Colombian special forces deal with the country’s most dangerous threats, like the illegal cocaine trade. We followed how top soldiers train for some of the deadliest secret missions.
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00:00These men are preparing to take on some of the most dangerous drug gangs in the world.
00:08They are part of Colombia's Special Forces, a military unit that selects the country's
00:14best fighters for top-secret missions, like saving hostages kidnapped by cartels and rebel
00:22groups.
00:23Colombia produces 70% of the world's cocaine, and the fight to control it fueled a brutal
00:46civil war that killed nearly half a million people.
00:50The men we interviewed for this story agreed to speak with us on camera, but asked us not
00:56to use their real names.
01:00We traveled to the Colombian jungle to see how world-class soldiers trained to take on
01:07some of the most sophisticated criminal groups in the world.
01:20The Tolemaida military base sits at the heart of Colombia, and houses the country's best
01:26fighters.
01:29Like Luis, who enrolled in the army nearly two decades ago.
01:46He has since served in units all over the country.
01:55All Special Forces soldiers have to spend at least 42 days here every year.
02:02Luis started with roughly 120 of Colombia's top recruits.
02:07Most of them have since dropped out.
02:28Today, these remaining 17 head out to a nearby training field just after sunrise.
02:41They'll practice one of the hardest moves, ambushing enemies from the air.
02:47The soldiers strap on about 70 pounds of gear, including an M16 rifle.
02:54They carry everything from bullets to anti-venom, in case they end up in the jungle and get
03:00bit by poisonous snakes.
03:05This structure is designed to simulate jumping out of a helicopter, or rappelling off a building.
03:18They're climbing about 50 feet.
03:22This is called lanceros training.
03:25Fighters who complete it call themselves sky soldiers.
03:34This technique is the Colombian army's main method of infiltration.
03:40Several fighters can use one of these thick ropes at the same time, which helps them land
03:45in tight spaces in the jungle within seconds to carry out high-stakes missions, like rescuing
03:52hostages.
03:55Seventy-one people were kidnapped in the first three months of 2023, according to the Colombian
04:01defense ministry.
04:03That's more than double the abductions over the same period in 2022.
04:09Reports suggest that's because revenue from coca crops here is dropping.
04:14Production is outpacing demand.
04:17So drug traffickers are looking for an alternative source of income, demanding ransom in exchange
04:24for hostages.
04:34If they land on a building in a city, they have to descend using another technique.
04:40But walking in this position is so hard on their joints that Luis says he almost gave
04:46up the first few times he tried.
04:57Once they hit the ground, they have to get in formation right away so they don't leave
05:01themselves vulnerable.
05:05But as much as they plan, it's hard to know for sure what they're going into.
05:11The Tolemaida training base is surrounded by areas where the government has tracked
05:16a lot of rebel and cartel activity.
05:20Colombia has at least 23 drug gangs and four big rebel groups.
05:26Locals refer to cartels as the Invisibles.
05:30They say fighting them is like fighting ghosts, because their operations are discreet and
05:37widespread.
05:38The largest cartel, Clan del Golfo, controls the most important drug trafficking routes
05:44into the U.S.
05:47Its members wear the letters AGC, which stands for the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of
05:53Colombia.
05:55They have their own bylaws and act as police in some rural areas, where they control entire
06:02towns.
06:03Today, official membership in gangs, rebel groups, and cartels is higher than ever.
06:12Cartels work around the clock tipping them off.
06:16And they are notorious for killing anyone who opposes them.
06:21At least 134 community members were reportedly assassinated in the first eight months of
06:282023 alone.
06:32So soldiers say keeping their missions top secret is key to staying alive.
06:39This battalion wouldn't disclose specifics about what it's preparing for.
06:56They go on 25 to 40 missions a year.
07:02Some can last three weeks.
07:12They have to learn to launch weapons, like these 40mm grenades, to blow up rooms.
07:31The red and blue dots indicate danger and safety zones, which help the soldiers determine
07:38how they'll navigate the course.
08:01They have to throw the grenade at least 65 feet to avoid getting hit by the blast.
08:22But they're also running with these explosives, and the injuries can be permanent.
08:30Colombia has been waging war on drugs since the 1970s, when small-scale cocaine producers
08:37began smuggling suitcases lined with the white powder into the US.
08:43By the mid-1980s, about 70 tons of cocaine were making their way into the US every year.
08:50And as demand for it boomed there, it became clear that this would be a lucrative industry
08:56here in Colombia, too.
08:59One that now employs at least 400,000 people across the country, and rakes in roughly $18
09:07billion annually.
09:11Over the years, narco-empires grew so rich and so big, they could afford to build their
09:17own submarines, and even hire their own pilots.
09:22Colombian police were also tasked with taking them down.
09:27Oscar Naranjo, the former vice president of Colombia, remembers those days.
09:41As a police officer, he played a big part in taking down the notorious Medellín Cartel
09:47in 1993, run by Pablo Escobar.
