Colombia’s most powerful drug trafficking group wants a seat at the political table

According to authorities and human rights defenders, the AGC has cemented its control through forced displacement and extortion, writes Samantha Schmidt

A unit member wears an armband decorated with AGC symbols (Photo for The Washington Post by Nadège Mazars)

The morning’s drills began on the fog-coated side of a mountain, with two dozen rifle-armed men at the ready. “Attention,” a voice shouts, and up went a green-and-white flag emblazoned with three letters – the same letters, spray-painted on buildings and street signs across northern Colombia, that tell everyone who is in charge: AGC.

The acronym represents Colombia’s most powerful drug trafficking organisation, a force with control over a massive swath of the country and the most important routes for moving cocaine to the United States. Yet it is also an organisation with bylaws and a special crest, and in rural communities, it plays the role of both police and judiciary, resolving disputes between locals.

Now it wants a seat at the table with the government.