Illicit economies and political opportunity. the case of the Colombian paramilitaries (1982-2007)

ABSTRACT There is an ambiguous and complex role of narcotrafficking and illicit economies in the growth of the paramilitary political power and influence. As argued in this paper, there are four mechanisms through which criminal involvement politicized paramilitaries: escalation, extension, regulation, and intermediation. These mechanisms gave them the opportunity to decisively broaden their constituencies, legitimize their activity, network with clientelistic actors from a position of force, and significantly broaden their inroads. Nonetheless, as discussed in the paper, the paramilitaries got trapped by the coalitional mismatch between the two global wars that were being waged in Colombia: counterinsurgent and war on drugs.