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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Para reclutar niños y niñas, los grupos armados y criminales se han vuelto expertos en tejer mitos en torno a sus operaciones. Los niños, atraídos por dinero fácil; las niñas, por la ilusión de escapar violencia doméstica. Así se nos explicó un niño👇 www.crisisgroup.org/es/brf/latin...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Against this devastating panorama, Colombia is only beginning to take the steps needed to prevent children from falling into armed groups’ snares.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Recruitment reverberates well beyond any single household, silencing communities and reinforcing armed control. Families of missing kids stay silent, in hopes the child will be returned and out of fear that they will pay the price for any word that runs afoul of the armed group.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Inside the ranks, children are placed into the most dangerous roles, because commanders appear to view them as dispensable. Girls suffer unspeakable abuse, forced into relations or even sold among fighters for sex.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Recruitment is deliberate and systematic, organized through networks of recruiters who identify vulnerable minors, seduce them with promises attuned to their personal situation, and then sell them to criminal groups, as children themselves told me.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Just after the last time I saw him, he was assassinated with 9 shots to the head for this work. In the days prior, he had worried about rising threats and his car had been attacked. The state knew, also, and he had protection. It was not enough.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

I started working on child recruitment after meeting Edgar Tumiña, an Indigenous leader in Cauca who led missions to recover missing kids from his community. Tumi, as we called him, dedicated his life to recovering children and preventing others from joining.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I started working on child recruitment in #Colombia by accident, because everywhere I went, the conflict was being reshaped by armed groups' dependence on minors to control territory and silence the communities left behind. We publish our @crisisgroup.org findings on 12 February

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The ELN has is moving swiftly to guarantee its interest and survival in Venezuela, after US military operations in Caracas. We write in today's LatAm Advisor, future talks may follow the same logic: a means to survive politically under new Colombian gov tinyurl.com/2mc5mh7v

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

I spoke with @cnn.com on our initial read on the situation in #Venezuela after US strikes this morning. Bottom line is a question: What is the plan now for the day after? Significant concern in the region, including about the potential for destabilization or humanitarian fallout

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

If the U.S. plan is to topple Maduro, the possibility of violence would be significant. Here, front and centre are the ELN, a hardened insurgency with presence in Venezuela & Colombia that the latter has sought for 60+ yrs to defeat. ELN has vowed to defend Maduro and would.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Something else is going on, and that something is messaging: to Maduro, to the broader region. The decision to move unilaterally with military attacks, disregarding decades of cooperation, or even the courtesy of advanced warning, has sent a chilling message across the region.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

First, the basics. This is not a counter-narcotics strategy. Even if we take the WH at its word that there are drugs on board, attacking smalltime traffickers on speedboats will do nothing to affect the market.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Conversar sobre el conflicto desde el feminismo 💜 De lejos la mejor invitación que he recibido en los últimos años fue esa: pensar en cómo prevenir, mitigar, y resolver conflicto con una perspectiva feminista? ¡Acompáñanos con @latam.crisisgroup.org @HumanasColombia mañana!

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Putting that aspiration into practice has proven daunting. For one, deteriorating security conditions complicate and limit where reparations can physically happen safely – both for defendants and communities.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

During this time, their movements will be restricted, through the use of electronic devices intended to monitor their location. This “restriction of liberty” was a fundamental component of the 2016 agreement.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Entering a polarizing election year, & 9yrs after the 2016 peace accord, Colombia’s transitional court laid down its long-awaited first sentences against leadership of the former FARC. 🧵 on what this means for a refreshed debate about balancing justice & peace www.jep.gov.co/Sala-de-Pren...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Guarda la fecha! Estaremos @latam.crisisgroup.org para conversar sobre el conflicto colombiano con enfoque feminista💚💜 24 Sept miércoles, 8am Bogotá, Hotel Tequendama

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

For those asking why ground eradication needs air support, we recently explained how complex, costly, and high risk these operations are. Eradication is horrible for everyone involved. www.crisisgroup.org/latin-americ...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Earlier in the day in Amalfi, Antioquia, a drone attack hit a police helicopter that was offering air support for a manual coca eradication operation. The explosives caused a fire in the helicopter, resulting in 8 deaths and a further 8 injured. The government has blamed EGC.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Fue para nosotros @latam.crisisgroup.org un gusto de participar en la reunión annual de #ElPaccto, conversando sobre el desafío compartido del crimen organizado, América Latina y la Unión Europea🇪🇺. Enfatizamos la importancia de priorizar la reducción de violencia contra la población civil

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Es hora de hablar de reclutamiento de menores en el sicariato en Colombia. Tal cual como reclutamiento rural, grupos criminales se están aprovechando del desespero de la juventud. Tenemos que tratarlo con la misma seriedad. No se puede seguir perdiendo niños a la violencia.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

The challenge for Colombia's security forces today is to strike the right balance of managing real risks, while understanding that the vast and overwhelming majority of protesters are exercising a legitimate right of expression. We all hope 2021's lessons have been learned.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

2) Threatening, coopting or replacing protest leaders with individuals closed to criminal groups. Local social leaders are coerced and marginalized, in favor of those who advance the group's interest of expansion in local communities.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

