Paramilitary Forces in Colombia

How can we understand the transformation of Colombian paramilitary groups during the past two decades? Intimately connected to drug trafficking, paramilitary groups have infiltrated political institutions and enjoyed significant political support even as they have used extreme brutality. Since the early 1990s, paramilitaries have grown exponentially in strength, creating a national coordinating body and carrying out military offensives. These developments brought territorial expansion throughout Colombia and a peak in political violence, typified by massacres from 1997 to 2003. After negotiations with government officials, more than thirty-two thousand troops passed through demobilization programs verified by the Organization of American States; much of the high-profile leadership was subsequently extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking. Revelations of electoral fraud resulted in the so-called parapolítica scandal, in which hundreds of politicians were indicted for collusion with paramilitary forces. Colombian and U.S. officials claim gains in the consolidation of democracy, even as journalists and others document ongoing paramilitary activity.

It is critical for scholars and policy makers hoping to understand contemporary Colombia to examine the role that political and economic structures have played in these developments, including the unintended consequences of efforts to foster democracy in the region and the deep connections between illicit economies and public life. This history also serves as a case study of the intersection of political and criminal violence, organized crime, and comparative practices of governance useful for Mexico, Brazil, and beyond.

Many gaps remain in the literature about the role and evolution of paramilitary forces.¹ In part, this reflects the difficulty of researching violent illicit economies and the degree to which public discussion of these issues is ideologically driven.² The books examined here, particularly those by Colombian scholars, offer important insights into structural links between paramilitary expansion, democratization efforts, and local governance, building on the groundbreaking studies of Mauricio Romero.³ The two most ambitious books, Gustavo Duncan’s Los señores de la guerra and Claudia López’s massive collection of essays Y refundaron la patria, argue that paramilitary forces (or warlords, in Duncan’s typology) are the result of dramatic changes in Colombia’s economic and political landscape, and of reconfigured statehood and governance in many regions. Alejandro Reyes Posada’s Guerreros y campesinos addresses the critical issues of land ownership and displacement. This book is of particular interest because of the author’s current role as adviser to the Santos administration’s land redistribution program. The two works in translation make available to English speakers the tales of conflict gathered by award-winning Colombian journalist Juanita León and the policy recommendations of Juan Carlos Garzón, who weaves in stories from Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs, by Brookings Institute analyst Vanda Felbab-Brown, includes chapters on Colombia, Peru, and Afghanistan to explain how U.S. policy has collapsed counterinsurgency and counternarcotics efforts.

A key issue in these analyses is typology: how does one classify the dizzying array...