Security in Cauca

1Why Cauca

By almost every measure, Cauca is where the armed groups are strongest. It's had more than half of the drone attacks the military has recorded since 2024: 243 of 418. It leads the country in children forced into armed groups, and in people confined to their homes by them. In 2025, the armed groups attacked the security forces in Cauca 175 times, the most in 15 years.

What it meansCauca is the center of the war against the armed groups.

2Santander de Quilichao

Santander de Quilichao is 45 km south of Cali, on the Pan-American Highway. About 100,000 people live there. It has 5 Nasa indigenous reserves and 6 Afro-Colombian community councils, and its economy is sugar cane, coffee and a free-trade industrial zone. It's had three massacres this year: three women on January 5, three men on May 17, and three people in a business on October 4.

What it means for usIf you drive south from Cali to Popayán, the Pan-American Highway takes you through this town. In April, a bomb on the same highway at Cajibío killed 20 people.

3Who has the guns

The main armed group is the Western Bloc of Iván Mordisco's FARC dissidents: at least 2,651 fighters in 11 fronts, 8 of them in Cauca and Valle. Around Santander de Quilichao, it's the Jaime Martínez and Dagoberto Ramos fronts. The ELN, other dissident groups and drug gangs are there too. Authorities blamed those two fronts for the bomb on the Pan-American Highway at Cajibío on April 25, which killed 20 people and wounded 48. It was one of 31 attacks in three days.

What it meansThis isn't a scattered set of bands. It's an organized army with a chain of command, able to hit 31 targets in three days.

4The indigenous reserves

Inside the reserves, the indigenous councils are the authority. They run their own justice, and their unarmed guard holds people it doesn't accept, including the state's own: 16 soldiers in Toribío in 2023, and 6 undercover police in Caldono in 2017. The state doesn't know how many guards there are. The new government is drafting a registry, and the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) rejects it. Indigenous leaders outside the CRIC support it, because people "identify themselves as guards and exercise control over the community."

What it meansThe indigenous councils are a real power in northern Cauca. But they don't control the guns. The northern Cauca councils (ACIN) say the Dagoberto Ramos front has killed more than 200 Nasa since 2016.

5Land taken by force

Two groups are taking land in the region. Nasa groups have occupied private sugar-cane estates: the sugar growers' association, Asocaña, counted more than 8,000 hectares invaded in Caloto, Corinto and Miranda in the five years to 2023. Mordisco's Jaime Martínez front is behind invasions around Jamundí, in Valle, and in 8 Cauca towns. Owners are threatened, and one was nearly kidnapped. Crops are burned, cattle are killed, and the people who move in pay "invasion fees." Cauca has had 496 land invasions since 2017.

What it means for usOwning land here doesn't mean you can keep it. Valle's governor, Dilian Francisca Toro: "Every property the dissidents set their minds on is being invaded." Anyone thinking of buying a farm in Cauca or southern Valle should know that.

6The armed groups run the countryside

The Ombudsman's office has warned of a "high risk for the civilian population" in Santander de Quilichao from the armed groups there. In the first three months of this year, armed groups confined more than 9,300 people to their homes in Cauca, the most in the country, and Santander de Quilichao was one of the four worst places. In July, the army says Mordisco's Carlos Patiño front forced about 500 civilians to try to push troops out of the Micay Canyon, using children as shields.

What it meansIn much of rural Cauca, the armed groups are the government. They set the rules, and people obey out of fear. In Popayán and the town centers, the state still rules.

7The children

Cauca leads the country in children forced into armed groups: 93 in 2025, and 35 from January to August this year. The Ombudsman's office warns that many cases are never reported. The northern Cauca indigenous councils say the Dagoberto Ramos front alone has forced more than 800 children into its ranks since 2019. In June, Congress raised the sentence for forcing children into armed groups from 13 to 23 years to 40 to 50.

What it meansThe armed groups replace their losses with Cauca's children.

The scorecard

Kidnappings in Cauca, January to August: 34 this year, down from 127 in 2025. Massacres in Cauca this year: 14, with at least 68 dead.

What it meansKidnapping is down sharply. The massacres go on.

On social media

On X this week, the talk about Cauca is the indigenous guard. When the government proposed a registry of the guards, the post that broke the news drew 4,600 likes and 950 replies, and the top replies were all in favor of the registry. The most-liked: "Of course! They're Colombians, and as such they have rights and duties. They receive money from the State, so they're obliged to hand over all the information required. They should come down from that cloud if they think they're independent republics." (50 likes) Another: "If they want to keep having rights in Colombia, they can't be a people apart. They must make themselves legal, pay taxes and obey the laws like any Colombian." (31 likes) Insults were common too. The strongest post against the guard: "The indigenous guards must come to an end. They are a paramilitary group, impunity-ridden and subservient to the FARC and the ELN." (2,700 likes) Money is the other theme: "No census, no cash" (1,500 likes), and a post claiming the State agreed to invest 1.3 trillion pesos with the CRIC from 2023 to 2026 (550 likes). On the other side, the director of Indepaz, Leonardo González: "The Indigenous Guard does not need to be monitored, characterized, or administered by the State. It needs guarantees to continue protecting life and territory." (78 likes) The CRIC's own recent posts drew only a handful of likes. The most-viewed Cauca post of the week came from the armed forces commander. Soldiers found two explosive devices planted by the Jaime Martínez front a few meters from 25 children at a rural school in Cajibío. (110,000 views)