Multiple illegal armed groups that carry out violent attacks against civilians, security forces, and oil infrastructure are active throughout Colombia.
The following maps indicate where think tank Indepaz registered and verified activity of these groups within the indicated time period.
These maps should not be used to assess future personal security risk as they represent activity in the past, and violent activity in Colombia is volatile. Furthermore, many of the illegal armed groups are active outside the indicated areas either through covert action or alliances with other illegal armed actors.
ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
2020)
The Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) are Colombia’s largest illegal armed group with between 3,000 and 7,000 combatants. They are called the “Gulf Clan” by the government. The group is led by dissident former members of demobilized paramilitary umbrella organization AUC who abandoned their former group’s demobilization process between 2003 and 2006.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
ELN activity (2020)
The ELN is Colombia’s last-standing Marxist guerrilla group and has been around for more than half a century. It has an estimated 3,000 armed members, mainly in the countryside.
The Marxist guerrillas’ urban war front has the capacity carry out sporadic terrorist attacks mainly on state targets or oil infrastructure targets in remote areas
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
FARC dissidents activity (2020)
Following the demobilization of the FARC in 2017, dissidents formed groups throughout Colombia. The biggest one is the 1st Front or Southeastern Block, which controls southern Colombia. Also in the south west of Colombia dissident groups impose authority instead of the rule of law.
Other groups like in Antioquia, Arauca and Santander have rearmed having lost faith in the the peace process.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
“Puntilleros” activity (2020)
The “Puntilleros,” the AUC dissident group that tried to collectively demobilize in 2011 when they were part of ERPAC but failed and have since rearmed under the sponsorship of jailed drug kingpins “El Loco Barrera” and “Puntilla.”
The groups are closely associated the the AGC as many leaders were part of the paramilitary groups that were part of the AUC, the now-defunct umbrella organizations of paramilitary groups between 1997 and 2006.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
EPL/ “Pelusos” activity (2020)
The EPL, or “Pelusos” as authorities call them, is a dissident faction of the guerrilla group that demobilized in 1991. The EPL has been at war with the ELN in the Catatumbo region since 2018, and is allegedly deeply involved in drug trafficking to Venezuela.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
“Caparrapos” activity (2020)
The “Caparrapos,” or the Brigada Virgilio Peralta Arenas (BVPA) as they call themselves, is a former AGC unit that broke with the group of “Otoniel” in late 2017 and has since been vying for control over the Bajo Cauca region in the north of the Antioquia region with their former group.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
Oficina de Envigado activity (2020)
The Oficina de Envigado was formed when the Medellin Cartel united the city’s gangs as one enforcer army in the 1980s. The group became a hierarchical crime syndicate under the leadership of “Don Berna” after the death of Pablo Escobar in the early 1990s and continues to control many of the city’s extortion and money laundering activities. One of their factions, the Pachelly Gang, has branched out to mining area in the north of the Antioquia provinces.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Pachelly | LDNP | Cordillera | Pachenca
Mafia de Sinaloa activity (January 1 to June 30, 2018)
La Mafia de Sinaloa is a group formed in in 2018 by dissident members of the FARC’s 48th Front and members of La Constru, a dissident AUC group that maintained control over criminal activity on the border between the Putumayo province and Ecuador. The group is at war with FARC dissidents of the Southeastern Bloc.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | Cordillera | Pachenca
LDNP activity (January 1 to June 30, 2018)
The “Libertadores del Nordeste Presente” (LDNP) are a paramilitary group that appeared in August 2018 to oppose the regional hegemony of the AGC in the Northeast Antioquia region. They center of operation is mining town Segovia from where they have tried to assume control over illegal gold mining activity in the area.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP | Pachenca
La Cordillera activity (2020)
“La Cordillera” is another surviving group of the AUC that demobilized between 2003 and 2006. The group of some 60 men and women is mainly active in local organized crime rackets and closely tied to local gangs, but is also believed to have control some international drug trafficking routes.
AGC / “Gulf Clan” | ELN | FARC dissidents | “Puntilleros” | EPL / “Pelusos” | Caparrapos | Oficina de Envigado | Mafia de Sinaloa | LDNP
Pachenca gang activity (2020)
The Pachenca gang from Santa Marta controls much of the drugs trafficking routes between the Cordoba and La Guajira provinces.