Colombia’s civil war has raged for generations and, as this series shows, has helped forge deep and lasting bonds between the country’s elites and organized crime.
Investigation Chapters
Colombia Elites and Organized Crime: Introduction
The power of Colombia’s elites is founded upon one of the most unequal divisions of land in the world. As of the early 21st century, one percent of landowners own more than half the country’s agricultural land.1 Under Spanish rule,…
Colombia Elites and Organized Crime: ‘Jorge 40’
Rodrigo Tovar Pupo never imagined it would come to this: dressed in an orange jumpsuit in a Washington DC courtroom and standing in front of a United States federal judge, the grandson of a wealthy Colombian cattle rancher and nephew…
Colombia Elites and Organized Crime: ‘Don Berna’
By the end of 1993, Pablo Escobar was cornered. The cocaine king — known as “El Patrón” — was running out of money and options. His top assassins were either dead or had turned themselves in. Almost all of the…
About this Project
Elites and Organized Crime is a multiyear project financed by the International Development Research Centre that investigates the dynamics between organized crime and elites in four countries: Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Colombia.
