenos and FARC have made waves just this week. The Urabenos group announced a threat against any reporter that covers their activities. Individual reporters operating in Colombia received letters laying out an ultimatum: stop reporting on the Urabenos BACRIM group or die. As InSight Crime notes, Colombia is the 10th most dangerous country to be a journalist. 

Also from InSight Crime, news of the FARC’s non-cocaine financing. Although they continue to negotiate for peace, it appears that certain fronts of the group are creating contingency plans for the future. These operations include extortion from the gold, emerald, and oil industries in Colombia. This article adds weight to the above fear that the FARC, although negotiating for peace, could splinter into smaller organized criminal groups. 

Colombian organized crime groups continue to operate and evolve. The news of this past month explicitly indicates the multiplicity of fronts that the country must work against, as well as the complexity of the situation. The peace negotiations with the FARC are a start, but they are certainly not the end of illicit activities in the country. 

No comments:

Post a Comment