guerrilla

Environmental features and geography may be a better predictor of homicides in Latin America than the prevalence of organized crime gangs. That’s what we found in a recent study that analyzed homicide patterns across Colombian municipalities between 2010 and 2020.

The Indigenous Guard of the Nasa people formed in Colombia in 2001 to protect Indigenous territories from armed groups and from environmental destruction such as deforestation and illegal mining. In the last few years, they have been forced to confront a growing problem with those armed groups recruiting children into operations that include growing coca for cocaine.

A peace treaty in 2016 largely ended a half-century war waged by the guerrilla group FARC against Colombia's government. But a handful of FARC dissidents extort business owners and refuse to disarm.