HomeNewsBriefColombia's 'Emerald Czar' Calls for New Peace Deal
BRIEF

Colombia's 'Emerald Czar' Calls for New Peace Deal

COLOMBIA / 1 APR 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

Colombia's ailing "Emerald Czar," Victor Carranza, has called for a new peace deal with his rivals as fears mount over a new war for control of the lucrative emerald sector.

Carranza, along with the fellow emerald kingpins -- the brothers Luis and Oscar Murcia -- called for a new regional peace agreement in a letter written to his rival Pedro Rincon, alias "Pedro Orejas," reported El Tiempo.

In the letter, Carranza called on the state and the Catholic Church to act as guarantors of the agreement and requested the "active presence" of the security forces and officials from the Ministries of the Interior and Mining.

The new agreement would replace the deal struck between Carranza and his rivals in 1990, which brought to an end the "green war," which claimed the lives of at least 2,000 people.

InSight Crime Analysis

The peace deal brokered in 1990 has showed signs of fraying over the last year, with a rise in murders related to the trade and attacks on the interests and associates of Carranza –- who is believed to still exert a tight grip on much of the trade.Speculation that a new war is imminent has been fueled by Carranza's battle with cancer, sparking a jostling for position among his rivals.

Emeralds are both lucrative in their own right and a means through which drug traffickers can launder proceeds. Carranza was jailed for three years for allegedly forming paramilitary groups, but the case was eventually dismissed.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 1 FEB 2023

Brazil's president Lula is acting quickly to kick out illegal miners and loggers from the Amazon. But the right economic…

ARGENTINA / 5 JUL 2022

Why did drug trafficking enjoy such a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic…

COCAINE / 27 MAY 2022

Colombia has gone from a peaceful election in 2018 to a violent electoral process in 2022, with the increase in…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…