Situation Report

Location: Free State of Chucomayo, Southern Colombia

History of the region

With a rich history in the cultivation of coca - the main ingredient in the production of cocaine - Chucomayo has been the site of persistent and intensifying violence ever since the founding of the Colombian insurgent groups in the 1960's. The area, capable of massive yields, was originally seized by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the mid-seventies as a way to secure funding before changing hands between FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) over the next two decades. At the height of the power of the Cali cartel in the mid-90's following the death of Pablo Escobar they controlled the largest chunk of the coca fields in the area, employing tens of thousands and bolstering the miniscule local economy. 

With the collapse of these organisations in the late-nineties and early noughties, new groups began to emerge in the region. Among these were the Ejercito Chucomayo, a group of coca farmers who armed themselves to fend off ELN taxmen - Juan Moreno, originally an obscure member of the Cali cartel, leveraged the fear and discontent as well as his vast wealth and connections, to buy himself into local politics.

Winning the governorship using a proxy candidate, he took control of the department of Nariño in 2008, he started down a path of radical separatism culminating in a short conflict in which they were forced back to the coastal region of Chucomayo. Undeterred, Moreno sent out a call for experienced ex-paramilitaries, as well as loyal friends and even his own brother. Piece by piece, they built a fearsome guerrilla force on the pacific coast, and launched a harrowing campaign. In the early 2010's, the EC had ground the exhausted Colombians down to the point of near collapse. 

In the mid-2010's, Chucomayo was nominally independent, now controlling a large chunk of Nariño, from the pacific coast to the foot of the Andes. Large reinvestment of profits from the drug trade allowed the unrecognised government to control large swathes of the drug making and distribution process. Everything from cultivation to export was now managed by Leonardo Moreno, the Chucomayo Cartel's financial genius. Alongside this, due to the connections among various exiles of the 2002 Coup in Venezuela that Juan Moreno had amassed, Venezuelans exiled in Colombia began to bolster the workforce and military of the breakaway state, creating a large minority population within Chucomayo. 

As the 2020's rolled in, Moreno's grip loosened on the civilian portions of the Narcostate, the cartel faded into the shadows, content on controlling affairs from afar. The President of Chucomayo, Mateo Mendoza-Rivera, announced expansions into the tourism and fishing sectors, as well as generous welfare for citizens, ensuring some level of loyalty among the population. Despite their political and economic isolation, the guerrilla economy of Chucomayo keeps the cash flowing and forces some nations - such as Ecuador - to do at least some business with them. Their control over Colombian and Ecuadorian port facilities, while tenuous, allows them to circumvent sanctions as well as provide safe havens for their product before shipping.

With the growth of the civilian economy and the bolstering of security, the cartel now looks to secure lucrative expansions of its export business into places such as South Africa, East Asia and Europe. To this end they have been covertly supplying insurgent groups across these regions with vast quantities of cocaine at discounted prices to secure a foothold. Most recently they have supplied the Sons of Bala terror organisation in Kambala, South-West Africa, with tonnes of Cocaine - allowing them to carry out a vicious campaign of bombings as well as murders and political assassinations. 

Known countries and factions operating

Ejercito Chucomayo (EC)
  - Elites operating in major cities (image)
  - Heavily armed convoy bypassing police (image)
  - Cartel owned airstrip and hangars (image 01 | image 02)
  - Seizing a civilian ran port for export (image 01 | image 02 | image 03)

Colombian Armed Forces (CAF)

Current Situation

Political Landscape

Chucomayo is a de-facto one party state, with the Independencia y Libertad party reigning since the establishment of the state in 2016. President Mendoza-Rivera is an experienced politician within the Colombian landscape, and with a salary backed by the success of the cartel, has been lobbying hard for increased yield within the coca fields and production facilities. The cartels piece of the political system is as an opaque, unpredictable shadow cabinet. Hidden from the public eye they have been directing the efforts of the civil administration using both cash and violence. 

Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia; the Colombian intelligence agency, has reported that some members of the civilian administration seem to be growing disillusioned with the cartel, believing that despite the heavy flow of cash into the region, they are severely harming the long-term political and economic stability of the entire department, as well as leaning toward totalitarian methods of ensuring state security. The opposition parties remain disunited and unable to agree on a path forward, but grow in popularity with each failed quota. 

Subversive Actions

The Ejercito Chucomayo under the Minister for Defence - Hugo Aguilar, a one-time FARC rebel and more recent cartel bodyguard - has been conducting operations against the Colombian government in the southern jungles and Andean range for just under a decade. The elite Guardia Bolivariano, comprised largely of Venezuelan exiles, has been assisting anti-government rebels as well as funding opposition groups within the Colombian government itself. 

They have been involved in large-scale sanction evasion, including the importing of low-tech military hardware as well as luxury vehicles, medical equipment, and pickup trucks. The cartel has also engaged in trafficking drugs to various organisations across the globe, including terror groups and various rebellions. Packages traceable back to Chucomayo have shown up in the hands of the Sons of Bala, the Ndrangheta as well as with Mexican drug smugglers. 

The Narco Economy

The Narcostate has tried for the better half of a decade to modernise the agricultural and industrial sectors, reaching out to companies selling farming implements and factory tooling equipment, however have been brushed off, this has caused them to shift their tactics and lean heavily into natural bounty, drug production and increasing local security. Their aims appear to be quite simple, uplift the region into a desirable tourist destination, boost the economy via diversification and distribution of wealth. The highly profitable drugs have allowed them to slash poverty in major population centres, while work programs have allowed them to urbanise rapidly while maintaining a large surplus of workers capable of working during the harvesting season in the fields, and the off seasons in the newly established factories. 

Leonardo Moreno has advised the cabinet on matters of the economy, using his education to create a relatively stable local economy while maintaining a guerrilla economy via the export of both cocaine and raw coca, as well as through looting, kidnapping and drawing taxes from businesses that operate near their territory. Colombian officials have expressed their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in neighbouring departments, as well as in Pasto - the Capital of the Nariño department, still held by the Colombian government - where large businesses, banks and other private firms are forced to pay up. 

Estimates on the GDP of Chucomayo are spotty at best, however a recent estimate from the United States' Drug Enforcement Administration has put it at around $6.2b Dollars US. An increase of 32% over 2022 estimates. This has been attributed to minor capital flight from some parts of Colombia to the largely deregulated Chucomayo within Colombian media, however the DEA suggests that the massive coca industry in the region has contributed the single largest part of this. 

The Paramilitary Wing

Within the State, the Ejercito have no official jurisdiction. This leaves most internal security matters up to local police units established by the state; or in some cases, the cartel. The only authority that transcends all others in the land is that of the paramilitary wing of the party - La Banda Sagrada, or The Sacred Band - They derive their name from the nickname of a party official and ranking Ejercito Chucomayo officer, 'Anibal' Zapata. Officially named as the Policía Militar de Chucomayo, they are Zapata's enforcers, as well as the internal security agency. Often found in large population centres or running down interlopers, they were responsible for the capture and eventual release by exchange of a DEA agent in 2018. 

Image credits:
  - E. Krok (twitter)