English to Spanish Social Sciences Government / Politics criminal groups

Having given up their anti-FARC political agenda after 2006—it was now all just business—BACRIM were willing to collaborate with anyone (includ- ing FARC) who could advance their goals of plunder and profit. For its part, once FARC came under sustained counter-guerrilla pressure, insurgent leaders saw an opportunity to spread government efforts more thinly (as part of the ‘centrifugal strategy’ described earlier) by establishing temporary alliances of convenience with criminal groups, using proxies to protect their cocaine economy, and hiding within criminal networks. This was a sensible strategy for FARC: a conflict entrepreneur, with commercial rather than political interests (as was the case for many FARC leaders by 2006, given the long- standing relationship between the insurgent group and the drug economy) has nothing to gain by posing as a politically motivated insurgent