How might this happen? In the aftermath of 2021, we learned about several modalities through interviews with communities affected. 1) Taking advantage of distracted law enforcement in cities to conduct operations or expand in rural areas or marginalized communities.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

The job is not simply a matter of managing peaceful protest, however. As we documented in 2021, criminal and armed group elements have sought to instrumentalize real, legitimate protests for their own gain.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Today's strike is the first real test case of the police reforms and mediation techniques developed from the lessons of 2021 to avoid escalation. Then, police crackdowns to protests about legitimate concerns exacerbated the urban unrest, fueling a longterm social crisis.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

No perdimos los logros. Por primera vez desde el 2016, un grupo armado se compromete a un plan para no vincular más niños a la guerra, y dejar libre los reclutados menores de edad. Ahora la tarea es hacerle cumplir y no descansar hasta que todos los hijos están en sus casas.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Children taken from northern Cauca end up in half a dozen different armed groups across the country, from Guaviare to Arauca to Catatumbo. The dept has become "a dispensary of children" recruits, a senior military official told me, also desperate to help stem the flow.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Children are not just recruited to a particular group. They are trafficked - offered to the highest bidder. “Every child has a price,” Tumi told me, “higher or lower depending on their characteristics.” Boys sell for $120; pretty girls for more than four times that amount.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Boys are told they will earn fast cash, with access to motorcycles, cellphones, and girls. “Sometimes as a young person, you act without thinking,” Tumi told me. “You put one foot, then two feet, in the water, and suddenly there is no way out.”

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Girls, who are sought out about as often as boys, often receive tailor-made pitches from recruiters. One teenager said she was drawn in by the promise of escaping from a violent home. others girls told her they came expecting fancy cars, nice clothes, and rich boyfriends.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Recruitment can happen anywhere. Often, the first contact comes over social media. “The groups maintain a presence outside of schools,’” one indigenous leader told me. Rectors in northern Cauca received death threats last year when they tried to limit access to schools.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Late last year, I interviewed a dozen children who had been recruited or resisted recruitment, together with Edgar Tumiña, who devoted his life to protecting these kids. Tumi was shot weeks later. “The armed groups want to kill us because we deny them what they need" he told me.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

There are hundreds if not thousands of children in the ranks of armed groups today. As criminals have expanded in recent years, they have needed cheap foot soldiers to hold new ground. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of reported child recruits rose roughly 1,000 percent.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

One of my favorite Pope Francis moments was his 2019 visit to the UAE. The context was not unlike today: trauma from regional conflicts, waves of refugee migration, sectarian tensions. He sent a message of peace, reminding us that our destinies are tied as a global human family.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

The reaction from EGC was swift and violent yesterday: 11am- Petro announces killing alias Chirimoya 4.30pm- first reports of orders to close businesses 5pm-house to house notification of armed strike 8pm- orders reached Montes de Maria, Magdalena Medio, Córdoba, Bajo Cauca

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

El jueves, tendremos @latam.crisisgroup.org el lujo de conversar con grandes expertos sobre un tema fundamental: que hacer con las economías criminales y sus impactos para el medio ambiente y la población. No se lo pierdes! 👇🐄🕊️

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Our Latam team at @crisisgroup.org p spent the last year mapping out drug trafficking networks across the region. Understanding those structures and how they operate is vital to understanding why they have unleashed a new wave of violence. 👇🕊️ www.crisisgroup.org/visual-expla...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Follow the supply chains for fentanyl and cocaine, and how the criminal ecosystem involved in trafficking generates violence along the routes. Our latest from @crisisgroup.org www.crisisgroup.org/visual-expla...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

We at @crisisgroup.org set out to map drug trafficking networks in Latin America, and understand why they are generating new waves of violence. We found a fragmented ecosystem of criminal networks that are dispersed, resilient, and incentivize coercion. www.crisisgroup.org/latin-americ...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

This crisis of violence means we have seen a growing contrast between the consumer countries want - to stop drugs - and what Latin America needs: to reduce violence. Those policies are increasingly at odds with one another.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

We identify an array of violence that results: - assassinations and intimidation of officials - territorial disputes - recruitment - extorsion - prison violence, and more.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Smaller criminal groups - who play only a marginal role in the drug supply chain - gain enormous power from their connections to larger groups. Often paid in arms and drug, they turn these tools into an economy of coercion at a local level: extortion, kidnapping, drug dealing.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Violence is a constant incentive. Smaller groups compete fiercely to enter the supply chain, and among their strongest signaling mechanisms are violent territorial control, state penetration, and domination of rival criminals.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Supply chains are organized like any other multinational: a small, more sophisticated criminal core subcontracts out an array of tasks along the supply chain. Subcontractors also subcontract, down to the level of gangs controlling mere blocs of territory. This means...

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Our report breaks down the drug trafficking supply chain into four stages of operations. Profits are concentrated at the top, while violence disproportionately clusters at the most local level of criminal control.

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Elizabeth Dickinson @dickinsonbeth.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

2) The very structure and configuration of this fragmented criminal ecosystem generates violence. Far from the conventional wisdom that violence is a disequilibrium in the market, today, brutality and violence are the status quo.

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