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Colombia · Drug Trafficking · Organized Crime · Political Instability
Colombia's peace agreement has failed to curb escalating violence, with drug lord Otoniel's extradition to the US triggering a four-day Gulf Clan shutdown that confined millions and resulted in 24 murders, highlighting the country's deepening instability and the government's ineffective militarized strategies.
The 2016 Farc peace deal, once celebrated, has given way to a complex landscape of over 90 reconfigured armed groups, including "narco-paramilitaries" like the Gulf Clan and dissident Farc factions, now controlling over a third of Colombia's territory. These groups, increasingly mercenary and profit-driven, prioritize control of lucrative illicit economies such as cocaine production and illegal gold mining over political aims, leading to a surge in violence, with homicides at 25.5 per 100,000 people and over 1,300 activists killed since the peace deal.
President Iván Duque's "Peace with Legality" policy, focused on kingpin arrests and coca eradication, has proven ineffective, as groups quickly replace leaders and re-plant crops, while the US's prohibitionist stance further entrenches the "War on Drugs" logic. Otoniel's extradition also suppressed crucial historical truth about elite collaboration with criminal groups, further eroding trust in state institutions.
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