Two ex-members of the demobilized paramilitary coalition AUC are currently locked in a deadly struggle for control of the drug trade on Colombia’s eastern plains, known as Los Llanos.
In the remote and largley lawless border areas between the central Meta and eastern Vichada departments, “The Liberators of Vichada” and “The Meta Bloc,” (alternatively known as the “Llano Resiste Bloc”) two dissident, drug-trafficking factions of the neo-paramilitary group, ERPAC, have caused havoc as they have turned their weapons against each other in a battle over land rights and the reported 97 tons of cocaine produced yearly in the region.
PROFILE: ERPAC
According to newspaper El Tiempo, both groups have expanded their hold over large swaths of land in the south-central Meta and Guaviare departments in the past few months.
However, the military chief of the Meta Bloc, alias “Orozco,” denied the combat was due to a territorial or drug trafficking dispute.
“What we want is that they [Liberators of Vichada] respect the zone where the self-defense forces of Meta were born aproximately 22 years ago.”
According to Colombian intelligence sources from 2012
ERPAC, or the Popular Revolutionary Anti-Terrorist Army of Colombia, was considered the heir of the AUC’s Heroes of Guaviare Front, a division of the Centauros Bloc. After the Bloc officially demobilized in 2006, ERPAC, formed by alias “Cuchillo,” a prominent member of the Heroes of Guaviare Front, emerged as a successor group, hiring experienced members of the demobilized AUC. Cuchillo led the organization until he was killed by Colombian security forces in December 2010.
After the death of Cuchillo, the organization fractured, with one part, led by alias “Caracho,” surrendering to Colombian authorities. However, according to the conflict-monitoring NGO International Crisis Group, the demobilization was marred by irregularities and only 270 of the organization’s some 1,200 members surrendered.
BACKGROUND: ERPAC commanders surrender