Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, is facing a sharp surge in cocaine trafficking and gang warfare that left more than 1,100 people murdered over the past year. Bodies have been found mutilated in parts of the city, and residents in poor neighborhoods say clashes over local drug markets have become part of daily life. A community activist, Wilson Muñoz, said, “Drugs are behind everything here.”
The violence is tied to a record coca harvest that has expanded cocaine supply and driven prices low enough for many residents in poor areas to buy the drug. Cali sits between coca-growing regions in Cauca, south of the city, and Pacific trafficking routes that move large shipments toward the United States and Europe, making it a natural hub for dirty money, smuggling and killings. Police say rural armed groups do not operate directly inside the city, but subcontract local street gangs for sales, extortion and assassinations, a method Police Chief Gen. Herbert Benavides called “outsourcing.”
Authorities have stepped up raids, including one operation in which more than 200 officers stormed a gang known as the Monarcas, arresting 23 suspects. Still, the cartels have adopted more advanced tools, including explosive drones and newer assault rifles. Mayor Alejandro Eder said his forces have foiled some drone attacks inside the city, but warned more attempts are likely, saying the goal is to distract the army and keep drugs moving toward the Pacific coast.
The crisis is also shaping national politics ahead of presidential elections in about a week and a half. Fear of the armed gangs has helped conservative lawyer and pro-Israel candidate Abelardo de la Espriella rise in the polls; he is promising a hard crackdown on trafficking networks and maximum-security prisons in the Amazon. Cali’s history shows the scale of the challenge, after more than 2,000 murders a year in the 1990s, when the Cali cartel controlled about 80% of cocaine bound for the United States. City leaders have also increased police strength by 14%, boosted spending on cameras, vehicles and prevention programs by 30%, and expanded social projects such as “On the Right Path,” which offers counseling, study and job training to at-risk youth and former gang members.
