A deadly mix of drug trafficking groups, active rebel forces, and dissident cells of former guerillas have emerged in Colombia to fill the power vacuum left after the demobilization of the country’s largest guerilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC). Fatal conflicts occur regularly throughout the country as various groups seek to control territory and the cocaine supply chain, along with other criminal economies, such as illegal mining and timber trafficking. Local criminal networks, from street gangs to Medellin’s formidable Oficina de Envigado, have long controlled the country’s urban underworlds.
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