FARC-EP dissidents groups: continuation or new criminal groups?

Abstract

After the signing of the Peace Agreements in 2016, between the Colombian State and the FARC-EP guerrilla, illegal armed dissident groups have emerged in various regions of Colombia, especially areas with a historical presence of conflict and illicit crops. Given the contextual differences between both organizations, the objective of this article is to explore and describe whether the dissidences are a continuity in ideological, structural, political and economic terms of the old guerrilla movement, or if, on the contrary, they are a new type of organization. For this, political-ideological, social control and financing factors are analyzed from a historical approach with a qualitative, descriptive and correlational analysis. The results allow us to identify that there are some continuities, but several ruptures with the old FARC-EP. The dissidences do not have a structure of the size of the guerrilla group, but it is not a diminished group either, since they have more strength and control than other types of organizations, which allows them to be characterized more as criminal organizations and raises the idea of a new cycle of violence in the country.