Águilas Negras (Black Eagles) violently are trying to take control of Colombia’s drug trade. Members of the old generation are murdered

Following the extradition of paramilitary leaders like ‘Don Berna’ and ‘Macaco’, within the AUC the most active in drug trafficking, new gangs violently are trying to take control of Colombia’s drug trade. Members of the old generation are murdered or even want to surrender to authorities out of fear.The years of increasing security in Colombia seem to be over. After the extradition of 14 leaders of the Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) new drug gangs like that of ‘Don Mario’ in Medellín, a city important for the drug trade since the days of Pable Escobar, are violently trying to take over the market and eliminate competition.Demobilized paramilitaries are joining the new gangs, those who refuse are killed. In Medellín alone 157 of the 704 paramilitaries that demobilized in 2007 were murdered.Gangs like the Águilas Negras (Black Eagles) are taking control of poor neighborhoods in for example Medellín, posting pamphlets on walls, saying they now are ruling the ‘barrio’.Murder rates have shown an alarming increase in Departments like Córdoba and Antioquia and in Chocó (where the murder rate has gone up 107 percent) massacres among the civil population are reported.Senior members of the AUC are no longer safe. Monday a prominent member of ‘Don Berna’s paramilitary bloc was assassinated in a fancy restaurant in Medellín and in the south east of Colombia, ‘Cuchillo’, one of the most feared drug traders of the country, has offered to surrender, because he fears for his life.Analysts say that the drug trade in Colombia has scattered after the demobilization of the AUC. Because of the deconstruction of its hierarchic structure, there is not one organization responsible for the drug trade, but dozens are now in the business. Some of these new groups yet aren’t even known to authorities and all are trying to increase their profit.The Uribe government announced to form a number of new elite forces to battle this new breed of paramilitary groups and the president vows to close down the remaining elements of the ‘Office of Envigado’, considered the Medellín based coordination center for the drug trade.