09:53And the Cali Cartel, which ruled the cocaine trade in the 1990s.
10:09But even after Escobar's arrest, and the fall of Colombia's biggest cartels, drug
10:16trafficking continued.
10:18It was mostly led by the FARC, a communist rebel group that at one point controlled over
10:24half of the country's coca crops.
10:27Mainly people from rural areas had joined the group in the 1960s to fight against the
10:33growing wealth gap between Colombia's rich and poor.
10:38That dispute turned into a civil war that lasted more than 50 years.
10:43Finally, in 2016, the group struck a peace deal with the state and disbanded.
10:49Control over coca production splintered.
10:53Smaller groups took over, making it harder to hold any one party accountable.
10:59And even though the government has since demolished neighborhoods like El Bronx in Bogota, where
11:04drug gangs thrived, Naranjo says the problem runs deep.
11:13But even government officials like him have been accused of taking bribes from drug smugglers.
11:31Naranjo has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
11:35And despite the claims, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration named him an honorary special
11:41agent in 2010.
11:43The United States is Colombia's main funder in its war on drugs.
11:48And since 1999, it's spent over $10 billion on counter-narcotics operations here.
11:56That's because most of this cocaine ends up in the United States, where in 2022, nearly
12:0430,000 people died of cocaine-related overdoses.
12:09Colombia has also seen its share of death from cartel violence.
12:13The war on drugs and the ongoing civil conflict here killed over 450,000 people between 1985
12:21and 2018, and forced nearly 8 million more out of their homes.
12:28And soldiers say the rebels and narco-criminals involved in the war won't spare anyone that
12:34gets in their way.
12:39Eduardo is one of the most experienced fighters here.
13:02He will have to leave this unit soon, because he's getting close to the retirement age
13:06of 38.
13:09Everyone who goes on these kinds of missions has to be in top fighting shape.
13:17Eduardo trains beside the other soldiers, but he also helps run the second half of today's
13:23exercise.
13:24They're training in the jungle.
13:37They've set up makeshift targets all over to help them practice different scenarios.
13:44Most of their missions play out in terrain similar to this.
13:49They're walking miles in scorching heat.
13:52Cars are loud and can't reach many of the places they need to go.
14:01Once soldiers have a target in sight, they usually aim at the chest to injure but not
14:06kill them.
14:14That way, they can target even more offenders who come to their help.
14:28The soldiers make these sounds together to practice shooting in sync.
14:43But the key is to move in silence to go undetected.
14:48So they have to anticipate each other's moves.
14:53They file like this, because one of them always has to have the other's backs.
15:00They're striking moving targets, so they have to be ready to get in formation right away.
15:11But things may not always go as planned.
15:16So they have safe words.
15:41And if one of them is gunned down, they'll never leave them behind.
15:46There are many relatives who ask me, how many people have you helped?
15:56I say, why do you always ask that?
15:59Why don't you ask me how many people I've helped?
16:02There are many groups outside the law.
16:04At the moment, the conflict is more tedious.
16:12Since the 1980s, cocaine producers have set up operations in remote places across Colombia
16:18to avoid getting caught.
16:21At secret hideouts like these, they turn coca leaves into paste and into powder.
16:29The government has tried to systematically wipe out cocaine production by ripping out
16:34the crops.
16:36Special police units also track down and destroy illegal refineries that produce gasoline,
16:43an important ingredient in cocaine.
16:52But they pop up faster than they can be taken out, because they're so rustic and easy
16:58to build.
16:59And so fights in remote areas like these are inevitable.
17:05Patches on soldiers' uniforms can give away their family names and allow someone
17:11to retaliate.
17:13Still, Eduardo carries some mementos.
17:23Even though these soldiers say they're trying to help their country, they aren't
17:28always considered the good guys here.
17:35More than 200,000 families across Colombia depend on coca farming to keep their own families
17:41alive.
17:43Like Francisco, who has been growing it for more than 23 years.
17:56He lives in Nariño, a remote part of the country where there are hardly any other well-paying
18:02jobs.
18:20The government introduced a crop substitution program in 2016.
18:25And a UN report found that about 100,000 families signed up.
18:30But that most of them didn't receive the full promised payments.
18:56The agency in charge of the program told Business Insider that it's working with
19:01the families to find a compromise.
19:04But it didn't share specifics.
19:07Unlike other crops, like coffee and plantains, coca can be harvested up to six times a year.
19:15The plant now covers five times as much land as it did in the days of Pablo Escobar.
19:22The country's leftist president, Gustavo Pedro, wants to legalize cocaine.
19:27But the U.S. does not support that move.
19:45Back at the base, the men are done training for the day.
19:58But Eduardo tries to call his wife every day when he's away.
20:05Even though he's fighting for Colombia, he doesn't want to live here forever.
20:22Luis plans to keep fighting for a while.
20:46But he says it would be unrealistic to dream of peace and of a Colombia without cartels
20:53or cocaine.
21:24For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org