Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
Tue Mar 28, 2017, 08:14 AM Mar 2017

The return of Colombias paramilitary nightmare


Organised criminal gangs — offshoots of the brutal groups that were formed to fight Farc — are taking over areas abandoned by their former enemy

By Reinaldo Spitaletta
Published: 17:52 March 26, 2017


Is paramilitarism finished in Colombia? Or did it simply change shape and morph into the so-called “bandas criminals” (criminal gangs) — Bacrim for short — which are known to involve old-guard paramilitary fighters and are responsible for a new wave of crime and terror?

These are just some of the questions being posed in light of recent reports about the forced displacement of civilians in the department of Choco, in western Colombia, where clashes have been reported between guerrillas from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and members of the Gaitanista Self-Defence Groups, a criminal offshoot of the now defunct United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia paramilitary organisation.
The paramilitary phenomenon, that horrific project of the 1980s created in a backward country dominated by landowners, remains a threat, especially now that Colombia’s largest guerrilla army — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc — has agreed to dismantle. This is especially true is rural areas.

. . .

Paramilitarism as it exists in Colombia was cruel and blood-thirsty from the outset. The pretext for its creation was to fight the guerrillas. But beyond that, it was a political project designed to seize control of the country’s best lands. It used terror as a key mechanism of expropriation and, as it metastasized, resulted in wholesale massacres. Little by little, paramilitary groups formed alliances with state forces and politicians of the traditional parties, the Liberals and Conservatives.

‘Nobody dares report’

In his 1983 column, titled ‘Which country are we dying in?’, Garcia Marquez argued that the only point of clarity with regard to the violence was that “the material authors are gangs of mercenary gunmen who kill in broad daylight, sometimes with their faces uncovered and at other times painted, and whom everybody knows but nobody dares report”. The public prosecutor in the district of Aguachica, he added, “bluntly declares that the gangs are paid by big landowners to steal the lands of poor peasants”.

More:
Worldcrunch 2017/New York Times News Service
http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/the-return-of-colombia-s-paramilitary-nightmare-1.2000707
Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Latin America»The return of Colombias p...