Colombia's illegal armed groups grew in 2023 -secret security report

FILE PHOTO: Guerrillas from the Central General Staff (EMC), a faction of the FARC that rejected the 2016 peace agreement and continued the armed struggle, walk along a road in the Llanos del Yari, Colombia, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Luis Jaime Acosta/File Photo

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's four main illegal armed groups grew during 2023 as they consolidated territorial control financed by drug trafficking and illicit gold extraction, according to a secret security report seen by Reuters.

The report focused on leftist guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN), crime gang the Clan del Golfo and two dissident factions of the now demobilized FARC rebels, the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) and the Segunda Marquetalia.