Colombia’s third-largest city, Cali, is facing an explosive rise in drug-linked violence, with more than 1,100 murders recorded over the past year. Authorities say the surge in coca cultivation has increased cocaine supply, intensified gang warfare, and left bodies, including dismembered remains, in parts of the city. Residents in working-class neighborhoods say violence has become routine, while a community activist, Wilson Munoz, said, "The drugs are behind everything here."
The city sits between coca-growing areas to the south, especially Cauca, and Pacific trafficking routes that move cocaine toward the United States and Europe. That geography has made Cali a hub for dirty money, smuggling, and killings. Police say rural armed groups do not operate directly inside the city but use local street gangs for sales, extortion, and contract killings. Cali police chief Gen. Herbert Benavides described this as "outsourcing."
The fighting has also reached national politics. With presidential elections about a week and a half away, fear of armed gangs has boosted the polls of conservative, pro-Israel candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who promises a hard line against trafficking networks and maximum-security prisons in the Amazon. Mayor Alejandro Eder says his forces have already foiled drone attacks inside the city, but expects more. He said the cartels are trying to distract the army so cocaine can be moved toward the Pacific coast.
Police have increased their capabilities, including a 14% expansion in force and a 30% rise in spending on cameras, vehicles, and prevention programs, but they still have not gained the upper hand. In one recent raid, more than 200 officers arrested 23 suspects from the gang known as the Monarcas. City officials also point to social programs, including vocational training and the "On the Right Track" initiative, as necessary to keep young people out of gangs. A participant, 22-year-old Sergio Castañeda, said the program gave him a way out of groups that sometimes demand recruits "kill someone" to prove themselves.
