In the spring, when Colombia moved to a national COVID-19 blockade, some Colombians won new directives, not the government. In remote spaces in 11 of the country’s 32 states, armed teams have begun implementing their own quarantine measures, according to a July 15 report through Human Rights Watch. Through WhatsApp brochures and messages, teams explained curfews, movement restrictions, categories of essential paintings, etc. These restrictions were stricter than government regulations and the consequences of violating them much more seriously.
A pamphlet noticed through HRW, published in early April through the Marxist guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the northern branch of Bolvar, warned that the fighters would be “forced to kill other people to save lives” because the population would not.” respected orders to save you Covid-19.”
Latin America is the existing concentrate of the pandemic, with more than 3.5 million instances in the region and the number in many countries continues to increase dramatically. Analysts say COVID-19 exacerbates the challenge of “criminal governance” in the region, where the state loses control of the component of its territory, while non-state armed groups, such as drug gangs and guerrilla forces, assume and govern small areas. Groups in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere have participated in the fight opposed to COVID-19, allowing them to claim interest in the smart public and their violent control over local communities, in a way that can be permanent.
The nature of corrupt government varies widely between Latin American regions and countries, according to Chris Dalby, editor-in-chief of the research news site InSight Crime, which examines organized crime in the region. But it has a tendency to settle, he says, in poor or remote spaces where the presence of the state is low; that is, where the government has been unable to provide effective enforcement of the law, public and economic opportunities.
In Colombia, armed teams are commonly a legacy of decades-long confrontation with insurgent teams. Although the Colombian government reached a historic peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016, other guerrilla teams, adding the ELN, and paramilitary forces remain difficult in some rural areas. In Brazil, drug traffickers exert more influence than the police in certain favela neighborhoods on the outskirts of major cities, with the largest gang being the First Command Capital (PCC) in Sao Paulo. In Mexico, drug cartels, such as the Sinaloa cartel in the northwest of the country, have similar over-deficient communities.
These different teams use their territories for a variety of illicit activities: drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, etc. But they also provide public resources and facilities to communities as a means to legitimize their control and retention. During the pandemic, with many lucrative activities more difficult to achieve thanks to national restrictions on movements and business, many teams analyzed this role of government, Dalby says. “They took the opportunity to reassert this control.”
In March, after COVID-19 began spreading through Brazil, the gangs of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas crossed the streets through a loudspeaker to tell citizens that they would put a curfew and threaten violence if they did not comply, according to the Brazilian newspaper UOL. Traffickers also allegedly distributed hand soap and issued decrees banning tourists from entering the domain should they inflame citizens. In Mexico, in April, drug cartels distributed boxes of food and other key materials to others suffering the economic consequences of the pandemic. Images in Latin American media showed packages with the names of the posters.
In Colombia, some armed teams have implemented stricter restrictions on the movement of people, aid workers and network leaders told HRW that they allow no exceptions to access fitness facilities or curfews on banks, for example. Those who did not comply with the regulations were brutally punished: HRW documented at least 8 killings of civilians who allegedly failed to comply with COVID-19 measures imposed through armed teams between March and June.
According to Juan Pappier, a Colombian HRW expert, armed teams are partly afraid of wasting their own fighters on COVID-19 and damaging their businesses if the disease spreads widely on their territory.
But the pandemic is also an opportunity to revitalize public relations that can retain local communities. The status quo of measures opposed to COVID-19 “gives the impression that they are not only there for drug trafficking or illegal mining or crime and that they care about the public interest,” Pappier says. “It also suggests that they are in rhythm and that they are the ones who must comply with the regulations.”
Losing the pandemic’s source of income can lead to turmoil among organized crime teams in Latin America, Dalby says. “Large teams, like giant companies, are better built to [resist] this period.” Small teams, without a diversified source of revenue sources, will struggle to pay their members and allies if they can’t make money quickly, which can lead to infighting and fragmentation.
But the government’s efforts to take control of the territory of armed equipment, long hampered by a lack of resources, can further weaken the chaos of the pandemic. In Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, national governments have presented “very little in terms of effective response” to armed teams tasked with closing the pandemic, beyond issuing statements condemning their actions, Dalthrough said. And, he adds, the implementation of COVID-19 measures can allow armed teams to take more deeply into the communities they control, as civilians are forced to get used to greater taxes in their lives. “Once a force like this is established, it is difficult to eliminate it.”
For Pappier, the most serious effect on COVID-19 is in the long run: a group of potential recruits will be created for armed teams. “The degrees of poverty we will revel in after this pandemic will make it very simple to take others to illegal activities,” he says. “This is the ultimate production environment for those teams to thrive.”