HomeNewsBriefMass Release of Paramilitaries Could Disrupt Colombia Underworld
BRIEF

Mass Release of Paramilitaries Could Disrupt Colombia Underworld

AUC / 16 JUN 2014 BY KYRA GURNEY EN

Over 400 former paramilitary fighters in Colombia, including numerous ex-leaders, are slated for release from prison by December 2014, an event that could cause criminal upheaval should they get drawn back into the underworld. 

After serving eight years in prison under Colombia's Justice and Peace law -- a transitional justice program implemented during former President Alvaro Uribe's administration -- 442 former paramilitaries from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) are eligible for release before December, reported Caracol.

Among those on the list of eligible prisoners are Ramon Maria Isaza Arango, alias "El Viejo," who founded one of Colombia's first self-defense groups, and the notorious Freddy Rendon Herrera, alias "El Aleman," who commanded an estimated 2,000 soldiers in the Uraba region. Other senior figures to be released include Jesus Ignacio Roldan Perez, alias "Manoleche" -- security chief to the infamous AUC warlords the Castaño brothers -- and Ivan Roberto Duque alias "Ernesto Baez," who played a pioneering role in the development of the AUC's political networks.

The list also includes some of the leaders responsible for the country's worst massacres, which -- according to the Prosecutor General's Office -- left at least 400,000 dead. 

In a last-minute effort to keep the former leaders from returning to criminal activity, the Prosecutor General's Office is preparing new charges against some of the worst offenders, according to Caracol. 

InSight Crime Analysis

The paramilitary leaders released this year will encounter a very different criminal landscape from the one they left behind. The breakup of the AUC created a new generation of criminal-paramilitary hybrids known as the BACRIM (from the Spanish for "criminal bands"), who shed the AUC's political facade and quasi-military structures and focused on criminal revenues. 

In this new criminal landscape, leaders like Isaza, who were part of an older generation of paramilitary fighters that were more truly counter-insurgent in their focus, will likely attempt some sort of retirement. However, if they are seen as rivals by current groups, they could find themselves drawn back in to the underworld for their own protection.

Others, like El Aleman, have close ties to successor groups and may use the influence they exerted in their former areas of operation to work with the BACRIM. In Rendon's case, the links are especially strong: Rendon's brother Daniel, alias "Don Mario," founded the most powerful of the new generation groups, the Urabeños, by recruiting many of El Aleman's former fighters. 

SEE ALSO: AUC Profile 

Other former leaders may attempt to regain control of territories they previously ruled, especially in areas where criminal groups have been weakened and divided. The region known as the Eastern Plains, for example, is embroiled in a bitter turf war fought by fractured BACRIM groups, which could create an opportunity for former AUC commanders from the region, such as Manuel de Jesus Piraban, alias "Pirata."

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

COLOMBIA / 29 MAR 2022

A record cocaine seizure off the coast of Colombia’s San Andres is the latest in a string of million-dollar drug…

COLOMBIA / 26 MAY 2022

Until his death, Gentil Duarte was the most-wanted man in Colombia and one of South America's leading drug traffickers.

ARGENTINA / 5 JUL 2022

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

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…