Andean Scapes team · Updated
The third Green War (1984–1990)
The longest and deadliest of the emerald wars mixed old feuds with cocaine, guerrillas and paramilitary groups. The mining towns paid for it.
When it happened
The third Green War ran from 1984 to 1990. It began when families broke the pacts that had ended the earlier wars.[1]
Semana places its start in May 1984, with the killing of an influential figure at the Coscuez mines.[2]
Three causes at once
Semana named three causes: the fight between emerald groups for the mines, the arrival of the FARC guerrillas in western Boyacá, and the return of the military chief of the Medellín cocaine cartel, who wanted Muzo.[2]
Muzo and Quípama were key pieces of an air corridor running through Paime, Pacho, Zipaquirá and Bogotá, which made the emerald zone valuable for moving troops and cocaine.[2]
Terror as a weapon
Terrorism became the main weapon. In July 1989 a bomb wrecked a mining company’s offices in Bogotá, and on 15 July sixty armed men came to the Itoco creek, picked out six peasants and shot them one by one in front of thousands of guaqueros.[2]
Paramilitary groups formed in this conflict, clashed with the FARC and were involved in the dirty war against the Unión Patriótica party.[1]
The towns in the middle
The people of Maripí were drawn into the conflict from the 1980s, with many deaths.[3]
In the first stage many miners, guaqueros and small traders were killed.[2]
The toll and the end
Semana counted about 3,000 dead[2]; Spanish Wikipedia gives between 3,500 and 6,000.[1]
It ended after the death of the cartel’s military chief in December 1989 and the accord of July 1990.[1]