The FARC, a terrorism-support organization and a criminal gang known as Bacrim — vie for control of drug-trafficking routes in this strategic zone along the Ecuadorean border

U.S. helping Colombia quell 

Marxist guerrilla group

By Abraham Mahshie

Violent rebels funded by drug trade threaten wave of disarray

TUMACO, Colombia — This impoverished port town on the Pacific coast has become ground zero for the Colombian government’s U.S.-funded efforts to quell a Marxist guerrilla rebellion and eradicate the drug trade, which serves as the group’s main source of financing.

Caught in the middle are Tumaco’s 100,000 or so residents.

Half of them live in poverty in Colombia’s “red zone,” where deadly violence is a constant threat. Late last month, two police officers were kidnapped and executed on the outskirts of town. Two other officers met the same fate in February. Guerrillas pay $1,000 to anyone who kills a cop, police say.

“The national government has practically abandoned us,” said Santo Banguera, 50, an Afro-Colombian farmer who cultivates a small plot of land and lives with his wife and four sons in a wooden shack. “There is fear here.”

Focus on Tumaco has intensified amid peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist guerrilla group that has waged an insurgency in Colombia since 1964. Government and FARC negotiators have been meeting in Havana for about 18 months — the third attempt at peace in the 50-year-old conflict.

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