RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA — Omaira Arismendi's assassin didn't get very far. After he shot the grocery store owner, neighboring merchants pummeled the thug to within an inch of his life.
But the seeds of terror were sown in the ramshackle maze of shops called New Market, the largest outdoor bazaar in this city on Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Arismendi, a retired bank branch manager who opened the store OK Groceries to keep busy, was killed this month after refusing to make extortion payments to the Black Eagles, the gang believed to control much of the commerce in Riohacha, prosecutors said.
The killing of Arismendi was a reminder that even after 31,000 fighters laid down their arms in a government-sponsored demobilization, much of Colombia is still infested with paramilitary gangs.
"The only thing that has changed is the name," said one dispirited city official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Before, they were paramilitaries; now, they are Black Eagles. They act and behave the same."
The right-wing militias were formed in the 1980s by farmers and cattlemen as self-protection forces against leftist rebels who have fought the government for decades. They later morphed into criminal organizations that looted government coffers, extorted money from local and multinational businesses and made massive land grabs.
Today, the bands lord over much of Guajira state, whose desolate flatlands and hidden bays are ideal for drug trafficking. But Guajira is attractive to the militias for another reason: It is dominated by the Wayuu, Colombia's largest native tribe.
Many Wayuu reservations straddle the Colombia-Venezuela border, and tribal members are eligible for dual citizenship. As a result, Colombia and Venezuela levy only token customs duty on goods that Wayuu move from one side of the border to the other.
The Black Eagles and other gangs now control much of the cross-border trade that was once the exclusive province of the Wayuu, including incoming Venezuelan gasoline, groceries and dry goods and outgoing Colombian sugar and dairy products.
An attorney with the national public defender's office here says paramilitary gangs' ambitions encompass not just illegal trafficking of drugs and arms but legitimate commerce throughout Guajira state, including farming, construction and transport.
"Everyone pays them the 'tax' so they can work in peace," said the attorney, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
