The term narco-guerrilla is attributed to the United States ambassador in Bogotá, Lewis Tamb, who used it for the first time in 1982, and who, two or three years later in Costa Rica, was implicated in drug trafficking to finance the Contras.[1] [2] [3]
The term defines narcoguerrilla as the symbiosis between guerrilla groups (especially those of a Marxist nature) and drug trafficking groups. They are usually identified as a counterpart to Narcoparamilitary, which is the symbiosis of paramilitary groups (usually extreme-right) with drug trafficking groups.
Although in theory it might seem that these groups hardly have anything in common, in practice it is quite the opposite, and this symbiosis tends to flourish in such a way that many times the interests of both become one, and it is impossible to know if they are. it deals with political movements that are engaged in drug trafficking as a collateral source of income or if they are traffickers who have political concerns.
Even the United States has been implicated in the use of drug money to subsidize the guerrillas, as in the case of the Nicaraguan Contras (who in this case were anti-Marxist right-wing). In certain cases, the symbiotic relationship of guerrilla groups with groups of drug traffickers becomes so deep that it becomes impossible to distinguish whether it is an organization in search of a political objective, or a group that acts as the armed wing of drug trafficking.